FLASH

My project starts playing once i open my blog, it flashes a slideshow of picutes highlighting wheatsville and then has text "that says one stop shop" with natural sound in the background during the slidshow. Once that ends we see a photo of recycling bins and if you scroll over it you can click on the wheatsville button that pops up at the bottom. This promps for another window to appear that tells more information about Wheatsville. You can then click on the wheatsville button on the top left hand corner to go back to the main screen.

ORGANIC MAP MASHUP

View Organic Shopping, Dining, and Eating in Austin, TX in a larger map

Austin Texas is known for being extremely health conscious. With that, there a lot of different places that can provide and cater to a organic diet. Highlighting Austin is the organic chain grocery store Whole Foods Market. This organic chain grew from small beginnings back in the early 1980s right here in Austin and now has over 300 stores nationwide. This place has all of your organic needs and also features a very nice food court that includes a salad bar, deli, breakfast tacos, coffee and pizza. The next place you can shop for your organic products is the Wheatvale Co-op, it is your more convenient, smaller grocer compared to WholeFoods. This place carries exclusive organic products and will order anything for you upon request if they don’t have it in store already. Going out to eat can be pricy, but one of the few places in Austin that provide all natural produced food is P. Terry’s. All of their products are made in house right when you order it! They serve fresh hand cut fries from real potatoes that are never frozen or chemically preserved. Another place in Austin that serves up organic food is Mothers Café and Garden; they specialize in all natural vegan and vegetarian dishes. It is easily one of the best places to go in especially if you don’t consume meat or dairy products. One of the most common things you see in Austin are the abundance of self serve yogurt shops, but most of them are franchised that buy there yogurts from a distributor in packages which means they are artificial or made with chemicals. Luckily, one place that keeps things organic and fresh is “Tart yogurt” They serve the only organic yogurt in Austin that is non fat and a better alternative to ice cream. Whether it’s shopping at the store for a nice home cooked meal or during the middle of the week when you want to just to a nice dinner out on the town; Austin seems to have a nice mixture of organic shopping and eateries to satisfy anyone’s appetite!

Zucchini Boats

Matts Organics

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Shopping For Organics

Organic food is, virtually more expensive than nonorganic food, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be, especially if you’re on a budget and in college like myself. Knowing where to shop is one of the first obstacles to shopping for organics and most college students can’t afford farmers markets or Whole Foods every other week.  Instead, your likely to find them shopping at HEB or another conventional chain grocery such as Wal- Mart because of the cheaper prices. Well the good news is that you can still shop healthy and organic at a chain store, you just need to know where to look.
The first thing you need to be aware of is the different organic labels that appear on different products in the store. There are three different labels for organic products. The first and most common form of organic label is the USDA certified organic seal, which means that it is made of 95-100% organic materials, such as Horizon milk. The second sign you need to be aware of is the “made with organic” label on the front, this means the product contains between “70% and 95% organic ingredients, a Luna bar is a good example of this. Then there are the products that are “less than 70% organic” which sometimes is only cited on the back of the label so you need to be a bit more wary when buying these products since their tends to be a small percentage of organic ingredients in the product. Cliff Bars are a good example of this since the label indicates that they are made with less than 70% organic materials.  Another way of finding organic products is to look for green tags where the prices are shown on each shelve, the organic products are usually marked with green prices tags, but this is not the same in every grocery store.
When shopping for organic products you should be on the look out for sections or isles that are strictly designated for organic products. This is where you need to be careful, because these are the items that can put a dent in your wallet.  The most important rule when shopping for organic materials is to make a list of the things you would strictly eat organic and buy those designated products and then the rest of your grocery list can be used to spend on non-organic products.   A quick tip for anyone that is just starting to shop for organic products would be to start buying organics in sections. One of the best items to buy organic would be a dairy product such as milk or eggs.  Another reason I tell people to start with dairy is because these products are relatively cheap in comparison to other organic products and now that more and more conventional supermarkets are starting to carry organic products, the prices are starting to go down across the board.
I hope some of these tips can be helpful in someway the next time your at the grocery store. Happy shopping.

Organic Time

Greetings!

My name is Matthew Kerwin and I’m a student at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.  Over the years I have been exposed to many different foods from many different cultures.  You could say I’m well traveled since I have lived and visited countries including Scotland, Singapore, Indonesia, and Canada, as well as a plethora of cities and states across the US.  Each of these places has a slice of individuality, history, and love to offer your palate.  As a result of my travels, I started to discover and try new foods and in turn I became more aware of what is really good for your body and what isn’t.  I have found that though the greater the industrialization of the city/town/country brings tourism and wealth, it is not necessarily indicative of the quality of the food one experiences.  Most mass produced foods are of poor quality not just in taste, but nutrition as well, meaning the countries struggling with obesity epidemics are simultaneously struggling with malnutrition. Seriously.  One of the best ways for the body to absorb nutrients is for it to be consumed in its most natural state.  Unprocessed, unrefined, and unpasteurized—organics.  Though current “trends” are making this way of life/cooking more accessible, there are still obstacles in the way of making it as mainstream and accessible as it should be—deciphering “certification” levels, pricing differences, and where to buy organics. 

The purpose of this blog is to inform and help people, especially college students learn how to buy and cook with organic foods. The problem is most people don’t read the ingredients on the back of food labels. As a result, they don’t know what they're digesting or trying to digest for that matter. In reality, depending on what kinds of food you eat it can be more detrimental than beneficial for you. Even if you are one of those compulsive people that read labels you probably can’t pronounce or recognize the majority of the ingredients listed. For those of you that do try and eat relatively healthy you might want to double check what you’re eating. Even if something looks healthy it doesn’t mean that it really is. In fact, the foods that look almost “too fresh and symmetrically perfect” like vegetables or fruits, chances are they are dyed with some type of chemical that make them look that way.  In actuality you’re better off buying organic produce that tends to be a little uglier and deformed, but don’t let this discourage you because more often than not, the food that looks a little rough around the edges could end up having more natural vitamins, nutrients and a better taste.

Now you may be thinking to yourself “so what…” “What are the benefits of eating organic food over conventional food anyway?” Well, organic food differs from conventional food in the way it’s grown, handled and produced. For instance, organic food is produced without synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics, hormones, and most conventional pesticides. What constitutes as organic? Things that are single ingredient foods like fruit, vegetables, milk, meat, cheese and eggs and multi ingredient foods that contain between 95% and 100% organic ingredients may be certified organic. Where can you get organic food, you ask? Most supermarkets have a wide variety of organic foods, but the downside of buying from the supermarket is that it’s hard to trace it back to the original source. This is why you should buy from a local farmers market or for you Austinites, check out Whole Foods Market, Wheatsville Co-op, or Central Market places like these have a wide variety of organic products for you to enjoy.  

 Every week I will spotlight an organic dish that is cheap on the wallet, easy to make and most of all really healthy for you! I will even offer recipes for the college student on the go! Come by every week to get access to new recipes, discussions, and interactive cooking videos.

Thanks for stopping by :)