What’s in Season? Your Fresh Fruit and Veggie Guide of Course.

Now we know how tough it can be to go grocery shopping let alone trying to read labels to decide whats good for you. But one thing we do like for you to keep in mind is; are you buying the freshest fruits and veggies that are is season? We wouldn’t want you to be buying quote unquote “fresh” green beans in the winter when they’re not even in season. Because that would mean that those green beans traveled far far away from where they are from to get to you, took a lot of energy to get it to you, and it isn’t fresh as it could be because of the time it took to get to you. Furthermore, the produces might even be from another county where the standards of growing produce aren’t as strong as the standards in the great U.S. of A.

Today we have  a list of fruits and vegetables to look for when in season to make sure your getting the fresh and best tasting produce for your next meal. And remember what will a meal be without one of our great line of Finishing Sauces to finish it; it would be ludicrous of course! Don’t forget to order yours and remember to be organic and be local.

Summer Fruits	Summer Vegetables
Apples Apricots Avocados Blackberries Blueberries Boysenberries Cactus pears Cherries Figs Melons Mulberries Nectarines Peaches Plums Raspberries Tomatoes Tomatillos Watermelon	Asparagus Basil Beets Broccoli Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Green beans Okra Peas Radishes Rhubarb Spinach Summer squash Zucchini

Fall Fruits	Fall Vegetables
Apples Avocados Bananas Clementines Cranberries Dates Figs Grapefruit Grapes Kiwi Kumquats Mandarin oranges Melons Oranges Pears Persimmons Pomegranates Raspberries	Beans Beets Bok choy Broccoli Broccoli rabe Brussels sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery root Collard greens Garlic Jerusalem artichokes Kale Leeks Lettuce Parsnips Pumpkin Rhubarb Rutabaga Snow peas Spinach Sweet potatoes Swiss chard Turnips Watercress Winter squash

Winter Fruits	Winter Vegetables
Avocados Bananas Blood oranges Clementines Cranberries Grapefruit Grapes Guavas Kiwi Kumquats Limes Oranges Passion fruit Pears Persimmons Pomegranates Tangelos Tangerines	Artichokes Bok choy Broccoli Broccoli rabe Brussels sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Celery root Jerusalem artichokes Kale Lettuce Parsnips Radishes Rhubarb Rutabaga Snow peas Sweet potatoes Turnips Watercress Winter squash

Spring Fruits	Spring Vegetables
Apricots Avocados Carrots Cherries Grapefruit Kiwis Kumquats Lemons Mango Pineapple Navel oranges Strawberries	Artichokes Arugula Asparagus Beets Fava beans Fennel Fiddleheads Greens Leeks Lettuce Morels Nettles Spring onions Parsley Peas Radishes Rhubarb Scallions Spinach Sweet onions Swiss chard Turnips

10 Ways to “Be Organic” on a Budget

During the tour we were asked a lot of questions. Questions like “what is organic”, “why are we doing this”, “how do you incorporate organic into a lifestyle”, “where can we find organic food”, “why aren’t you charging people for this information” are just a few that we were asked to us. When it was time for us to ask the number one question “why don’t you eat organic?” You can probably guess what their answer was…..yes you guest it. For the most part of the tour the number one reason why people didn’t eat organic was because “it’s too expensive!”

Now we are not going to sit here and act as if organic isn’t expensive. Well actually we are because there are ways to offset the costs so that your overall expenses in going organic won’t be much more than what you’re paying now, and maybe even a little bit less!! So today we have 10 ways to “Be Organic” on a budget:

Here’s how:

1. Buy directly from local farms.

Farmers’ markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) are typically less expensive than organic markets or the organic section of your local grocery store. You can always expect the freshest and greatest flavors of the season

2. Buy in bulk.

Buying in large quantities is always cheaper than buying smaller, prepared portions.

3. Coupons, coupons, coupons!!

You might not see many coupons for organic products in the weekly food section of the newspaper, but you’ll definitely see them in other places. You can look for them in health and fitness magazines and in lifestyle magazines. Here’s a website for organic coupons: www.organiccoupons.org. We would also recommend you go directly to company websites that offer organic products. A few to start with: Organic Valley, Stonyfield, Seventh Generation, Eden Organic and Knudsen Juices.

4. Buy store brand.

Supermarkets, large discounters, and wholesalers like Costco have realized good success in offering their own organic products. Private-label offerings are expanding, and they’re cheaper than name brands.

5. Learn to read your labels.

We know it can get a confusing over the terminology and lingo in the organic world, especially when you’re first starting to make the change. When you’re watching your pennies, don’t buy something that’s labeled “natural” when you’re looking for “organic.” For tips on reading labels please read our recent blog.

6. Grow your own garden.

Even the smallest balcony can usually support a pot or two. Fill those pots with a tomato plant, cilantro, garlic, or maybe a pepper and you’ve got yourself an organic garden. You can also grow wonderful herd such as thyme indoors on a sunny windowsill.

7. Make your own cleaning products.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what ingredients are in most of those cleaning products in your cabinet? Well you’ll be surprise to see that most of those ingredients can be found in your house to make your own natural cleaning products. Ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, and borax are as cheap as you can find them. The cost associated with making products from them is about one-tenth that of their commercial equivalents.

8. Know what to buy organic and what not to worry about buying organic.

There are certain organic foods and food products that are worth spending the money on, and some that you can skip and save the money. Check out our previous blog on what to buy organic.

9. Prepare your own food.

Want to make sure your family is the healthiest it can be? When you prepare it yourself, you can ensure the quality of the ingredients your adding to your food and the processing as well. Nowadays people are doing more cooking at home; why not make it using organic foods? You can turn almost all of the food you eat right now into an organic recipe just by using organic ingredients.

10. Start a community garden.

Growing a community garden will need to be a major focus. We will soon experience limited access to healthy food and limited selection of whatever food is available. Growing wonderful fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs and supplying to locals in the community at a low cost year round.

Food Network South Beach Food & Wine Festival 2010

Well this years Food Network South Beach Food & Wine Festival was another blast. This time around we weren’t on the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tour bus that rocked the festival last year, but instead we were under the biggest tent for this year’s festival shaking and opening the grounds of Parrot Jungle Island to the core of the Earth! The lines stretched to the point of no end with eager “VIF” (Very Important Foodies), moms, dads, aunts, uncles, cousins, and well you get the point. It was a family affair at “Fun & Fit as a Family”. Once our special guest “VIF” entered the tent it was all about healthy eating the fun way; with Be Organic of course. Your favorite “foodies” Roosevelt “Cancer” Desir, Kirk “Preventative” Nelson, and Andre “Diabetes” Walker introduced an after school meal that’s easy for kids of all ages to prepare all on their own. The best thing about this meal it’s all organic of course. The future “foodies” had a great time preparing a Caribbean Chicken Wrap. The wraps had the bright colors of the Caribbean with corn, tomatoes, raisins, lettuce, chicken, and orange and yellow carrots. Last, but not least they picked from our famous dressings: Pineapple Delight & Honey Mango. After taking a look at the beautiful color setup of the tables with each ingredients in the colorful bowls, everyone couldn’t help but put a little of everything into their wraps. There were three rules to our tent: 1st you have to have a great time 2nd make the best wrap 3rd contest to see which tables the loudest. With those three rules set everyone who came to our tent followed them and left as honorable official Be Organic “foodies”. The park was filled they kids and parents with face painting, eco green bags (our favorites), soccer balls, stickers, and many more. We want to give a special thanks to Blue Cross Blue Shield, 361 Experimental, and most of all our fans that came to support us on this journey to better health and living. Always remember “we dare you to step away from the crowd and Be Organic.”