Organic vs. Local Produce: How To Choose, When You Have To

It’s a bourgeois dilemma, to be sure, but it’s one many produce-loving healthy eaters face: If your neighborhood farmer’s market only sells local blueberries grown with pesticides and the organic ones at your grocer have been flown in from Chile, which do you buy? In an ideal world you’d always have access to berries that […]

Carrot + Zucchini Ribbons + Cilantro Pepita Pesto Recipe

[The Simple Veganista] I have a ton of pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) that I need to use up and thought this was a great way to use them. I also had some cilantro on hand and decided to use that. What I really love about cilantro, besides the lovely flavor, is that it’s available in […]

Make Meals More A-Peeling

Boost Nutrients in Meals with Fruit and Vegetable Peels Reducing waste and boosting taste to your meals is as easy as adding some apple peel to your sandwich. The skins and other discarded parts of fruits and veggies are packed with fiber and disease-fighting nutrients, so instead of tossing them out, get twice as many […]

Eating in Season: 5 July Superfoods to Boost Your Health

It’s hot, and also the time of year for vegetable gardens to be producing bountiful goodies. You likely already know the best method for consuming produce is by growing your own, and you probably know that eating in season is preferable. But whether you have your own supply or shop locally at a farmer’s market, […]

Solstice Harvest: Garlic

Traditionally, garlic is harvested on the longest day of the year – our summer solstice. If you planted your garlic on time (October – December) your crop should ready by this time. And you will be grateful for those extra hours of daylight – pulling garlic can be a hard, long day’s work – but […]

Supermarket Without Bees

Between Colony Collapse Disorder, declining genetic diversity, loss of crop diversity, and exposure to pesticides, these are tough times for honeybees. North American honeybee populations are declining at a rate of around 30 percent per year, and the British Beekeepers Association said more than a third of colonies died in England this past winter. That […]

The 2013 Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen Produce Guides

For the ninth year, the Environmental Working Group has released its popular Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which includes the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists of the most and least pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables. As always, the samples tested by the EWG are thoroughly washed and peeled so that the areas being […]

8 in 10 parents buy organic

  U.S. families are increasingly embracing organic products in a wide range of categories, with 81 percent now reporting they purchase organic at least sometimes. This finding is one of many contained in the Organic Trade Association’s (OTA’s) newly released 2013 U.S. Families’ Organic Attitudes and Beliefs Study, conducted Jan. 18 to 24, 2013.  “More […]

Kale: The New Food Superhero

  It’s no surprise (we hope) that eating a variety of natural, unprocessed vegetables can do wonders for your health. But kale has been standing out amongst its veggie peers lately, recognized for its exceptional nutrient richness, health benefits, and unique flavor. So what exactly makes Kale such a devastatingly healthy superfood? Let’s take a look: […]

Organic Brands Caught In The Middle Of Prop 37 GMO Fight

18 other states, including California have attempted to pass laws similar to Proposition 37, The Right to Know Genetically Modified Food Act and failed. With 1 million signatures, Prop 37 is the first such measure to reach the statewide ballot. If passed, genetically modified food products would include the words “Partially produced with genetic engineering” […]

Urban Foraging

  Today’s post comes from Bistro OneSix, an entertaining blog full of stories about all things delicious. Enjoy this post about urban foraging and then head over to Bistro OneSix for more fabulous tales from the kitchen.  I hear the term “urban foraging” tossed around more and more lately and knew what my definition of it […]