Sorry I havne't posted much, I haven't had much time!! I have been in Australia, staying with a friend and she has kept me very busy!! I have seen some organic restaurants, lots of juice bars and even a few "natural" and organic grocery stores, but unfortunately, haven't been able to go in any of them! I did get a smoothie from a juice bar yesterday it was delicious. SO their juice options are more fruits than veggies. At WF back home you have lots of different veggie options which include fruits like lemon and apple, but rarely berries. Those are saved for smoothies. But here, they only have one veggie juice on the menu and heaps of berries and fruits. Oh yes the australians say heaps instead of "a lot." So the options are like fresh watermelon with berries, or berries and mango mushed together with ice, so basically a smoothie but still fresh and no dairy or juice!
So that's what i've learned, and hopefully, i'll be able to check these organic places out more in detail later, but for now, i am just enjoying my vacation!!
talk soon!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Not much to say
Hey guys so sorry I haven't been updating. I have a great reason though: I am going to Australia!! I will still definitely seek out organic foods and I definitely want to find out the difference between organic USA style and Organic Aussie style. So look for some new, but not as often, posts.
I did go organic cherry picking this past weekend, so once I get some pics, i'll definitely post - it was a blast! A healthy, delicious blast!
Oh and i'll be starting an Australian blog too. so check for that!
that's it! Thanks!!
I did go organic cherry picking this past weekend, so once I get some pics, i'll definitely post - it was a blast! A healthy, delicious blast!
Oh and i'll be starting an Australian blog too. so check for that!
that's it! Thanks!!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Shopping adventure
So last night I went to 2 different grocery stores. One which is smaller and seems to be trying to be a bit like whole foods, but not really. The other is a big major chain.
Right when I walked up to the market, there's a sign that says "why choose organic?' Great, I thought, this will be a good shopping experience. Of course all of the produce that was outside next to said sign were not organic. hmmm..what? So then I go around looking at the food. The frozen food selection is similar but smaller than WF. Which is fine, it's a smaller store. The bulk items were a HUGE disappointment, NOTHING organic, even though they had 3 rows of bulk!! I love bulk, and their selection was huge, but NOTHING said organic on it. Moving on to fruits and veggies. They had a fruits and veggies sections. The veggie section was actually surprisingly good, two types of organic kale, a few organic chards and then the run of the mill veggies in the organic variety. The fruits were not so great...umm people...it's summer!! Why are we so limited??
So since I was in the area, I decided to try the major chain store. They seem like a higher end chain store, but it's all in the marketing. In every other aisle, there was a vertical sign half way down the row coming out for the shelves that said "natural." hmmm..so I went to go look at this "natural" section in the chips aisle. it included all natural tortilla chips, all natural potato chips and even a few small bags of organic! wow. does anybody else get bothered by the fact that their eating "unnatural" foods? It's food, your body is supposed to know what it is!! They had more variety of organics in salad dressing, but still confined to one little shelving area. And the organic produce section was dismal.
My cart was empty, although Wedding Crashers was on sale for 10 dollars, so I picked it up.
So now I know what they have and what they don't have. I don't think the major chain store really cares though, otherwise they would promote organics more. The smaller one though, they seem to want to be known for carrying organic stuff - but if that's the case they'll have to actually have the product!!
Right when I walked up to the market, there's a sign that says "why choose organic?' Great, I thought, this will be a good shopping experience. Of course all of the produce that was outside next to said sign were not organic. hmmm..what? So then I go around looking at the food. The frozen food selection is similar but smaller than WF. Which is fine, it's a smaller store. The bulk items were a HUGE disappointment, NOTHING organic, even though they had 3 rows of bulk!! I love bulk, and their selection was huge, but NOTHING said organic on it. Moving on to fruits and veggies. They had a fruits and veggies sections. The veggie section was actually surprisingly good, two types of organic kale, a few organic chards and then the run of the mill veggies in the organic variety. The fruits were not so great...umm people...it's summer!! Why are we so limited??
So since I was in the area, I decided to try the major chain store. They seem like a higher end chain store, but it's all in the marketing. In every other aisle, there was a vertical sign half way down the row coming out for the shelves that said "natural." hmmm..so I went to go look at this "natural" section in the chips aisle. it included all natural tortilla chips, all natural potato chips and even a few small bags of organic! wow. does anybody else get bothered by the fact that their eating "unnatural" foods? It's food, your body is supposed to know what it is!! They had more variety of organics in salad dressing, but still confined to one little shelving area. And the organic produce section was dismal.
My cart was empty, although Wedding Crashers was on sale for 10 dollars, so I picked it up.
So now I know what they have and what they don't have. I don't think the major chain store really cares though, otherwise they would promote organics more. The smaller one though, they seem to want to be known for carrying organic stuff - but if that's the case they'll have to actually have the product!!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
organic farmers forced to spray
It appears that an epidemic has hit the fruit growers of California! read here. The new pest called SWD is native to Japan and Asia but has spread out to the states. These bugs are dangerous because they attack fruit on the trees and then lay eggs. The pests don't make it to the top of the trees, but that means 1/2 the crop is dead. So what's a farmer to do? Well how do they keep other pests away? I guess whatever organic methods the farmers use don't work on these new pests. So the article says "wash more thoroughly than ever before." As we've discussed previously, if washing was really going to get off the pesticides then the farmers would have to re-spray after every rain. We know that isn't happening. Unfortunately, the fruits that are most susceptible are thin-skinned fruits, which are also usually the ones on the dirty dozen, or have the highest pesticide content and require the most pesticides. So what should we do? Honestly, I'm sorry, a pesticide is a pesticide. I know you, the organic farmer, hates to resort to them and wouldn't if you didn't, but that doesn't mean I have to resort to them.
The good news is that they are going to research these pests and see what can be done about them. In about 10 years the SWD will be immune to the pesticide anyway so organic and conventional farmers will all be in the same boat.
The good news is that they are going to research these pests and see what can be done about them. In about 10 years the SWD will be immune to the pesticide anyway so organic and conventional farmers will all be in the same boat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
