Back to the Garden Girl Store!
The Dirty Dozen – What to Buy Organic
March 25th, 2009 @ 11:34 am

Every year around this time I take another look at what I’m buying to feed my family and re-focus on getting the best produce with the fewest chemicals. Over time, I find that I start straying back little by little until I realize I need to get back on course. I am good with frozen vegetables, and try to buy organic fresh pears, apples, lettuce, carrots, onions and potatoes. But some other fruits – namely berries and grapes – are hard to stay on top of. And unfortunately, those are my children’s favorite fruits! In the winter we buy frozen organic berries (big bargain at Costco- love it!) but once we see the fresh ones out they are so hard to resist. Especially strawberries!

So what I need to do is post this list from EWG.org to remind me of the things that are most important to buy organic. Turns out you can get away with regular onions, broccoli and tomatoes – who knew? But what I found disturbing is that these studies were done after the fruits and vegetables were washed. Yuck.

So here’s the lists to help you – or you can go to EWG to print out their handy-dandy “Dirty Dozen” sheet here
EWG’s Dirty Dozen (buy these ORGANIC):

1. Peach
2. Apple
3. Bell Pepper
4. Celery
5. Nectarine
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Imported Grapes
11. Carrots
12. Pears

EWG’s Clean 15 (lowest levels of pesticides)
1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet Corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Asparagas
7. Sweet Peas
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon
13. Broccoli
14. Tomato
15. Sweet Potato

It’s worth a little effort -now that it is getting easier and easier to find organics. And the good thing is that the prices are finally coming down. I always say if you have a Trader Joe’s nearby – check them out. The best prices and most of their produce is great – bagged organic apples and pears, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries + frozen veggies to name a few.

healthy eating

2 Comments

  1. Melissa
    said,

    March 30, 2009 at 6:31 am

    Trader joe’s is great…I recently discovered Wegman’s and they have great produce and meat at unbelievable prices. For you New Englanders…Wegman’s prices beat WholeFoods and Hannafords! You’re right Kristin, Trader Joe’s is amazing too!

  2. How to Check if Your Produce is Genetically Modified | Paraben Free & Natural Skincare - plus a whole lot more!
    said,

    October 16, 2009 at 11:15 am

    [...] to buy organic, and which conventional products are generally OK to buy, check out my previous post “The Dirty Dozen – What to Buy Organic”) healthy [...]