Buying organic food

One of the things I would like to do is eat more organic foods, especially produce. Unfortunately, the high cost keeps me from buying as much as I would like. It can be hard to choose organic grapes at $4.99 a pound, when those juicy red conventional ones are sitting there at 99 cents a pound.

One way to cut costs is to concentrate your organic buying on those fruits and vegetables that tend to have more pesticides. You can download a wallet guide at http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php that tells you the 12 fruits and vegetables that consistently have the highest and lowest levels of pesticides. So if your budget forces you to choose, spend your money on organic apples instead of organic bananas.

The difference in price between conventional and organic items can vary greatly. On a recent shopping trip, I compared prices of a few items at random. There wasn't much difference in the cost of leaf lettuce (conventional was $2.29; organic was $2.49) or green onions (conventional, $0.69; organic, $0.99). And the price of an organic avocado was actually the same as a conventional one -- $1.99.

But there was a huge difference in other items, such as red peppers -- $2.99 each conventional vs. $4.99 each organic -- and the previously mentioned grapes.

Some organic products are easier to save a bit of money on. When organic rice milk is on sale, I can stock up, because it won't expire until next April. So when you find a good price on something that will keep for awhile, it pays to buy a lot of it.

Speaking of organic food, there's an Organicfest in downtown Asheville on Saturday the 9th (that's tomorrow!) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Its purpose is to celebrate "everything organic," and there will be giveaways, free samples, music, food, crafts and more. I haven't been to this before, but it sounds intriguing. You can find out more information here: http://www.organicfest.org

What are some of your tips for buying organic foods without breaking the bank?