PS – Whole Foods is a rip off! You can find much better, I promise!

@ Ginger Baker – CSA’s are awesome! If I were in a different situation, that’s definitely what I’d do. Little steps!

@ Homegrown Texan – Yes yes yes, all great suggestions about the farmers market. I hope other people read comments! Also, if you hit the farmers market at the very end when they’re packing up, you can usually get GREAT deals – if not totally free stuff.

Also, the farmer’s market is a good place to get good, cage-free, locally grown eggs…Sayward, I know you’re vegan, but I’m guessing I’m not the only reader who’s not. Local eggs are far superior in color and flavor, and I love knowing that they come from chickens who are treated humanely and are being fed appropriate diets (although all farmer’s market eggs don’t fall into this category: *ask*!)

What I *do* do is go to my farmer’s market weekly. The closest one to me is open Sunday mornings. I go there and buy stuff that is a good price (some is, some isn’t). A couple of vendors sometimes offer “imperfect” produce for cheap or even free. Also, most of them tend to give you deals here and there once they get to know you. One lady in particular (who already has phenomenal prices) will often throw in something for free. Or once she overheard the kids begging me to buy lemons for lemonade, so she gave me a deal so I could buy enough to make lemonade. :)

Bottom line is, when you go to the farmer’s market, you’re generally dealing with the actual people who are growing and selling the produce. They get to know you and appreciate the repeat business, and do things to keep you coming back. Which helps me save money, *and* supports local farmers. Win-win!

However, in my local neighborhood, and living without a car, I usually shop at the supermarket near to me, a place where my fruits and vegetables are not that expensive but are also never organic. Most times, convenience wins out.

We do however participate in a CSA from which I pick up bags of food once a week throughout the summer at a pickup in Manhattan – I swing by on my way home from work. Lugging heavy loads of veggies is not always fun but c’est la vie! There is rumored to be a CSA that delivers to Staten Island, which I hope to find out about this summer so we can sign up for next year.

Local stores that are NOT supermarkets near me, have little to no fresh produce. I get jealous every time I visit my boyfriend in the Bronx, where he has around the corner TWO stores that have huge selections of produce, and several others with 10 minutes walk. He always sends me home with two huge bags of say pineapples and avocados LOL. But again, these are not organic.