12 Jun Going Organic on a Budget.
Going organic has changed my life. After becoming quite sick last year and having my body riddled with radiation and formaldehyde. I made a conscious decision for my family to live organically as much as possible. What is formaldehyde you ask? It’s a chemical that is found in building materials, household products, glues, paints, disinfectants, paper product coatings, fertilisers, you name it! And as you can imagine the air is riddled with it. Unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it, but if you become sensitive to it, your world gets tipped upside down and you can feel like you need to live in a bubble. Well that was me… So I thought I’d try to heal from the inside out and living organically felt like my only option….. I’m still on the journey of healing from within but I’m miles ahead from where I was….
Living an organic life can be expensive. Thankfully they’re many more people choosing this lifestyle, whether it’s due to sickness or choice in doing so it’s allowing the prices to come down and making it become more affordable for all.
Here’s my tips to help you go organic…
Grow Your Own
If you have the option this ideally is the best way. You know exactly what goes into your soil, on your plants and your environment. There are so many options now in how to prevent insects and bugs naturally, natural fertilisers and what veggies are best for what season so growing your own hasn’t become so scary anymore. It’s also very therapeutic and grounding I’ve found. It makes you stop and smell the roses or carrots should I say? It allows you to teach your kids life lessons if you choose and patience. You need a lot of patience to grow your own!
Trade with Friends and Family.
Once your garden is established and plentiful then you have the option to trade. Ask around, check Facebook groups, the options are endless. Often family and friends can’t get rid of their excess fruit and veggies so trading is an amazing option. You also get to try different styles of fruit and veggies you may never normally have. I know my kids love the figs and passion fruits from next door but we wouldn’t normally eat them otherwise. The fact that they’re a gift goes along way.
Markets
We love the markets as a family. We potter around them like a gaggle of geese. Constantly trying new foods and samples to widen our food palette. We’ve found that our local markets is where we source a majority of our organic produce. The grocers down there are often market gardeners trying to make some extra cash. We ask how they care for their produce, often or not, its organic just not certified. Obviously it’s at your own risk to buy from them if they’re not certified but personally I’ve found no problems. A handy hint for the markets also is if you go down in the last half hour of closing you can often get the produce for a quarter of the price! Sometimes you do need to clean up the fruit and veggies but it’s oh so worth it!
All images sourced from Pinterest.
