Do you buy organic? Other "natural" stuff?

 Just adding my experience: I do buy organic/local, in that preference order, when possible. I have a Farmer's Market down the street, Safeway has Organics brand, and when I have a paycheck to burn will shop at Whole Foods. I do it partly for the health of the planet, but mostly for the taste. Some conventional foods just really don't taste as good as organic. Especially meats & dairy products IMO. Since the surgery & reduced eating, I feel like it doesn't affect my grocery buget much at all. I tend to minimize pre-packaged food; it would surprise people if they just took time to make food from scratch that you can actually save money this way and have better quality control AND it really doesn't mean you spend all day/every day cooking. Then again, I don't have children, so maybe I have no right to preach..... 

When I changed my diest after surgery, I also tried to make some changes in the quality of food... more whole foods, fewer preservatives, etc.

I do buy some of my fruits and veggies from local farmers... but it is probably only half of my total consumption. Sadly, a lot fo that has to do with convenience and having a larger variety of options available in the grocery. I don't generally buy organic just because of the extra cost.  I do generally go to one of the more expensive grocery stores in teh area for produce (but not the rest of my groceries) because the quality is simply better.

I still occasionally eat frozen microwave dinners because of the convenience (cooking meals from scratch for one person who eats so little is a PITA and means WAY too many leftovers), but I try to eat whole foods and things that I have prepared myself to limit the chemicals I am putting into my body.  I sometimes buy grass fed, hormone-free and antibiotic-free beef, but, again, cost is a definite consideration.

I will never be someone who has the time or inclination to do something like make my own yogurt, though ****il 3 months ago, I was working a full-time job, a part-time job, working on my PhD, and taking care of a house and yard on my own!).  So I have made some definite changes, but will probably never be someone who buys only organic, etc.

Lora

If I still worked a regular job, I would not be considering something like making my own yogurt either!  I know what you mean about cooking from scratch for just one person.  Even when I was pre op, when I lived alone, I didn't do all that much cooking.  Seemed like too much trouble.

My daughter gets her raw milk from a local mennonite store (sometimes the owners will say it is an amish store, but we don't have amish people here) eastern nc has a large mennonite community. We can get free range chickens, eggs, other meats, etc. We even get a lot of herbal remedies from our mennonite friends. I hope you can find a group near you.

I live near a lot of Amish and Mennonite people.  I was thinking I might be able to get raw milk from some of them.

Kelly - wow what a great topic!

As a farmer (my 2nd not so lucrative job), it is so exciting to read the discussions.  Yes, buy from your local farmers!

Farmers are disappearing by the second around here - we just can't make a living at it and unless our paying job can support the farming and the family, it has to go.  Many of us are hanging on by a thread hoping for the "next great idea" to make it all work financially.

Family farming is hard.  People are used to getting cheap food and a small farmer just can't sell it that cheap and make any profit at all.  People are also used to buying 'picture perfect" food - and those cucumbers that are fresh out of the field without all of that shiny wax don't look the same - it's not what people are accustomed to.

Grassfed beef taste different than corn fed beef and the meat can be tougher if all of that fat is not marbled through the meat with those extra corn calories.

Hopefully, folks around here start wanting to meet the man who produced his food - it's the only way that family farms will survive.

P.S.  Yogurt making is very easy.  Heat  1 quart minus one cup store bought milk to 180 degrees in a boiler on your stove.  Take it off and cool it to 120 degrees (you'll need a cooking thermometer); stir in about 4 ounces of plain yogurt with live active cultures and 1 whole pack of non-fat dry milk (for upping the protein and thickening it up).  Put it in a quart-sized jar with a top in your cold oven.  Turn on the oven light for a slight heat source.  Leave it overnight.  In the morning, refrigerate it.  In the night, start eating it!  You can add splenda or any other thing you want to flavor it.  You can use raw milk if you start buying it.  I would home pasteurize even milk from my cow, just to be safe.    I would refrigerate to let the cream rise unless you want a really rich yogurt with a lot of fat --- but it would be good!

What do you raise on your farm?

Hi Kelly - for sale on the  market - beef cattle and timber products. ...for our consumption, all kinds of vegetables and eggs.