Photo by Brian Goddard

Many people want to go organic but are concerned with the price. Even though organic food costs on average 10 to 40 percent more than conventionally grown products, the long-term health benefits are priceless. Besides, buying organic doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. There are three great ways to get organic fruits and vegetables without breaking the bank.

One of my favorite outlets for organic deals is the local farmers’ market. From roughly late October through early May, you can find a farmers’ market nearly every day of the week in the Valley, and some, like the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, operate year round. Here, local farmers offer in-season produce like herbs, vegetables, fruits, plants and flowers. In addition, food artisans turn out wonderful, homemade products using their produce, such as olive oil, jam, bread and pasta. (For a full list of Arizona farmers’ markets, visit urbanfarm.org.)

Another great way to get a plethora of produce each week is to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group. Not only do you receive a nice bag of organic groceries every week, but this is a great way to support local farmers.

Here’s how a CSA works: You pay in advance to receive a weekly share of produce for a set number of weeks – say, 10 weeks for $200 ($20 per week). Each week, you pick up a bag or box of whatever the farmer has in season. A typical winter season share could include a one-pound bag of gourmet lettuce mix, one bunch each of carrots, beets and radishes, three-fourths-pound of broccoli, and a bunch of kale and cilantro.

One of the more exciting aspects of belonging to a CSA is the randomness of what you get each week, which gives you the motivation to experiment with new tastes and recipes. Although there is some consistency through each season, farmers tend to throw in a surprise or two each week. Also, remember that the summer season will offer different bounty than the winter season.

We have two excellent CSAs in the Phoenix-metro area: Desert Roots Farm, run by Kelly Saxer (desertrootsfarm.com), and Crooked Sky Farms, run by Frank Martin (crookedskyfarms.com). Both farmers have been doing this for quite a while and have pick-up locations throughout the Valley.

Yet another way to get your weekly installment of garden goodies is to subscribe to a local buying club. The club usually is run by someone in the community who collects money in advance – from $25 to $50 – and places an order for a bulk amount of produce to be delivered each week. When the delivery arrives, a group of volunteers gets together to separate the fruits and vegetables into individual portions. The downside of a buying club is that, typically, the produce is brought in from California, so it’s not local.

And, of course, the cheapest way to get organic produce is to grow your own, which happens to be my favorite way. This method may require a little bit of sweat equity, but growing even a few tomatoes or peppers offers ample rewards and can help trim your family budget. Large tomatoes didn’t earn the nickname “mortgage lifters” for nothing.
 
See you at the farmers’ market!
 

Photos by Greg Peterson