Certified organic?
You see it on more and more produce labels these days. That’s a good thing, as The Martha likes to say at the end of her show. But is it always necessary to buy organic? I say, you can’t afford not to. With so many items coming to supermarkets from so far away, who knows what means are used to keep the spots off of the apples? And if the produce is coming in from a foreign country, we have no control over what was sprayed on it before it was picked (or after it was picked for that matter).
Of course, I say it’s always best to buy your produce locally and in season, to avoid these circumstances altogether. But what if you can’t afford to do that? Grow it yourself! It really takes a lot less space than one might imagine. For example, I currently have 10 tomato plants (Brandywine, Early Girl and Supersweet 100), four yellow squash plants, three black zucchini plants, three White Wonder cucumber plants, three California Gold pepper plants, and two roots beds; one of radishes and one of carrots. Sounds like a lot of space taken up, right? Wrong. It all fits nicely into a four foot by eight foot patch, and the yields promise to be better than average, in spite of the drought. (It’s only June!)
Worried about not being able to grow your veggies organically? Don’t! I use no bug spray, no chemicals of any kind, and everything I am growing looks great. Supermarket perfect? No…but great nonetheless. So much so, in fact, that I have made a label for my produce, lest anyone should think it came from the farmers market instead of my own back yard…
What do you think? 😉
