Eating Organic - switching to organic vegetables

When we first started making the switch over to organic foods I found that the book "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organic Living" by Eliza Sarasohn with Sonia Weiss had a lot of useful resources in it. I recommend picking up this book, it was a handy, easy to understand reference for getting started and I still find myself referring to it and the lists provided on a somewhat regular basis.

One of those resources is a list of 'pretty clean' vegetables through to 'dirty' vegetables.

The fruits and vegetables listed here are from the most current list (at the time of the publication of the book) provided by the Environmental Working Group. The EWG is an organization that focuses on a number of public health issues including food safety and they publish the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce listing vegetables with a number assigned for scoring level of pesticide residue found in the produce.

The "Dirty Dozen"
'Dirty' vegetables are difficult to grow and require a good deal of intervention to protect them from pests and disease such as fungus' making them subject to repeated application of chemicals during their growing season. Obviously the 'Dirty' vegetables would be the important ones to switch over to Organic or 'naturally grown without chemicals' first.The fruits and vegetables listed here are ranked from Most to Least contaminated, the numbers following each is their score.

1. Peaches. (100)
2. Apples. (96)
3. Sweet Bell Peppers. (86)
4. Celery. (85)
5. Nectarines. (84)
6. Strawberries. (83)
7. Cherries (75)
8. Lettuce (69)
9. Grapes -imported (68)
10. Pears (65)
11. Spinach (60)
12. Potatoes(58)

The "Pretty Clean" Thirteen
The fruits and vegetables listed below are on the EWG's least contaminated list. This means they constantly test low to negative for pesticide residue. There are a number of reasons for this; some simply don't need chemicals to grow well due to natural resistance, some have natural predators that protect them from pests and in some case they are grown in parts of the world where pesticides are too expensive to use so very little is applied. Listed from lowest to highest EWG rankings, the number following each is their score.

1. Onions (1)
2. Avocados (1)
3. Sweet Corn (2) (test corn was frozen)
4. Pineapples (7)
5. Mangoes (9)
6. Asparagus (11)
7. Sweet Peas (11) (test peas were frozen)
8. Kiwi Fruit (14)
9. Banana (16)
10.Cabbage (17)
11. Broccoli (18)
12. Eggplant (19)
13. Papayas (21)

Don't Forget: A low pesticide level doesn't mean the produce is 100 percent clean, pesticides and their residues are all around us, and therefore some of it will get into our food.

We buy nearly all our fruit and vegetables at our local farmer's market, we are fortunate that it is host to a great group of organic greenhouse growers, so many vegetables are available all year round. It really doesn't cost that much more and there is a certain satisfaction to knowing you are supporting your local producer's when out shopping for your weekly vegetables and fruits. It has also turned into a fun family outing each Saturday and is something our 3 year old looks forward to with excitement each week. (she gets her face painted every week and has become a favorite regular customer with the 'face painting lady')

This year, I am hoping to have enough of a harvest from our newly establish garden space (we put in the garden beds last spring) to have more that a couple weeks worth of things to put up for the winter. It was great last year to eat things grown by us even if it was only enough for a few meals!