1. Plant a garden. I love the bumper sticker, Food Not Lawns. Growing your own food is a lot cheaper than buying it. If you’ve never gardened before, start small. If you have limited space or are not up to the challenge of preparing a garden plot, you can try container gardening. My mom likes the book Kitchen Harvest: Growing Organic Fruit, Vegetables & Herbs in Containers by Susan Berry. You can learn how to save seeds to further reduce the cost of gardening or ask gardening friends if they have any seed they would share. The food you grow can then be preserved by canning or freezing or simply cool storage. We had winter squash that lasted long into February by just keeping it in a cool, dark cupboard. Things like canning equipment, containers for container gardening, and gardening tools, etc. can many times be found at garage sales and thrift stores to again help reduce costs and encourage recycling.

2. Shop Farmer’s Markets. In my experience farmer’s markets offer better deals than super markets and your dollar stays closer in your community. If you don’t see produce labeled organic or certified organic, ask the vendors how they grow their produce. Many times farmers can not afford the fees involved in organic certification, but they still grow their produce organically. Don’t forget to look for eggs at farmer’s markets, too. Again, before we had our own chickens we could buy eggs from local farmers for half the amount it cost to buy them at the store. Where I live (Montana) it is illegal to buy raw milk, but in California raw milk is legal. I don’t know if farmer’s markets have raw milk for sale or not. But many times farmers who sell raw milk do so at a price that will be less expensive than organic milk from the store and with raw milk you can make so many other things. (yogurt, butter, cheese – I have found these things are actually easy and inexpensive to make.)

3. Shop Around. Many times specialty type grocery stores like Whole Foods, Co-ops, etc. will be many times more expensive than a conventional grocery store. Many conventional grocery stores are now selling organic food. Some of these grocery stores even have their own store brand of organic food that is many times less expensive than other brands.

4. Choose to buy just a few things organic. For example, one could commit to only buying organic dairy products. Or mix it up. Maybe one month you buy organic dairy products, the next month you buy organic vegetables, the next month you buy organic fruit and so on. . .

5. Try companies like Azure Standard. (www.azurestandard.com) Azure Standard is a large warehouse that trucks organic and natural food to retailers, individuals, and buying clubs once a month. There website explains how this all works and gives the routes of their trucks. They offer reduced prices and you can buy in bulk! Our family uses this company for almost all our food needs. It works well for us because where we live there are not many organic food options in the grocery stores.

6. Harvest from the wild. There are lots of wild plants that are edible and nutritious. Gathering these plants can be really fun. Again, start small. Get a book or ask someone who knows about edible wild plants. Dandelion is a great one for this type of harvesting. You can eat the leaves, flowers, and roots. Or go around your neighborhood and see if there are neighbors with fruit trees who aren’t harvesting them. (I know that sounds crazy – who wouldn’t harvest their fruit trees – but it does happen and generally if they aren’t harvesting them, they aren’t spraying them, but you can ask about that too) Ask if you can harvest some. Thank them with a homemade treat from some of the fruit.

Hope those ideas inspire more ideas! Would love to hear more.

Re: BLOG COMMENTS RE: Save the Planet, Eat Organic

Very Inspiring Stacy! Great ideas!

Another idea is to consider a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Box. They are generally a good deal for all they differenty types of produce you get. I got a CSA box for $20 a week from Green Oaks Creek Ranch. They did a great job and what a variety. I could hardly eat everything. It also inspires you to try recipes for things you may not normaly purchase. See our Resources Page under Food for our coastside CSAs.

Also, I was actually saving a lot of money buying the Whole Foods 365 generic brands for a while. They have really expanded that and have something in almost every catagory.