There are countless reasons to eat organic food.
It is the best choice for your health and the health of the environment.
So why doesn't everyone go organic? There is a higher cost associated with organic food.
It costs more to produce food naturally and that cost is passed on to the consumer.
There are, however, some things that you can do to make the switch to organic less costly.
There are four basic things you can do to go organic for less money: grow what you can, spend your food dollars wisely, make most of your food from scratch and don't waste anything.
Each article in this series will address one specific change you can make in each of the four areas.
Grow What You Can Strawberries are delicious, nutritious and very easy to grow.
In fact, a healthy plant will spread throughout your yard like a weed.
They make an excellent ground cover and have beautiful flowers in the spring.
You only need to buy one or two strawberry plants from your local nursery.
They will spread on their own.
They prefer a sunny location but will also grow in the shade.
Planting the strawberries in a bed of mulch will keep the berries off of the dirt and prevent premature rotting.
Spend Your Food Dollars Wisely Organic meat can be a budget buster.
One great option is to eat less of it.
Organic beans are a great substitute and cost a lot less than organic meat, usually about $1 a pound dry.
That one pound of dry beans will produce about 6 cups of cooked beans that are high in fiber and antioxidants.
Eating less meat is not only good for your health, it is a better choice for the environment.
It takes a lot of natural resources to raise animals for meat; about 16 pounds of grain are used to produce one pound of meat.
Make Your Food From Scratch Organic whole grain mustard can be expensive, but it is super simple to make if you have a food processor.
All you need is whole mustard seeds and the liquid of your choice.
The liquid could be white or red wine, beer, water, vinegar or just about anything.
Put your mustard seeds in a glass jar and cover with the liquid.
Put a lid on the jar and refrigerate for one week.
Transfer to the work bowl of your food processor fitted with the multipurpose blade.
Process for 10 minutes.
That's it! You now have your very own homemade whole grain mustard.
Don't Waste Anything This tip involves a little bit of growing your own.
When you buy green onions, also called scallions, they have the root still attached.
This is done to keep the onion fresh longer.
If you take that root and plant it, either in the ground or in a pot of dirt, the green onion will regrow.
The new green onion can be chopped off, leaving the root in the dirt.
The root will produce another green onion, again and again.
You could buy a package of organic green onions once and have a lifetime supply.
I hope I have inspired you to go organic on a budget.
Thanks for reading, see you in Part 15!