Eating Organic on the road

[OGMer]

We eat totally organic food and have put off traveling for long distances for fear of not finding fresh organic foods such as dairy, fruits and vegetables. I’m wondering if there are others in our boat or if anyone has been able to solve this problem. 

[mptjelgin]

Depending on where you choose to travel, you might find this challenging.  Many less populated areas have only one or perhaps two grocery stores, and they simply may not carry much organic food based on low demand. Farmers markets may be able to fill that niche but are often unreliable or simply out-of-season. 

If this is a priority you'll likely need to spend time "looking ahead" and pre-determining the location of organic providers. And recognize that there will be areas that you'll have to skip. 

[NDBirdman]

They put in a big organic grocery store here in Grand Forks, ND about 3 years back.  I've been seeing them more and more in the mid sized towns/cities in our state.  I know in Seattle, WA there are quite a few around my dau's place.  Oh, the stand alone store they built here, you could easily park a truck/camper.

[NDBirdman]

I just googled it, it's called Natural Grocers, seems to be quite a few of them.  They have a facebook site, click on location on the left side and it pops up a map of locations.  Hope this helps you.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/NaturalGrocersGrandForks/locations/?ref=page_internal

Looks to be west of Illinois to the pacific.  I don't know much about facebook links, hope this does not bring up my account to show this.  Someone please check and let me know, don't want my dirty secrets to get aired out.... LOL

Edited January 27, 2020 by NDBirdman

[sandsys]

2 hours ago, NDBirdman said:

I don't know much about facebook links, hope this does not bring up my account to show this.  Someone please check and let me know, don't want my dirty secrets to get aired out.... LOL

I didn't see anything about you. I did decide this chain probably started in Denver based on the number of stores there.

Linda

[OGMer]

Thanks for good advice, mptjelgin. Will do some heavy-duty planning, for sure!  As for Farmers Markets, even the ones we frequent every week are shy of organic vendors!

Thank you NDBirdman for the info and site about Natural Grocers. They sound like a pretty good option. They say they have all organic produce at least. 

[Bill Joyce]

If the only grocery in town is a Dollar General, don't bother.  <grin>

Organic is out there, in food co-ops, in specialty grocers like Natural Grocers, Sproats, Trader Joe's  and Whole Foods (also called "Whole Paycheck"), all of which are here in the Phoenix metro.  Many supermarkets, including Wal-Mart, have organic sections.  But not everywhere.

If it is important to you, I would advise maximizing your food storage so you can carry a couple weeks of supplies.  You might run out of fresh perishables, but have frozen or canned ready when in those areas you can't get resupplied.  

[LindaH]

We see organic selections in all the major grocery stores we go to.  Now, if you're in a small town with a mom-and-pop store, maybe not, but chains like Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer (or any of the Kroger-owned stores), WalMart, etc. all have organic foods.

[OGMer]

Thanks to both Bill Joyce and LindaH for your input. We have put an extra freezer in our rig’s basement, mainly for meat and frozen veggies and fruit, and I have my own home-canned and frozen ingredients, but it is the milk, eggs, greens, etc. which have us stymied. We have to be very strict about our organic diet. Even one questionable ingredient will cause us immediate health problems. We obviously never eat out. We are very picky about where things are sourced from. (Not much point in eating organic foods that are watered with fracking waste water!). We generally buy our milk raw right from the farmer, but do trust one kind of Organic Valley milk, for instance. I’ve dehydrated some, but it would be a long, and possibly dangerous, process do make enough to last us several months. We do regularly shop Whole Foods for a few things, but have never found any good organics at Trader Joe or WalMart. We have occasionally found things at health food stores, but mainly non-perishables.  Just  trying to get ideas that I might not have known about. I have seen freeze-drying equipment that interested me, but the price is exorbitant!

[OGMer]

Has anyone seen any Aldi stores west of the Mississippi?  

[Second Chance]

15 minutes ago, OGMer said:

Has anyone seen any Aldi stores west of the Mississippi?  

There are 74 in California, now, and a bunch in Texas. You can use the Aldi store locator on-line to check anywhere in the US.

Rob

[sandsys]

Do you follow the clean fifteen and the dirty dozen? Obviously, you want to avoid the dirty dozen but can you eat the clean fifteen?

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, OGMer said:

Has anyone seen any Aldi stores west of the Mississippi?  

Aldi stores are in 35 states including most of the states west of the Mississippi.(I last shopped in one in TX yesterday). I suggest that you visit the Aldi Store Locator.

[WendyW]

Hi, here’s a link to all the members of the Organic Trade Association:

https://ota.com/membership/ota-members
 

Also, Amazon delivers products from Whole Foods presumably wherever you are. Good luck!

WendyW

[OGMer]

Thanks, everyone. Useful info. 

[packnrat]

you do understand all fruits and vegetables are organic?

only thing is a “special”  style, just co$t more.

in the areas i have driven through, only thing between a sprayed field and a unsprayed field is a 12 foot wide dirt rd. sure the stuff sprayed onto one field knows to not drift to the other field. got to not feed the plants, or kill off the worms right.

turn off your flame torches.  i do agree we need to use less chems on our food chain.

[DJohns]

I live in central Nebraska. Spray planes go long days certain times of the year. It is like being in a war. These planes kill the bugs but also the birds. There are several large farmers growing ORGANIC corn etc right in the middle of other non organic farmers using spray planes.

Like packnat said there is drift. If you have any allergies they will be more apparent when it is spray plane season. I won't go into what has happened to our water supply.  Hint:  our city spend 40 million to clean the nitrates out!!!!!