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Looking for a healthy alternative? Well why not try an organic food box.

With many providers now supplying organic fruit and vegetable boxes, there is no excuse for not having the time to get to your local green grocer – because now you don’t have to.

While supermarkets are getting onto the organic bandwagon, this alternative not only supports local growers but reduces the food miles that pile up getting the produce from the farmer’s door to you.

With many options available, ranging from delivering farm produce to your home to organic fruit and vegetable boxes delivered to nominated drop off points, you have the opportunity to enjoy this great food.

I’ve gone with CERES who only supply fruit and vegetables that are in season. This not only cuts down on carbon emissions from cool room storage but gives you a much more earthy produce

For example, with the snow peas the texture and imperfections in the husk really stood out. When compared to conventional snow peas, these organic peas look more natural, being far from perfect but more aligned with how nature intended them to look and feel.

There was also a significantly improved taste difference and, most importantly, numerous studies also show they have a higher nutrient composition and density in comparison to more popular commercially grown varieties.

But lets not forget the orange. While it may look like a mutant from mars, it would have to rate as one of the tastiest oranges I have ever consumed. Yes a very big call!

The great thing about receiving a variety of fruit and vegetables is trying out something that we normally would not consume, mmmmm, turnips.

Finally, while I was camping over the weekend, settled in the fresh air and peaceful surroundings of a local creek, I cooked a very yummy stir fry using all the remaining vegies including asparagus, mushrooms, turnips, coriander, cauliflower and onions with a little soy and sesame sauce, very yummy indeed.

So try out an organic food box today!

A restaurant near Seymour is growing its own vegetables and herbs and raising chickens for the eggs. The great thing about growing your own is that not only is it good for the environment and making tasty dishes, but it actually saves you money.

As vegetables continue to increase in price, growing your own is the ultimate way of saving some dollars while getting organic produce fresh from the garden. The flavours and nutrients are at their highest levels and the taste is quite overwhelming when compared to supermarkets vegies that have been sitting in a cool room or spending time being transported by truck.

Bruce and Lindy at the Wool Shed Cafe have a plentiful supply of vegetables, depending on what’s in season. During summer for example, they have fresh capsicums, tomatoes, cucumbers and beans and the excess is preserved in their delicious chutneys and pickles.

The great thing about Bruce and Lindy’s garden is their use of permaculture. Food scraps are fed to the chickens or mulched for reuse in the garden, while the chicken poo makes fantastic manure.
The other part of the equation is the gardening itself – its good exercise! Digging, planting, tilling the soil, weeding, composting are all great activities that require you to expend energy.
So, if you have the space, even a small pot for some herbs, start to grow your own you can create your own vegetable patch with only one square metre of space.

Even in the movies it’s becoming hip to become self sufficient, the restaurant owner in “The kids are all right” have their own vegetable patch – see it and be inspired!

Even in the movies it’s becoming hip to become self sufficient with the restaurant owner having their own vegetable patch in “The kids are all right”

When deciding to buy organic, I often wonder about the treatment of the seeds as this is the originating source of all fruit and vegetables.
You may have chemical free soil and farm practices but what about the evolution from the seed itself. Does this comprimise the premise of what truly is organic food?

Well according to the Australian Certified Organic Association, there must be a declaration from non-organic seeds suppliers that the seeds are declared GM free and not derived from a GM source.

According to the Australian Organic Standard, as of the 1st June 2008, seed and propagative material shall be required to be sourced from organic sources only.
Furthermore they state that Genetically modified products and genetically engineered processes involved in the organic production processes are prohibited.

The interesting thing is genetic contamination whereby GM crops situated within close proximity to a non GM area may lead to compromising the integrity of the non GM crops, a difficult situation to mange given the natural processes of pollination by insects and the traveling of seeds and other material by winds and insects.

There must according to the Australian Organic Standard be a risk management policy in place to regulate cross contamination.
The interesting point is whether ultimately all non GM crops will suffer from some level of contamination as you cannot quarantine any area from the natural process, even a vast ocean cannot limit this contamination if a country is totally GM free.

Very funny fitness quote this morning about a Fitmate who went to the supermarket and deciding weather to buy the Godzilla style strawberries, her reaction was “eat mutant strawberries or starve” Meaning that there weren’t many other options available.

When we look at today’s strawberries, they are the big, steroid versions from California called the “Albion” which has a patent, “United States Patent PP16228″

I guess when it comes to production, a bigger strawberry means less strawberries per punnet, which means less picking labour and packing labour, less chances of damage while in transit.

The downside is that you have this mutant looking strawberry that has less taste than smaller varieties.

Unfortunately today’s typical strawberry cultivation techniques involve a lot of chemicals if you buy the non-organic variety. Strawberries are in the top 10 of fruit and vegetables most likely to contain pesticides and chemicals.

Consumer magazine, Choice did a study into strawberries in January 2008 and the results were very disturbing with a staggering 11% containing chemical residue above the accepted level as government by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore out of the 27 samples, 63% contained residues from more than one pesticide.

Some of the nasty chemicals included:
Boscalid
Captan
Carbaryl
Chlorpyrifos
Dimethoate
Endosulfan-beta
Iprodione
Pirimicarb
Pyrimethanil

While there are set “safe” limits of chemical residues, maximum residue limits (MRLs), there is some conjecture on whether even consuming these low levels of chemicals in quantity over a long period together with all the other food types containing other chemicals leads to the gradual poisoning of our bodies. Many of these chemicals are NOT removed through the bodies regular processes and build up over a period of time.

Recently a study in Europe has documented the link between phosphates and Parkinson’s disease study so it’s alarming to the extent we have exposure to these chemicals.

So the best thing is to go organic, better still pick your own strawberries with the season commencing in October as strawberries like the more temperate climates of 20º days and overnight temperatures of 10º.

Farm fresh food is healthier and better than what we get from supermarkets.

Unfortunately there are some major trade offs in the process of getting fruit and vegetables to the massive supermarket distribution centers around the country.

Think about that juicy red tomato, sun rippened and ready to eat, well Mr/Ms juicy red tomato would be a squashed, unhealthy looking tomato at the end of it’s journey to the supermarket shelf.

All those kms of shipping and freight equal time, transportation considerations and shelf life. Fruit and vegetables are often kept in cool rooms and picked green and stored in an artificial/modified environment by manipulating the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide to stop or slow down the rippening process.

Depending on the fruit or vegetable, they can be artificially rippened with sulphur dioxide or other nasty chemicals.

So getting back to Mr/Ms tomato, we end up with this rock hard, whitish red looking tomato that has very little taste.

It’s always better to get fresh fuit and vegeatbles, whether from the actual farm which isn’t always convenient or from the local green grocer where the food chain equals Grower>wholesale market>fruiterer>consumer. A much better option than from the supermarkets Grower>distribution centre>cool room storage>refrigerated semi trailer>supermarket>cool room>refrigerated vegetable display>consumer.

Well for $20 today I picked up a box of freshly picked, sun rippened vegetable. Th best part was the beautiful aroma of farm fresh vegetbles that filled the car.

While the pace of life increases, time constraints have made the supermarket an easy option but with some careful planning there are better options that not only deliver healthier, tastier food but are better for the environment.