Demeter's Garden

I love to read Vegetarian Times and VegNews, and I always see ads for cool conferences and expos going on all over the country. I knew there had to be some cool events in the Atlanta area, so I looked around and found some green events. Thanks to Jennae at Green Your Decor for letting me know about a bunch of these!

March 25-26   Greenprints 2009

April 4   Urban Forestry Family Festival

May 16-17   Alive! Expo

May 29-31   Atlanta Green Expo

June 3-5    Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities

June 27-28    Go Green Expo

Sept 2-3   Green Business Works Expo

Fall 2009   Organic Life Expo

I really hope I make it to a few of these events! I’m also hoping that I will get to go to the Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto in September! Toronto is my favorite place to be and I haven’t been since May 2007, I am so overdue!

I love organic foods. Although I know that a lot of conventional foods are probably perfectly safe, I always have this gut feeling that I should put as few unnatural chemicals into my body as possible.  I know that organics are good for the environment. There is just one problem, I can’t always afford them.

You’ve probably noticed the price of food going up at your local grocery store. I’ve almost completely stopped going to Whole Foods because of the prices, but I do go in once a month or so to get Vegenaise, a vegan mayonnaise that I can’t get at Publix. On a recent trip, my husband and I noticed that several things we used to buy regularly had gone up in price. We aren’t the only ones who have cut down on our trips to Whole Foods. Alternet has a story about how the chain is losing customers who are trying to save money. Another article from Newsweek mentions that even core organic customers are cutting back on their grocery purchases.

Luckily, if you want to avoid pesticides, you can prioritize your produce purchases. The Environmental Working Group has a guide that will help you decide which produce to buy organic if you can’t afford to go all organic. They rank produce based on the amount of pesticide residue typically found. They’ve got a pdf version, so if you’ve got a smart phone, save it so you’ll have it with you at the grocery store!

I do have one place I can still get tasty vegan and organic food at a decent price.  This week I went to a co-op grocery store in Atlanta called Sevananda. They had good prices and an amazing selection of vegetarian fare. I’ve been looking for a place to buy things like herbs and grains in bulk, and they had everything I was looking for. It’s not close enough to go once a week, but I will be stocking up on some things next time I go.

A lot of people have started growing their own food at home as a way to keep their grocery costs down. I would love to be able to do this, unfortunately I live in a condo and I don’t have a yard! I do have lots of herbs growing on my balcony. I’ve discovered I’m not a very good gardener, but I’ve gotten a lot better and I now have about eight different things growing. Some folks have even gotten miniature cows to provide milk for their family. Mini cows aren’t cheap, but for a family that wants a steady supply of organic milk, they might be worth it. I got to visit a farm that raises these mini cows recently, they are really sweet animals! Home gardens are also making traditional skills like canning and preserving important again.

As much as I’d love to have mini cow, I can’t drink milk and I don’t have a yard so I’ll be clipping my coupons, looking for great sales, and prioritizing purchases to keep the grocery bills down without giving up on nutrition and fresh foods.

Check out this really well done piece from Vanity Fair about GMO foods and hormone-treated milk.

Customized Girl, a website that lets you custom design t-shirts and other clothing, now has organic cotton tees! I’ve ordered from them before, I was impressed at the quality, especially after multiple washings. I will definitely have to try out their organic shirts!