What an important question!

A simplified answer is that organic food contains everything essential for life in abundance. Animals and insects know this instinctively.

The only living creatures that don't know this are humans that have become so accustomed to processed foods, they prefer chemically altered, "dead" foods to "living" foods.

Even vegetarians have become accustomed to tasteless, odorless (maybe genetically modified) produce that has been sprayed with insecticides, has absorbed herbicides, has been transported an average of 1,500 miles, soaked in a chemical bath to refresh it after the journey, and possibly sprayed with waxes to make it look shiny, beautiful and palatable.

We challenge every vegetarian to do themselves a flavor (favor) and buy a conventionally grown watermelon, and one of our organic "Crimson Reds" and compare the taste. You will be blown away (just as the bees and coyotes are).

Organic foods have higher vitamin and mineral contents because they have absorbed these from soils that have been sustainably maintained. They also contain living enzymes, energy and all of the building blocks for life.

Being at the bottom of the food chain, they contain energy (in the form of carbohydrates) that can't be beat. They also contain chlorophyll (which is chemically similar to red blood cells). Plant proteins are the best for building muscles (ask any body builder . . . or cow). They also contain the finest essential fatty acids on the planet (flax oil has the perfect balance of both Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids).

Organic farmers start with the best foods on the planet, nurture and grow them under the very best conditions possible, and most importantly: They don't mess with them. No pesticides, no herbicides, no genetic modifications, and no chemical alterations.

This is why organic plants are consistently the preferred choice of pests, and why controlling pests is such a challenge for organic farmers.

This is also why, even though organic food is a "perfect" food, it may not look "perfect".

As an example of this, we offer the following comment from one of our CSA members:

"We are new since May 1 - but so far we are happy.

Everything is fresh and tasty. We have seen some discoloration and bug holes, but not unexpected with organic foods. We were remarkably surprised however at the lack of actual bugs - apparently they do a very thorough job of washing.

My biggest 'complaint' is I don't know what some of this stuff is. I am a lifelong vegetarian and vegetable lover, but I still am baffled. Ours is picked up on Tuesday afternoon in Palm Springs. The weekly list of what is in the boxes has been only partially helpful or correct. Perhaps with two separate farms involved, different things go to different pick up points?

It is fun getting 'exotic' greenery, but I wonder if I can stand a steady diet of it? Growing more traditional foods would help. On the other hand, we have seen only a limited timeframe. We want to see how it plays out over the seasons.

So at this point, we are maybe B+ happy, with cautious optimism for the future."

This comment only proves that "beauty" can indeed be only skin deep.

Eventually, we will have a whole section dedicated to identifying, storing and preparing the items contained in our CSA boxes. Until then, you can use The Cook's Thesaurus.

Last updated on June 6, 2010 by Adminstrator