What to buy at the Farmers Market

With the arrival of summer and warmer days one thing that I love to do is peruse the local farmers market.  It is important to me to buy organic & locally grown whenever possible. 

Avoiding pesitcides is of key importance because they can have severe lingering effects on your body and on the earth. Pesticides are essentially toxins,  can disrupt endocrine function, and possibly cause cancers.  Through choosing organic fruits and vegetables you can reduce the amount of pesticide residues that build up in your body and reduce your chances of having side effects of pesticide build up.  You can read more about pesticide build up in the body here or here.

So what fruits and vegitables are the most important to purchase as organics? Below is a list that the Environmental Working Group has put together on which fruits and vegitables have the greatest amount of pesticides on them "dirty dozen" and which ones have lower levels of pesticides "clean 15."

Enviromental Working Groups List of foods with most and least pesticides

Environmental Working Groups list of fruits and vegetable with highest & lowest amounts of pesticides.

Saturday Is Farmer's Market Day!

Going to the Farmer's Market has always been one of my favorite activities. I love meandering through the Market on a warm sunny summer day and the smells of fresh veggies, flowers, and kettle corn. Often there are musicians playing and sellers of fresh coffee & pastries.

The pleasant sights, smells, and sounds is only one of the reasons to buy your perishables at your local farmers market. After deciding to live sustainably I learned that another wonderful reason is that the fruits and veggies offered at your local farmers markets are most often organic and locally grown.

Organic fruits and veggies are wonderful for your body. Did you know in a 2004 study done be UCD showed that organically grown fruits and veggies can contain up to 65% more phenolic compounds (it varies from veggie to veggie). These phenolic compounds are those powerful cancer fighting anti-oxidants you have heard about. The nutrient rich soil and lack of pesticides from organic farming forge healthier, vitamin packed, and better tasting veggies than conventional farming. Not to mention the animal life that is preserved in the organic farming methods. No bunnies are harmed by harvesting machines and butterflies killed by pesticides =)
If you would like to find out more about the benefits of organics visit Organic.org.

Here is a refreshing article on organic food as well.

Near me the farmers market is open year round, one of the benefits of living in California. However, in many areas of the country farmers markets only run April through October so take advantage of them now, while the summer is in full swing =)

My farmers market bounty from this morning =)