We’ve been trying to eat better lately. One offshoot of this has been eating a lot more fruits and veggies. At first, we just bought whatever we could find at the neighborhood PW or Costco. However, this eventually lead to weekend trips to local Farmers’ Markets and paying heed to how the stuff we were eating was grown. Jill and I have joked about our “journey”, wondering how soon it will be before we’re wearing hemp sandals and debating the merits of raw goat’s milk.

We try to buy organic (despite that Penn & Teller episode) when we can, but sometimes it’s not practical due to convenience, cost, location, etc.. Because of this, we’ve adopted a “This Should Be Organic, This Doesn’t Matter” philosophy based on articles like the following:

• The New Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods to Eat Organic
• The Clean 15: Foods You Don’t Have to Buy Organic
• Top 12 Fruits and Vegetables You Should Buy Organic

Because some of the articles above use the very irritating “let’s divide this one short article into multiple pages so we can increase out web site hits” philosophy, I’m posting the relevant info here:

Should Be Organic: Celery, Peaches, Strawberries (gotta work on this), Apples, Blueberries (gotta work on this too!), Nectarines, Bell Peppers, Spinach, Kale, Cherries, Potatoes, Grapes, Leafy Greens, Carrots, Pears, Tomatoes.

Don’t Necessarily Have to Be Organic: Onion, Avocado, Pineapple, Mango, Asparagus, Sweet Peas, Kiwi, Cabbage, Egg Plant, Papaya, Watermelon, Broccoli, Sweet Corn (not sure about this), Tomato (huh, this is on the above list too!), Sweet Potato.

Now, many of the foods above we don’t really eat on a regular basis. However, there are some that we we eat pretty much daily. So, our personal organic/not organic list kinda goes like this:

Should Be Organic: Spinach, Lettuce, Berries (Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries — we have to be more diligent on the berries because sometimes I still just grab frozen non-organic bags at Costco because of the convenience.)

Doesn’t Have To Be Organic: Banana, Onion, Pineapple, Cabbage, Broccoli.

I’m sure this list will change as we proceed down our road to better health (which I’m sure will still contain occasional pit stops at In-N-Out!) This post is meant as a snapshot, a point of reference regarding where we stand right now (in our hemp sandals, of course.)