dirty dozen and clean 15

Trying to save while buying organic?

With summer here my taste buds are in bloom just as much as the flowers and fruit are! When I walk into Wegmans, with all the lowered prices on produce and wide variety of veggie and fruity goodness its hard to remember what I know about all these delectable pieces of food.

In fact, for a while there, prices on strawberries were so low that I caved and bought a bunch, hoping that a nice cold soak would rid of the 13 different pesticides found on one strawberry. yikes! I seriously had one strawberry as big as a small apple - thats just ridiculous). So anyways, I was really excited to see Wegmans recently add some local strawberries to their selection, making things a little more reasonable. Though not completely organic, sprayed much less and usually only on the leaves until the plants flower.

With that said I decided to do a little refresher "course" for myself so that I would feel a little more prepared going into the grocery. Although I highly recommend finding local farms as this time of year they'll be booming with fresh produce that ultimately is sprayed less, with less harmful pesticides and worked with more hands on. I love the Rochester Public Market but you've got to ask lots of questions to find out what they're really selling and sometimes that's difficult when the market is as busy as it is this time of year. South wedge Farmer's Market are ALL local farmers, and most organically raised and grown. And though they may be a little higher priced, its still cheaper than your commercialized organic section in the grocer.

Here's this year's Dirty Dozen (listed in order) - so if you can't afford to go completely organic, this would be the ones you don't want to compromise on. And then I'll list the "Clean 15" - those who tested the least harmful for pesticides and chemicals. You can also find a thorough list at EWG's 2011 Shopping Guide.

DIRTY DOZEN

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Strawberries

4. Peaches

5. Spinach

6. Imported nectarines

7. Imported grapes

8. Sweet bell peppers

9. Potatoes

10. Domestic blueberried

11. Lettuce

12. Kale/collard greens

CLEAN 15

1. Onions

2. Sweet corn

3. Pineapple

4. Avocado

5. Asparagus

6. Sweet peas

7. Mangoes

8. Eggplant

9. Cantaloupe

10. Kiwi

11. Cabbage

12. Watermelon

13. Sweet potatoes

14. Grapefruit

15. Mushrooms