Eat Organic And Save Tons Of Money: Visit Your Local Farmer's Market!

It was a beautiful day to visit our local Farmer's Market

You can afford to eat healthy organic fruits and veggies, just shop your local farmers market.

Every now and then someone will ask me, how we can afford to feed our family of 4 all that organic "stuff." Many people think its too expensive to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and even more expensive to eat organic fruits and vegetables. My secret... I shop for our family's fresh fruit and veggies at our local farmers market almost every Saturday. Buying locally grown fruits and vegetables not only supports our local farmers and our community it also ensures we are getting the absolute freshest, unaltered, chemical free fruits and vegetables for our family. And we even save money on our produce bill! During an average Saturday morning trip to our farmers market, we spend about $30 dollars and bring home bags and bags of yummy fresh fruits and veggies! These items can last about a week, keep in mind I am the only Vegan in the house so I eat a larger portion of the whole foods, I also juice daily, so my thoughts are if you are a family of 4 non vegans simply trying to eat more fruits and vegetables the same items that last us a week might last you a bit longer if stored correctly.

Of course buying from our local farmers means we can only purchase what is in season and locally grown, for example it may be summer and lemons are in season but we don't grow lemons in Maryland. But we do grow watermelon and cantaloupes and tomatoes and... =) In this case, there might be an item or two that I will pick up from our local organic market, a good example are bananas, we love bananas, we use them in smoothies and in cereal and in almond butter and banana sandwiches. (our youngest daughter's favorite snack!) So, I will spend a few dollars on bananas or any other item that is not locally grown but on the menu for the week. Here is another way we save money on our produce bill. If we are going to purchase any items that are not available locally, we make sure these are items on the menu for the week so it does not go to waste. This week I purchased some oranges... they will be used in smoothies, salads and juice.

One of the juices I made with our Farmer's Market goodies and the store bought organic oranges.

*Get the recipe for this yummy juice here: Orange, Basil, Spinach Smoothie

This weekend take a trip to your local farmers market. Enjoy a relaxing stroll, speak with the farmers/vendors take in the fresh air and enjoy the touch and taste of some of the local offerings. You will discover the community is welcoming and friendly. You can really learn a lot from talking with the local farmers. You will also discover its not as expensive as you may think  In fact, its not expensive at all, we simply have to choose to "afford it"! 

Next post, I will cover purchasing organic items that are not produce related and how we keep that shopping bill under control.

A few items from our shopping spree at the Farmer's Market! We even got some honey from the honey man! :)