Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Organic & Natural Living Thursday!

GOING ORGANIC ON A BUDGET

Since this is the kick off of Organic & Natural Living Thursday, we will be posting not once, but twice today! Check back later for another entry in this series.


Looking for ideas on how to increase the organic and natural foods on a limited budget? You're not alone! Since this is one of my goals for the year, I've been putting a lot of thought and into it. I'm not an expert, by any means yet, but I thought I'd share my ideas and the ways I plan to do it.

  1. Identify my priorities. It's impossible to completely switch over to all natural and organic foods all at once when you are on a budget. I think the first step is to identify where your priorities are. For me, the things that my kids eat most are at the of top my list. Including meat and dairy products like milk and eggs. Luckily for me, New Seasons just happened to have their 10 Year Anniversary Sale a couple weeks ago. I did some research on the farms where the chicken breasts and ground turkey that were on sale came from (not organic, but local and vegetarian fed with no hormones, steroids, etc.), and stocked up!

  2. Grow a garden. I'll be honest, this is new for me, but I'm excited about it! My husband made me some raised planter beds, and I have starts growing for 6 different kinds of veggies.

  3. Reduce or eliminate canned foods. Basically, the only canned foods we use are beans, corn and tomatoes. The amount of preservatives in the beans and corn bothers me, not to mention the toxins in the cans and the plastic that lines the cans. I'm planing on buying a large amount of tomatoes from a local farmer this summer, and canning my own tomatoes. As for the beans, I'm going to try the soaking method.........post to come on that once I master it! And canned corn is easy to eliminate by just buying it frozen.

  4. Pick berries and make my own jam. I did this last year (it's actually super easy!) and we have been enjoying homemade strawberry jam all year long. I also froze extra berries in bags for things like smoothies, additions to oatmeal, homemade berry syrup, and best of all, strawberry daiquiris! Mmmm, daiquiris.......

Anyways, these are a few ideas that I've started with. I think creativity and thinking outside the box will go a long way toward making Organic & Natural Living possible. And just remember, its one step at a time. :)

Erika

6 comments:

Unknown said...

So excited to read more about the
"organic" changes in your site!

Anonymous said...

One thing on canned corn. Last week I called 4 makers(brands) of canned corn: Del Monte, Green Giant, Safeway and Kroger and asked them if their canned corn is genetically modified. Only Del Monte did not use GM(genetically modified) corn.

Lisa said...

I made freezer berry jam last summer and could not believe how easy and fast it was...what was I thinking all these years? Plus...it's tastes SO good...like your eating a fresh berry! I also freeze the berries for cobblers and such through the winter. Definately making more this summer!

Looking forward to the organic posts coming...I think we all need to head that way...especially with how many people are getting cancer these days...in the past I didn't know anyone that had cancer...now I know 8 people.

Alison said...

Costco sells large bags of organic frozen corn and frozen green beans. They are a relatively good deal, as they are really large bags. I don't have the specifics (size and price) right now, but maybe someone out there does???

Anonymous said...

home canning is easy and cheap once you have built up the supplies. Check yard sales or craigslist for good deals on jars, lids and rings. I made a ton of ketchup and canned lots of tomatoes, pickles and jam last year, it was easy and fun, and the results are delicious!

Amy said...

If you plan to grow peas or potatoes you can plant them now! Potatoes are on the dirty dozon list so I grow these at home. Organic potatoes are expensive and growing them at home is really easy. If you are interested in growing potatoes you can pickup seed potatoes right now at your local nursery. Happy gardening! ;)