Local organic eggs laid by chickens that walk around (Gary or Mary’s) garden taste better. They just do. Making “Perfect Scrambled Eggs”? First step: get the best, freshest eggs possible. Same with butter. Butter made locally from organic cream is worth the calories on toast, scones, muffins…. (It’ll be so expensive you’ll savor small amounts of it!)
Fruits and vegetables? Super-sized seed producers and farmers have gotten good at designing and growing produce that is large, pretty, ships well, and now, remarkably tasty too! Seen the beautiful shiny “conventional” strawberries from California, Mexico, and Florida?
The Environmental Working Group prepared a 2012 list of their “Dirty Dozen”, conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that receive or retain the highest levels of pesticide. Whenever possible purchase organically grown:
Dirty Dozen: Apples, Celery, Sweet Bell Peppers, Peaches, Strawberries, Imported Nectarines, Grapes, Spinach, Lettuce, Cucumbers, Domestic and Imported Blueberries, Potatoes.
The conventionally grown produce containing the least amounts of pesticide are:
Clean Fifteen: Avocado, Asparagus, Cabbage, Domestic Cantaloupe, Sweet Corn, Eggplant, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Mangoes, Mushrooms, Onions, Sweet Peas, Sweet Potatoes, Pineapples, Watermelon
The strawberries in our Maine garden won’t be ready to pick until mid, possibly late, June (providing the woodchuck doesn’t get them first.) Local farms will open for “Pick Your Own” at about the same time. They’ll be fragrant, fragile, tender, and full of authentic summer strawberry flavor. But it’s hard to wait when they’re ripe in California; just buy Organic!
Gluten Free Gus 
the dirty dozen is such a scary list! Finding organic options near where I live is very hard. Good to be aware though.
Good post! 🙂
I’m surprised Tomatoes aren’t in the dirty dozen….
I need to commit the dirty dozen and clean fifteen to memory. It would be nice to know that I could always find organic produce when I need it, but it’s good to know which items are especially important not to make exceptions on. Thanks so much for the info!
Thank you for posting this! What to buy organic is a hot topic that so many people are curious about. I did a whole post at The Nourished Soul (nourishedblog.wordpress.com) just about which eggs to purchase! Please feel free to check it out and share.
Very informative. Thank you! Seriously though the Safeway conventionally grown strawberries look so good (almost too good)
I too have been seduced by good looking, and now usually good tasting, “conventional” strawberries from (California), but as Shepard Fairey wrote about the themes of currency in his work: ” it construes the artist’s belief that the way in which one spends money reflects the exchange of power.” Be the change you want to see in the world.
It’s hard not to be tempted by the looks and price though hehe.
Thanks for the reminder and the list. When I go to buy berries, I cringe at the conventionally grown. I am just starting to look into gluten free baking and buy organic and local as much as I can.
Fresh eggs clearly make the difference!I used to have chickens in my garden and their eggs were the only ones with which I managed to make poached eggs with simply cracking them in boiling water.Thanks for reviving the good memories!
Fortunately I’m surrounded by farmer’s markets and stores such as Trader Joe’s and Sprouts (my personal favorite) to be able to buy organic fruits & veggies amongst other things like gluten free. Amazingly our local 99 Cent Only store carries a wide variety of organic produce as well. I have bought organic produce there keeping my grocery bill manageable. Only yesterday I discovered that Big Lots carries all of Bob’s Red Hill products at a much more reduced price than the whole foods places so I purchased a huge bag of Flaxseed Meal for only $8! Thank you for sharing this information about the clean & the dirty of buying and for following my blog!