Affordable Organic Tips

I have been sur­viv­ing on the eupho­ria of love for our new­born son as of late. It is that love and those cute smiles that have seen me through many a sleep­less night and the hor­monal haze of adjust­ing to a newborn’s sched­ule both phys­i­cally and men­tally. How­ever, the fog seems to be lift­ing now that we have reached week seven. I feel like we have finally turned the cor­ner and I hope to have this col­umn out more reg­u­larly. My best laid plans to keep it weekly have been just that…best laid plans.

We made it out to the library the other day with Sammy’s big brother Michael. As we strolled through the aisles to keep the baby’s sleepy eyes closed, a book caught my eye. It was on the shelf right where I could grab it with­out stop­ping the motion of the stroller, so grab it I did. Called Wildly Afford­able Organic by Linda Wat­son, the book is a great resource on how to eat organ­i­cally and “green” on a budget.

Although I am still read­ing it, here are some tips I wanted to share which I thought were valu­able. Never cook with or drink hot tap water. It may con­tain lead from the water heater or plumb­ing. Instead, heat cold water up in a ket­tle or on the stove. You bought it, so cook it. Accord­ing to the author, Amer­i­cans throw away about a third of the per­fectly good food they buy. Watch what you buy. Wash your reusable gro­cery bags (we’ve dis­cussed this, so don’t for­get!). Shop the sea­sons at the farmer’s mar­kets. Can your pro­duce when you can. Grow your own herbs and veg­gies to save you money. Clean and orga­nize your freezer — espe­cially label­ing things (my down fall). The book has a great sec­tion on how to do this called “Feed Your Freezer.”

Also included in the book are menus and recipes for each sea­son on how to spend just $5 a day or less on prepar­ing good, organic and green meals. Now you can’t beat that! What I have found is that it is doable, it just takes plan­ning and prepar­ing and that, my friends, is the hard part. I have the great ideas and love the fresh food, it just comes down to mak­ing and tak­ing the time to shop and cook. I con­tinue to strive to do a bet­ter job. Please share any tips you have to make it eas­ier — other than hir­ing a per­sonal chef which I often fan­ta­size about.

Tues­day Trip­pier lives in Delaware, is a writer and mother of four with a spe­cial inter­est in learn­ing about green and organic living.

Posted by Tuesday Trippier on Sep 30 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.