If you are going to buy organic fruit and vegetables then you will probably want to buy what is currently in season. That way you’ll get the freshest and best quality produce at reasonable prices. If you choose produce which is in season you can buy locally, meaning less transport costs which is, of course, better for the environment, as well as supporting local farmers.

Kathryn has just posted her regular list on what is in season:

Fruit:

• apples (fuji, golden delicious, granny smiths, gala & jonathons)
• avocadoes (fuerte & hass)
• bananas
• chokoes
• custard apples
• dates
• grapefruits (yellow & ruby-reds)
• grapes
• kiwifruit
• lemonade fruit
• lemons
• limes
• mandarins (imperials)
• nashi pears
• oranges (navels & valencia)
• passionfruits
• pears (packham, williams & beurre bosc)
• persimmons
• plums
• pomegranates
• quinces
• rhubarb
• tamarillos

Vegetable:

• asian greens
• beans (green, flat & snake)
• beetroot
• broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• cabbages
• carrots
• cauliflowers
• celeriac
• celery
• chestnuts
• daikon radish
• fennel
• ginger
• Jerusalem artichokes are coming into season
• leeks
• mushrooms
• okra
• onions
• parsnips
• potatoes
• pumpkin
• silverbeet
• spinach
• squash
• sweetcorn (from Qld)
• sweet potatoes
• zucchini

There is lots of variety available at the moment so enjoy it while you can.

The latest Weekend Herb Blogging roundup can be found at A Fridge Full of Food. I wrote a short post on organic rosemary tea which is no where near as interesting as the recipes on offer here. Here are some of my favourites:

Daily Unadventures makes a zucchini gratin. I love pretty much anything ‘gratin’ but seeing I love zucchini and tomatoes, this definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

What Did You Eat seems to be a pretty popular blog based on the huge number of comments and it’s not surprising if you take a quick look at the recipes on offer. This Thai Chicken dish looks amazing. I’ve never cooked Thai food myself but it looks like it’s time to give it a go.

Kalyn is the founder of Weekend Herb Blogging and she always contributes a great recipe. I’ve tried lots of her recipes and am yet to be disappointed. Check out her blog if you are looking for healthy meals to cook at home.

Once Upon a Tart makes a fantastic looking pizza topped with apple and pecorino cheese. Well worth a try if you ask me.

For the pasta lovers out there, try this tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms, basil, and thyme. This is a really simple but flavourful recipe. I love mushrooms in pasta. This is a must try for me.

The Chocolate Lady writes about pineapple sage:

Pineapple sage (salvia elegans) is a revelation. The leaves have the unmistakably vivid and heady aroma of pineapple. How do they do that? The flavor is very like that of garden sage, with just the tiniest bit of the fruitiness promised by the scent.

I never even knew that existed. Amazing!

Don’t forget to use organic ingredients where possible to create a really healthy meal. Enjoy!

I couldn’t think of anything worse when I first heard that you could make tea from rosemary. I do like rosemary as a herb but I find it to have a very strong flavour and the thought of drinking tea tasting of nothing but rosemary was not very appealing. Rosemary tea is believed to have numerous health benefits so I decided to give it a go.

Surprisingly this tea is really nice. It’s not overpowering at all and has become one of my favourite herbal teas. You can add a teaspoon of honey to the tea if you prefer but I drink without any sweetener.

How to Make Rosemary Tea

I bought some organic rosemary tea from the supermarket but there is no reason to go to the expense of doing so. Rosemary is very easy to grow and many people have it in their garden so you can use fresh rosemary or dry it especially for tea.

Place 1 tablespoon of rosemary leaves in a teapot and add boiling water (around 500mL). Let it infuse for around 20 minutes and the tea is ready.

Benefits of Rosemary

Rosemary can be used to treat various symptoms including:

• headaches
• body aches
• bad breath
• poor digestion
• stress
• muscle stiffness

This post is part of the Weekend Herb Blogging event being hosted this week by A Fridge Full of Food.

Tim Worstall discusses some dodgy practices going on in farmers’ markets in Britain:

Consider, for example, Isle of Wight Tomatoes, one of the most established stallholders at London’s numerous farmers’ markets. It looks like a small, traditional enterprise and claims to sell its own homegrown produce. Think again. Its tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers are bought from a separate company, Wight Salads, the bulk of whose £60m turnover comes from supplying supermarket chains.

Worse, as far as many green consumers may be concerned, many of the tomatoes are actually experimental genetic crossbreeds that Wight Salads is engineering to try to find the “next best thing” for the supermarkets. In short, these tomatoes are a far cry from traditional British produce homegrown in a smallholding.

It’s a very good business. Nonorganic cherry tomatoes bought from Isle of Wight Tomatoes and weighing 455g (16oz) fetch £3.50 at the Pimlico farmers’ market stall. At Tesco you can pick up the equivalent weight oforganiccherry tomatoes for £1.78. Ordinary tomatoes like the ones The Sunday Times bought from the market cost even less and the equivalent weight can be bought at Tesco for £1.26.

I hope this kind of thing isn’t standard practice, although I’m not surprised that this goes on, but I am definitely disappointed to hear about it.

Organic yoghurt always tastes much nicer than other yoghurts to me. I’m not sure if it’s due to the ingredients or the recipe or perhaps it’s both. I never even imagined making my own yoghurt but apparently it’s pretty easy to do so I’ll have to give it a go. At least I’ll know exactly what has gone into it.

How to Make Organic Yoghurt

This method from the ABC is probably the easiest although you do need to use a thermometer to check the temperature of the milk.

Ingredients:

• Small tub of organic yoghurt.
• 1 litre of organic milk.

Method:

• Heat the milk to 90 degrees.
• Let it cool to 44 degrees.
• Mix a spoonful of organic yoghurt into half a cup of warm milk.
• Remove the skin from the 44 degree milk.
• Whisk in the diluted yoghurt and milk mixture.
• Pour into a jar and place the lid on without screwing it down.
• Leave overnight.

You can then flavour the yoghurt with fruit and berries of your choice or with organic vanilla.

Mercola has a slightly more involved recipe but it does include an instructional video to help you. Personally I like to keep things simple so would stick with the ABC recipe.

If you’re not interested in making your own yoghurt you can try the following brands of biodynamic or organic yoghurt which are readily available throughout Australia:

• Paris Creek
• Barambah Organics
• Mungalli Creek
• Gippsland

I honestly believe that the pesticide residues found on fruit and vegetables are doing harm to our bodies. Although only small residues can be found in our food, this can add up over time, over the years, possibly leading to cancer or other diseases. I read somewhere once that it can take up to 2 years from these toxic chemicals to be eliminated from our body once we convert to eating organic food.

Healthy Sundae writes about organic produce:

The more fruits and vegetables you eat, the more DAMAGE you could be doing to your body. Totally counter to what we have always been told, right? Well, if you consume inorganic produce, the more you eat, the more pesticides you are putting in your body.

That seems pretty obvious and seeing we are exposed to so many pollutants in our daily lives we can at least control the level of pesticides in our bodies by reducing or eliminating how much we consume. They also write:

“But I wash my fruits and vegetables,” you say. It’s not enough. Washing doesn’t remove all the pesticides and it can’t penetrate to remove the toxins that have soaked into the food. Also, take something like a banana - just having it in a fruit bowl contaminates everything the dirty peel touches. How often have you washed your banana before putting it in the bowl or handing it to your child?

While I agree that washing isn’t sufficient, it seems a bit extreme to suggest that an unwashed banana will contaminate your entire fruit bowl. I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

Besides the toxins you avoid with organics, organic fruits and veggies have higher levels of anti-oxidants and tend to have more flavor than their conventional counterparts.

The nutritional differences in organic produce is debatable and there is evidence going both ways. As for the taste, I have a friend who insists that organic food tastes better than conventionally grown food but I can’t tell the difference.

I think it’s great to promote eating organic food as ingesting small amounts of chemicals over the long term can’t possibly for good for us but we need to be reasonable too. Most of us don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables and that should be our priority. Of course I think pesticide free is better but I’d rather eat a bowl of thoroughly washed conventionally grown fruit salad than no salad at all.

Yeah, I know I recently updated my About page to say that I wouldn’t be accepting free review gifts and while that still stands (I didn’t personally receive this gift) I am going to do this ‘accidental’ review.

Cocolo sent me some chocolate to try. I’m guessing they sent it to me after reading a post where I mentioned them giving someone else a free sample of organic chocolate, although that post was quite some time ago. They sent the sample to my office in Perth. I don’t really work there anymore so they usually just forward my mail to me. Usually. Today I received an email from the office and I quote:

Someone sent you some organic chocolate to review.

It was yummy.

We need more.

It seems strange to me that they forward all kinds of junk mail to me but a couple of blocks of chocolate is too much trouble for them. Hmm…

So technically I didn’t break my review rule, seeing I didn’t touch the stuff, didn’t even get to smell the chocolate which I already know to be delicious. Apparently the chocolate was shared around the office and they discussed it so they could do a review for me - you know, to help me out.

Here’s what they had to say, again quoting them:

The brand is Cocolo.

The outer package stated 100% recycled paper.  On the wrapper it has lots of information including GMO free - what’s that?

The protective packaging  inside was sealed so ensured the product was fresh when opened.

Milk Hazelnut

had a nice chocolatey smell.

Smooth texture and the nuts were evenly distributed.

Not too sweet, the ratio of choc to sweetener must be high. On the packet said 41.8g of sugar, dont know what Cadbury’s have.

Had on packet fairtrade 59% as some products came from Europe but that’s okay as they have stated all the countries that they got the products from.

Dark Choc

70% cocoa 

nice smell

99% fairtrade.

Smooth texture

Not a fan of dark choc, but it was nice. 

I then got another email saying they needed more, so it looks like not only did I not get any chocolate but I’m going to have to buy them a few blocks to keep them happy!

For those who don’t know, GMO stands for genetically modified organisms and Cocolo chocolate is GMO free.

The only reason I am posting this review is that I’ve tried Cocolo chocolates before and I know they’re great. I think they’re available from most organic supermarkets but you can always have them ordered in if your local supermarket doesn’t stock Cocolo.

Update: I received the letter from Cocolo and they did send me the chocolate in response to my November blog post. It was a nice gesture and a nice bit of PR but I really can’t accept gifts like this in the future.

The demand for organic food has been increasing rapidly over the last couple of years and that trend is expected to continue over the next few years too. A recent article in The Australian on the state of organics in Australia discusses the ever increasing demand for organic produce:

Neil Druce says demand for organic products is outstripping supply. He is backed up by statistics from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corp. It estimates consumption is growing at 25-40 per cent a year, but Australian production ranges at only 6-15 per cent. That lag is occurring despite premiums for organic produce that can be as high as 100 per cent.

Sales of organic food in Australia are estimated at about $500 million a year and are growing at 25-50 per cent a year, according to the Organic Federation of Australia

Suppliers are having difficulties meeting this demand which has resulted in a significant portion of organic foods being imported:

"If you go into shops like Macro, Coles, Woolworths and have a look at the (organic) processed products, the majority now are imported," Leu says.

This hasn’t helped reduce the prices of organic food which is often ridiculously expensive:

At Coles, organic broccoli was last week selling for $11.96 a kilo - more than three times the price of "ordinary" broccoli, priced at $3.48 a kilo.

A 500g jar of organic honey was $6.79, compared to $4.79 for the same amount of conventionally produced Capilano-brand honey, while organic raw sugar was $2.26 kilo, 26 per cent more than regular raw sugar.

Part of the added expense can be explained by the higher costs of organic farming - without chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified crops, yields per hectare are generally lower, resulting in a higher production cost per unit.

It seems Australian farmers need a helping hand to switch to organic growing methods and to get certified, which is a time consuming and, no doubt, expensive process. More Australian organic producers will benefit local consumers as well as the farmers themselves who may find new and lucrative overseas markets. Hopefully we’ll see more certified organic producers in the future to meet the increasing local demand.

Via Organic Food Blog

Organic fruit and vegetable home deliveries are becoming a popular way for people to get their organic groceries. I’ve tried it a few times and, while I’m yet to find a supplier I’m completely happy with, I think it’s a great idea. You place your order online and it gets delivered to your door once a week or so. I can’t think of a more convenient way to get your groceries.

There are a growing number of companies around Australia who deliver organic produce. If you are looking for this kind of service in New South Wales you could try CentWest Organics who have been getting recent media attention:

CentWest Organics offers customers throughout Wagga and the Riverina a long list of certified organic products, including fruit, vegetables, breads, cereals, milk, yoghurt and eggs, which can be delivered right to their front door.

Organic foods and healthy eating trends are making headlines everywhere, from supermarkets and retailers, to a rise in farmers’ markets and emerging boutique brands.

The ordering process is very straightforward, allowing customers to search through the extensive range of products from organic cheese, pasta, oils and salad dressings to confectionary, health bars, chips and biscuits and have them delivered with just the click of a mouse.

“We had the vision to bring the best, the freshest and the highest quality certified produce to as many households in the Riverina, the Central West and beyond as we possibly can."

CentWest Organics specialise in organic box home delivery that are certified organic. Boxes filled with seasonal produce are available from $35 to $70 plus delivery. However, if you prefer to choose your own, you can browse the range of products which includes:

• organic fruit and vegetables
• organic bread
• organic cereal
• organic dairy products
• organic beverages
• organic confectionary
• organic oil
• organic pet care

They currently service:

• Blackheath
• Mount Victoria
• Lithgow
• Bathurst
• Orange
• Oberon
• Cowra
• Dubbo
• Mudgee
• Young
• Wagga Wagga
• Blayney

Check with CentWest Organics for more information.

Thanks to Dave from Wagga Wagga for letting me know about this company.

When buying organic produce it’s important to buy what is in season. Firstly, if it’s in season, it is more likely that it has been grown locally and buying locally reduces carbon dioxide emissions from transporting products. Secondly, if it has been grown locally then you are supporting your local community by buying from them. Thirdly, buying produce which is in season and grown locally means it will be fresher and tastier.

So what is in season in February? Kathryn from Limes and Lycopene has just posted on this topic.

Fruit:

• Avocado
• Bananas
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Figs
• Grapes
• Kiwifruit
• Limes
• Lychees
• Mangosteens
• Melons
• Nashi pears (the first of the new season nashis will become available this month)
• Nectarines
• Oranges (valencias)
• Passionfruit
• Peaches
• Pears (Howell & Williams)
• Persimmon
• Pineapples
• Plums
• Rambutans
• Raspberries
• Strawberries

Vegetables:

• Beans (butter, flat, green, snake)
• Bok choy
• Capsicums
• Celery
• Chillies
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Lettuce
• Okra
• Onions
• Peas
• Radishes
• Silverbeet
• Spinach
• Sweetcorn
• Sweet potato
• Tomatoes
• Watercress
• Zucchini

For the freshest fruit and vegetables I always suggest growing your own. Most of those mentioned above can easily be grown in most areas of Australia. Using organic gardening principles such as companion planting you can easily grow:

• figs
• grapes
• oranges
• strawberries
• capsicums
• chillies
• eggplant
• onions
• peas
• tomatoes
• zucchini