Organic haven

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I am looking for that place anywhere in the world. Is it easy to get organic or natural produce and meat, eggs where you live or traveled?  Healthy milk in abundance, farmers markets on weekends, healthy air.

Theoretically, I can move to that place. I was looking at Australia, New Zealand with beautiful beaches for a change. Food is one of priorities on my list.

If there were no strings, where would you live?

Thank you.

blondy's picture
blondy

Currently, I have to drive in radius of 60+ miles in different directions to get food from different sources. I order meat online. Sometimes, I feel like a stone age hunter, much effort goes into finding healthy nutrition for my family. 
 
 

Mimij67's picture
Mimij67

Great question!
Call me crazy, but we have it all except the perfect air. Oakland/Piedmont CA, just east of San Fran. We have farmers markets galore and grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, access to raw diary. Access to cultural San Francisco is 20 minutes by Public Transit. Because we live by the Bay, our air is in pretty good shape and we have a spare the air day maybe 5 times per year. We have access to hiking trails 10 minutes from my house, and the scope of this hiking area is the size of Rhode Island. It is a series of hiking, biking, horsebackrideing trails, mixed with a volcanic preserve, botanical preserve, and redwood tree park. Huge area. Between San Francisco and Oakland, we have some of the best restaurants in the world. Probably more urban than you were imagining. But we love it.

If we don't excel at health, the only other option is disease.

blondy's picture
blondy

Mimi, thank you. Do you buy most of your food from WF?

researchnerd's picture
researchnerd

I have great acess in NYC.  I get my food from the farmers market, fresh direct, meat hook, fleischers and my weston a price coop.   If I were in the hinterland would definitely join a weston a price buying club.  Just email the closest chapter leader and they probably have a raw dairy/meat co-op with great price!

Mimij67's picture
Mimij67

No I dont really love WF. I think their produce can be pretty icky, and they are just too big for me, but I recognize it is a godsend for many!! Sometimes I buy my nut butters and a few other things there because the price is a little better. We have 2 HUGE WF here in Oakland/Berkeley. 
We have 2 Berkeley Bowls which are hugely popular, and not nation-wide but carry everything that WF does with better pricing. Still, too big for me usually.
I buy my sprouted flour on line at Shiloh Farms. They have sugar-free fruit spreads there too.
I buy my organic, un-pasturized, but slow-dried/sprouted (and delicious!) almonds from Livingnutz.com. Pricey, but I only eat 10 or 15 almonds a day. They are so delicious.
I buy a few things from Trader Joes, as their Kerrygold butter is cheap, and they carry Alvarado Street Sprouted Wheat tortillas :) I buy sprouted bagels for my kids there, and occasionally bagged, organic veggies. TJs carries a sugar-free fruit spread I get my kids. 
I buy my grass-fed beef from local butcher. They also make sugar-free chicken and beef sausages, some smoked, some not. They are a delicious change from the same old meat preparations. Worth investigating local butchers, as some do not add sugar or alcohol to their sausages!! They also make a grass-fed short-rib burger! Yum! (any butcher could make this for you: Short ribs in a grinder with salt and pepper!)
I buy my produce at a local market that is like a european-style market, with different vendors under one roof: Produce, pasta, coffee roaster, bakery, meat are all seperate. Pricey but they have great produce. My other local market has the staples that are the same price as WF and they will carry anything I ask them to! Still working on the Alvarado Street tortillas, that might get me out of TJs. I am kind of fed up with Trader Joes, too, as all of my friends think they are so great, and every single one of their prepared foods has soybean or sunflower oil. Yuck.
Gee, that was kind of a rant!! Sorry if TMI!! It is very expensive shopping in the Bay Area. Yikes! But worth it for the most part. 

If we don't excel at health, the only other option is disease.

Mimij67's picture
Mimij67

LOL! I know what you mean about hunter analogy! Dr. B has mentioned this to me on a call! She does the same!  I visit 3 shopping locations at least once a week, sometimes I need to do an additional trip. But they are all close by....

If we don't excel at health, the only other option is disease.