Ease into organic. If you never buy organic food, try adding at least one organic item per shopping trip. I’ve noticed that many popular brands are starting to go organic, so it’s not something just confined to the health food store or produce section anymore. For instance, you even find Kraft organic Macaroni & Cheese!

I understand how challenging it is to spend more on organic products, but if you build up to it slowly and avoid as many convenience foods as possible, you can do it without totally breaking your food budget. You may also find that if you seriously dedicate yourself to eating out less, you’ll have more cash to spend on groceries.

But why is organic food important?

•You can reduce health risks associated with exposure to pesticide residue.

•If demand for organic food increases, more farmers will convert to organic farming, which has been shown to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to conventional farming.

•Pesticides used in conventional farming contaminate groundwater and negatively affect beneficial insects like bees.

•According to a 15-year study, organic farming uses 50% less energy than conventional farming.

•Conventional farming is hard on wildlife. For example, nearly 70 million birds die from pesticide exposure each year in the US.

Keep going after the jump to see a round-up of posts about organic food at Tree Hugging Family, including “Best Foods to Buy Organic.”

11 Ways to Save Money on Organic Food

How What You Eat Affects the Environment

What’s Missing from the 12 Items You Should Always Buy Green List?

Homemade Organic Fruit Snacks

Tree Hugging Website Spotlight: Organic Guide

Best Foods to Buy Organic

Planning an Organic or Vegetarian Wedding Menu?

Why Choose Organic Cotton Clothing

If you haven’t taken our green sins poll in the sidebar, please do before it’s taken down this week! Also, visit soon for a round-up of green sin posts and a look at the poll results.

Image via USDA.

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family

These snacks have many advantages over boxed fruit snacks.

Healthier – while this is more a fun food, than a “meal” food, they still have less sugar than store bought fruit snacks and have no weird chemicals, colors, or preservatives.

Less packaging – the fruit snacks in stores come in little bags that come in little boxes. It’s a ton of packaging.

Better taste – hands down, these treats are more flavorful than store bought.

You need to gather:

• Dried fruit. Assorted. I get mine from the local co-op. Try to find unsweetened, organic, bulk dried fruit. We’ve used pineapple, cherries, papaya, apricots and more. We don’t use crunchy dried, like bananas though. I’m not sure that would work. Grab a pound or so. If you have a dryer, you can use that to make your own dried fruit instead.

• Organic orange juice. You can use real fresh squeezed which offers great flavor, and you only need a little, so it’s not too much trouble. Kids like to squeeze oranges anyway. Cedar, my son, is allergic to oranges but can have mandarin oranges and lemons so we make ours with those instead of orange juice. It works fine. It’s a tad more tart.

• Orange rind (or lemon, mandarin, etc.). You need a good amount – maybe all of the rind from a medium sized fruit.

• Nuts – optional. If you use them you can use any kind, they just need to be finely chopped or ground up.

To make fruit snacks:

1. Grind up all the fruit – we use a blender on chop, then grind. A food processor might work better if you have one. I just don’t want an extra appliance around.
2. Add the orange rind – grind more.
3. Add enough juice to form a sticky mass – one that’s held together. Don’t add too much or it will be too watery a consistency.
4. Everyone grab a mound of sticky mass and roll some little balls out. Alternatively, we’ve rolled ours out with a slightly juiced rolling pin, then cut into squares. Make them about bite sized.
5. If you’re using nuts, roll the balls/squares in the nuts.
6. Eat!

It’s sticky cooking – but still a good time.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family