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How To Eat Organic On A Budget – Buy In Bulk

Jess Lundie — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:16:14 +0000

One of the first complaints you hear from people when it comes to eating organic food (or sustainable food, or local food) is that eating organic is too expensive. But there are several tips that can help you make eating organic more affordable, and sometimes even cheaper than eating conventionally farmed food.

I’m going to use the word “organic” for this post, but know that these tips also apply to sustainable and local food. Personally, I often forgo a certified organic label in favor of supporting a small local farmer who utilizes sustainable farming practices.

Buy In Bulk

We got a bulk order of 26lbs of cherries this week. These cherries were not certified organic, but were sourced from a sustainably managed orchard that does not use pesticides or chemical sprays. Organic certification is expensive, and not always a financially viable option for many small farmers who practice organic farming methods.

26lbs of cherries – minus probably 2-3lbs eaten this week – pitted and individually frozen, fills four and a half gallon-sized ziplock bags. It looks like this:

These cherries were the first of many bulk orders we will be participating in this summer. We will use them all fall and winter in cobblers, ice cream, pies, smoothies, sauces and as accent flavor in savory dishes. I don’t really like cherry jam, so I went ahead and froze the whole order. I froze them individually on trays before bagging them. It takes a little more time, but makes it so we can defrost what we need when we need it. Plus I didn’t have to try to predict serving size.

Tips for Buying in Bulk

Buy things in season. Produce is much cheaper in season than out of season. Not to mention the taste and the transport impact aren’t even comparable. In addition to produce, some pastured meat is only available fresh certain times of the year. Remember that and buy it when it’s available.

Order with a group. I would never have been able to get this price for just 26lbs of cherries. But my order was part of a group order that bought all the cherries out of this orchard that week. With bulk meat orders, you get a better per pound price on a whole cow even if you only need a quarter cow. Find a few friends and split it! Plus it’s more fun and less work for everyone involved.

Figure out storage ahead of time. There’s nothing worse than letting your eyes get bigger than your stomach (or your freezer space!) and not having the time or resources to deal with the food you’ve bought. Make sure you have some sort of plan, no matter how simple, for preserving and using the food that you buy. Freezers are good. Lacto-fermentation is great. Canning is awesome. But all of these methods take a little bit of space and time. Like a garden, with buying in bulk it’s better to err on the side of too little at first than get stuck with an unmanageable and discouraging project.

Shop around for good prices. Don’t necessarily be satisfied with the first source you find. Shop around until you find a product you’re happy with at a price you can afford.

Negotiate deals (but remember that farmers need to make a living). It is totally okay to ask for a lower price for buying more or seconds (cosmetically flawed produce – particularly great for canning and preserving). But don’t expect them to be able to meet the price for conventionally-farmed-whatever at a chain grocery store. They have to make a living too, and by choosing to support them you are investing your money in the kind of world you want to live in. And that’s awesome.

Buying in Bulk – The Tricky Part

It’s can be hard to factor bulk orders into your food budget, especially with seasonal foods. I spent $86 on cherries this week. That’s a lot of money on cherries. But that is because if you’re going to buy local cherries, you get them now, when they’re in season.

On the one hand, I know that buying in bulk is one of the best ways to make eat organic, locally and sustainably on a budget. I got the cherries at a great price ($3lb Bings, $4lb Rainiers), and I’ll get to eat local cherry cobbler in February… yum! But bulk orders like this do inflate our summer food budget, even while reducing the amount we spend on food during the winter. And things like purchasing a CSA share and buying in bulk make your food budget inconsistent month to month. That requires either a little bit of financial flexibility, very good planning ahead of time, or a little bit of both.

In spite of the tricky bits, if you can manage it, buying in bulk is absolutely worth it, and a great way to start eating organic on a budget.

How do you eat organic on a budget? Have you done any bulk buying so far this season?

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Mistaking Near For Good

Jess Lundie — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:19:39 +0000

Over the last year, I have really worked on bringing my food sources closer to home. The CSA share, raw milk and pastured eggs from a local farm, pastured meat from the farmer’s market, and the beginnings of growing some veggies in my I-have-no-clue-what-I’m-doing garden.

I’ve made other changes as well – I’ve brought my activities closer to home to reduce gas consumption, become an avid thrift store shopper, and forsaken bookstores in favor of the library. All these changes have reduced my environmental footprint and made me more connected with my local community. My focus has been on localizing and smallifying, little bits at a time. It’s been a Good Thing in my life.

But… is local the goal?

Once upon a forever ago, Worldchanging’s Alex Steffen sent this out on Twitter:

“Foodsheds can be very large, and for some foods will be of necessity. Obsession with distance makes us mistake near for good.”

Followed by, “For cities, eco food less about where it was grown than whether grown as part of a healthy biological system or a system of chemical inputs.” (If you’re not following Alex Steffen on Twitter (@alexsteffen), you totally should. He’s not particularly chatty, but his periodic rants are insightful and interesting.)

Local has a lot of good things that come with it. Local can mean smaller carbon footprint, deeper relationships, community resiliency, accountability, and stronger local economies. There are inherent benefits to local, but there are also occasions when we would be mistaken to assume that one good thing always comes with another.

If I ran out of tomatoes in February, I could probably find some locally. But if they were grown in an energy-intensive greenhouse or covered in chemicals, that wouldn’t be supportive of the things I am passionate about. Hothouse tomatoes = not what I’m looking for! I would be mistaking near for good.

Photo CC || http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/

What is the goal?

In the case of agriculture, we’re looking for a sustainable model. How can we feed people without destroying the planet in the long term? Beyond that, how can we ensure that this food is truly nourishing, nutritious, and meeting our needs? Any local model that doesn’t meet those goals is missing the point, no matter how local it may be. How awful would it be to miss a great model (perhaps not local) because we were so focused on food miles that we miss the forest for the trees?

Once again, it’s about deciding what is important to you. What are you trying to achieve? And what are your priorities? What are you willing to sacrifice or let go of to get there? What are you willing to give?

No matter what the answers – really, no matter what the question – it’s important to remember to keep the goal in your sights, and make sure your actions actually meet the end you are striving for. Life is complicated and connections are many, and it’s easy to get lost in the mix. When we become so caught up in a certain metric that we forget the big picture, we lose out.

Where have you gotten lost in the metrics of your life and mistaken near for good? What helped you refocus and get back towards achieving your goals?

Doing Good Consciously

Preserving the Bounty – Blackberries in Booze

Jess Lundie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:39:36 +0000

I ended up skipping one of the weeks of this challenge (preserving in vinegar), because I’m super disorganized these days. I didn’t have vinegar, my basil went bad, I ended up eating all my cilantro, etc. etc. The timing never ended up working out. But just so all of you know, you can preserve things in vinegar! Things like herbs (think salad dressing) and other veggies as well. I may end up getting to it later or I may not. I moved on to the next challenge: preserving in booze.

One of the super fun things about living in the Pacific Northwest is that once a year, free food grows everywhere. More experienced foragers may argue that this is true anywhere, almost any time. But I’m a novice and I need my wild-grown bounty to be pretty obvious. In the Pacific Northwest, blackberries are easily recognizable. And boy are they IN YOUR FACE. Just my kind foraged fare.

Photo: CC || http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/

For the last few weeks I’ve been munching the occasional ripe blackberry while I walk the dogs. It’s a little guilty pleasure to come home with my fingers stained purple and with yet another snag in my jeans. But the berries are finally starting to ripen en masse around our usual route, so I went out collecting in earnest last week. And since I can’t possibly eat that many blackberries right here, right now, preserving it is.

So far I’ve frozen blackberry pie filling packs for winter and blackberry preserves are still on the list to make once I pick another batch. But those seem fairly run of the mill compared to the blackberries in booze.

Blackberries In Booze

I made two different types of blackberries in booze. Decadent, I know, but in February whose house will you want to have dessert at? Huh? Huh?

A little googling turned up this recipe for blackberries in rum (I’m also probably going to try her recipe for jam). While not technically meeting the criteria for this challenge – it requires freezing – this recipe for blackberry-sangiovese coulis sounded too good to pass up. I wish I knew more about canning, as freezer space is still at a premium in my house, but I wasn’t willing to risk canning this one. Maybe next year.

Summer is winding to a close and I’m not even remotely ready (food-wise) for winter. But I’m a lot closer than I was last year. It’s all about making progress, one step at a time, and continuing to strengthen and support our local food systems.

Happy September, everyone!

Local Raw Milk & Meeting The Cows

Jess Lundie — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:54:22 +0000

When I first moved to Washington last year, I was thrilled to discover that you can buy raw milk here. From the store. For those of you who don’t know about the war over raw milk being waged all over the country, or if you are lucky enough to have lived your life in a state where selling raw milk is legal, this might not seem like a very big deal to you. But some of you will totally understand my joy at walking into the Olympia Food Co-op and seeing raw cow and goat milk on the shelf.

Raw Milk Is Different

There are tons of resources online talking about the health benefits of raw milk. There’s a lot of science and research and all that good stuff. I honestly don’t care about that, and all of that is not the reason that I use raw milk. I use raw milk because for my entire life, I’ve been dairy-intolerant. I’m not sure if it’s the lactose or what, but milk has been pretty much out for me.

But I can drink raw milk. I can eat raw milk cheese to my heart’s content and I can consume pudding made from raw milk with abandon. For whatever reason, raw milk works for me. Plus it just tastes so much better than the other stuff. So when I got the chance to join a local milk-share program and get a weekly supply of raw milk for far less than I was paying at the store, I didn’t even hesitate to say yes.

Happy Milk From Happy Cows

Part of the milk share deal is that we rotate picking up milk for everyone. Once every couple of months it is my turn to pick up the empty bottles at our drop point, drive out to the farm, swap out empty bottles for full bottles and bring them back to the drop point. Last Friday it was my first turn for pickup, which means I got to meet the cows! Okay, so maybe meet is a strong word, but I did make DH take this blurry cell phone picture (I forgot to bring the good camera) of a cow laying in a sprinkler being a cow. We got to say hi to the chickens (the farm also does eggs) who were happily wandering around the property pecking things and being chickens.

The whole thing made me feel great about where we get our milk. Really great because it was so… not what you see in the horrible PETA videos. It was basically the opposite of that. It also seemed totally doable for people to eat like this. There are quite a few families involved in our milk share and not that many cows, not that much land, not a big operation. I understand that there are problems with scaling, particularly where food production for cities is concerned. But the more I see, the more I think it can be done, and that it won’t be that hard if the paradigm would just shift.

It’s fascinating to me that something as small as going to the farm to take a turn picking up milk can make you feel like a part of something larger. It’s a continuation of the blur between small actions and big changes and writing new stories that touch other people’s lives. It’s something about building community and nurturing the people around you.

But mostly it tastes really good.

Why I Feed My Pets Raw

Three Kinds of Honey

Jess Lundie — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:15:02 +0000

Once upon a time in the mid-90’s, a cool movie character who I kind of wanted to be made three sounds at once (Neve Campbell in Three To Tango, for anyone who’s curious). The protagonist says to his love interest with such awe and wonder, “But then I met you, and you made three sounds at once. And I just really wanted to get to know you.”

(Check it out – three sounds at once at 2:20. Isn’t the internet great?)

Anyhow, for whatever reason, this line totally got me. It’s stuck in my head for all eternity. I said it in my head when I fell for my husband. I may have said it out loud and he may have given me a weird look. And I said it in my head at the farmer’s market last week, when this amazing honey guy gave me three kinds of honey to taste.

We Are Missing So Much

Like many people, I grew up thinking honey came in bears. If the bear was old, the honey would crystalize in the little bear ears. We never ate honey quickly enough to avoid the crystals. And honey all tasted the same. Like honey. You know, honey bear honey.

Honey Does Not All Taste The Same

I am here now to tell you, Honey does not all taste the same. At all. Not even kind of. Fireweed, blackberry, wildflower – each completely distinct, unique, and utterly brilliant. In a different dimension, where I am a more particular kind of cook, I would have bought all three. In this dimension, where I am neither culinarily meticulous, nor do I eat that much honey, I had to pick just one. I chose wildflower, although I still think the fireweed had the best name. And if I were making honey-sesame candy, I would have gone with blackberry. (So maybe I am a bit particular!)

As if three types of honey weren’t captivating enough, the wonderful honey man proceeded to explain that if the sun would humor us for a week or so, he would have maple blossom honey later on this season. However, if it rained, we’d be out of luck until next year.

How interconnected, how tenuous, rare, and precious is the world we live in? And how different are three types of honey, a fourth maybe on the way, from a sea of honey bears lined up in a row. What else are we missing, living the way we do?

Photo: CC http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetruthabout/

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Checking Out Your CSA

Jess Lundie — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:50:14 +0000

I’m pleased to welcome guest poster Kimberly Schaub, who has some helpful tips for navigating your local CSA and Farmers Market. Kimberly is the creator of Peas on Moss, a blog about all things food.

As a member of Eating Well Magazine’s website, I get to participate in polls that various marketers run, including a recent question, “Are you planning on joining a CSA?” I decided to take a look at the answers, and a few were very interesting. One anonymous participant described her frustration with the sheer volume of food they received. Another complained that the foods provided were things his family didn’t want to eat. Others praised the CSAs they had joined and the variety of food. Some lamented that the waiting list for a CSA is too long. This had me thinking about CSA programs, their impact on our communities, and how we could slowly move towards community-supported entrepreneurs and agriculture within our tastes and financial means.

Recently, I wrote a blog post about the environmental impact of CSAs. Our food travels thousands of miles and passes through many hands to get from the farmer to your grocery cart. It traveled even farther if you drove to the supermarket. That means use of gasoline and petrol. With gas prices and environmental damage on the mind of some, this can be very concerning. Despite the impact on the environment, people still need to eat. And our eating habits are increasingly international, which increases the demand for imported foods. So, what should we do?

What Is A CSA?

Enter Community Supported Agriculture, a movement to support farm businesses as they attempt to sustain us with different food staples. CSAs vary by region and by which farm you join. LocalHarvest.com offers information about local CSAs and farm stands in your area, based on zip codes. Farmers Markets also benefit farms by giving them the opportunity to sell directly to the consumer, bypassing third parties and supermarkets. This allows them to get more of the profit from the sale than if they were to sell to a third party.

Concerns, Tips & Tricks

Now, back to the responses that people have about CSAs. If you are not comfortable in the kitchen yet, joining a CSA from the start may not suit you. You might get discouraged that there was too much food or that the foods given were unusable due to unfamiliarity or dislike. That is a very legitimate concern. Another option might be to go to a Farmers Market nearby and develop a relationship with some of the farm stands there. The same staff members often work the farm stands, and you will eventually get to know them. Ask the farmer or representative how he or she would use the product. What type of cooking method or meal would he or she use with this food? You may find some great ideas and be inspired to try something new.

You can also try hunting for the produce that you would have purchased at the supermarket. This way, at least those items that you would have purchased anyway will be purchased from a farmer who lives and labors near your home. Tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, and herbs are just a few common household foods that are sold at most Farmers Markets. Even the most meagerly stocked stands will carry these items at different times of the season.

You can also check out a few resources to help get your creative juices flowing. The USDA Sustainable Agriculture and Research and Education (SARE) has numerous offices throughout the US, and extension office staff are always willing to give you information about seasonality and preparing food. They often run some of the local Farmers Markets, too.

If you are concerned about the volume of the food supplied by your local CSA, consider splitting a share with a friend or neighbor. That way, you can both experience the pleasure of supporting a CSA together. Cleaning, cooking, and freezing some of the products also works well. Just be careful, because some foods do not freeze well, especially certain fruits. Other foods, such as squash, should be roasted and peeled before freezing. Freeze in smaller portions for use in recipes. For example, freeze squashes in 2-cup portions. These are easy to incorporate into soups.

If nothing else, begin shopping from a Farmers Market and ask the staff how large the CSA boxes are. Some markets also serve as CSA drop off locations, so you may get a chance to preview the items that would come in a CSA. Start dabbling! Who knows how far you might go with it?

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Book Review – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Jess Lundie — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:45:03 +0000

I almost didn’t write a review of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle because 1) it’s so last year, and 2) you should just blow off reading this review and go get the book. But it also feels odd to not review what, for me, has become a foundation of my understanding of local food, even if a ton of other people have already said what I’m about to say. So I’ll be brief and at least try to say something a little bit new about this wonderful book .

What’s It About?

This book is a lovely mosaic of anecdote, humor, education and commentary about one family’s year-long attempt to eat local food, much of which they grew themselves. Beginning in March, it follows the Kingsolver family through the seasons, narrating their journey as well as their reasons for embarking on this adventure in the first place. The book also features contributions by Kingsolver’s husband and older daughter, which allow the reader to follow the family’s adventure through different eyes.

As you might imagine, the bits about industrial agriculture are both fascinating and horrifying. But through Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver offers us a glimpse of a different future; one in which we are consciously and sustainably connected to our communities and the planet through the food that we eat. Her vision is one that I can (and did, and DO) buy into and believe in.

Read This Book

Seriously, if you are at all interested in sustainable agriculture, local food systems, or just plain good food, you should read this book. Or if you don’t know anything about turkey sex, but feel like your life would be infinitely better if you did. If you like adventures in the unconventional and the unknown, if you find yourself vegging out in front of the Food Network, if you need a nudge to pursue a bizarre and difficult dream, if you’re a fan of Kingsolver’s other work, or if you just love good writing, read this book.

Finally – maybe this is going a bit far, maybe it’s not – if you consumer of food in the US, you should read this book. There are things we should know about the food we eat. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an accessible and, most importantly, fundamentally enjoyable exploration of some of the food issues we face as a country.

But Don’t Get Discouraged

I know it’s easy to get discouraged when you read about a project of this magnitude. It’s a big undertaking, and not all of us are starting with the same advantages. The Kingsolver family owned a piece of property that was perfectly suited for this experiment. They also had jobs that were flexible enough that they could continue to support themselves throughout the project. And they had kids who were old enough to be engaged in the project as active (and helpful) participants.

But remember that an experiment such as this doesn’t come about all at once. Innumerable steps, small changes, research and groundwork laid the path for the first sentence, when the journey begins. And time… it takes time. (But time is usually less interesting than the actual journey, so guess what ends up in the book?)

At its heart, this is a story about priorities, and pursuing what the things that are important to you. It probably would have been easier for them to stay in Arizona. It definitely would have been easier for all of them to stay within their comfort zones. But they didn’t. And we don’t have to either. The first step is just as important as the one that follows, and each of us can start stepping outside of our own comfort zones, bit by bit, one day at a time.