Do I need to buy organic?

Do I need to buy organic? 

That is a question I get a lot and for a long time I struggled with this as well. I want to put the highest quality food into my body and into my babies, as possible. And outside of growing all of my own food, goals, I rely on what’s on the shelves. 

Because buying organic is usually more expensive, I buy organic when it’s on sale or when it’s one of the dirty dozen fruits or veggies. Are you familiar with the dirty dozen and the clean 15? I find it is a great resource and rely on it to help me make the best choice.   

The Environmental Working Group identified the following items on its 2019 “Dirty Dozen” list of produce with the most pesticide residue:

       1     Strawberries

       2     Spinach

       3     Nectarines

       4     Apples

       5     Peaches

       6     Celery

       7     Grapes

       8     Pears

       9     Cherries

       10   Tomatoes

       11   Sweet bell peppers

       12   Potatoes

The group also identifies the “Clean 15” or items in the report with the least likelihood to contain pesticide residue:

       1     Sweet corn

       2     Avocados

       3     Pineapples

       4     Cabbage

       5     Onions

       6     Frozen sweet peas

       7     Papayas

       8     Asparagus

       9     Mangoes

       10   Eggplant

       11   Honeydew

       12   Kiwifruit

       13   Cantaloupe

       14   Cauliflower

       15   Grapefruit

Do your best and when you can’t buy organic be sure to wash your produce well to clean off some of the residue. 

Here are a couple of recipes to try: 

Recipe 1:

1 cup vinegar

4 cups water

a couple drops of natural dish soap 

Mix in your sink basin and let the veggies soak for 10 minutes. Rinse and enjoy. 

Recipe 2:

Faith has been having fun with this one. She mixes this up in a large glass bowl and soaks her strawberries to get all of the tiny bugs out. EEK! They are hiding in there! She learned that the salt is what draws them out. Science is fun! 

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons salt

Soak for 30-minutes. Rinse and enjoy! 

Let me know your deciding factors when choosing to buy organic or not and if you use these recipes or something similar to clean your produce.

Til next time,

Be well.

Tiana