A Thread for Organic/Whole Foods Approach to Cooking

[Jeni78]

I am more often a lurker than poster here but I do enjoy what I find and learn.

I have recently decided to make a better committment to eating "organic" and more importantly a committment to the "whole foods" approach to cooking.

Whole Foods (not the grocery store) meaning that all ingredients into a dish are whole. Not processed. My job as a cook is to "process" them.

For herbs, I buy as fresh as possible. I do use spices. I stay away from "cream of chicken soup" and make my own. I make my own mayonaise, etc.

I know it's somewhat difficult to define this process, but I was wondering if a "whole foods/organic" forum would be beneficial. Not just a "health" foods forum - that typically goes towards special dietary needs. But an area for the discussion of where our ingredients come from, how we acquire it and the differences we find.

People could share findings when they shop organic, share recipes for kitchen staples that are typically purchased (such as cream of chicken soup) and in general talk about what they are finding for "organic" in their area and how it affects the way we make food and the finished dish. There is also the topic of price and how we make such cooking/eating affordable.

Anyway, just an idea.

[Alix]

Hi Jeni, I'll bring this up. I think though that this might be a touch too specific. We already have quite a few areas that don't get much traffic and we are trying not to fracture the site too much. What might be very helpful is for you to begin some of those thread in the Health and Nutrition section and we can see how much play and traffic they get. That would help the decision making process quite a bit.

And I am a bit like you. Not so much with organic food but rather with doing most of it from scratch. I tend to believe the closer we are to a foods origins the better it is for us.

My issue with organic food is that I don't trust the grocers. The only food I know that is truly organic is the stuff I grow myself. I think that if they run low on "organic" products they will sometimes just tag the regular stuff and sell it at the higher price!