Back to Nature: Eat Organic Produce For Free

Eat Organic Produce for Free by Dan “the Glassman” Garduno

I hear a lot of people say it’s too expensive to eat organic foods these days. So they end up eating swag foods instead and just settle for what’s on sale at the store most of the time. Bargain shoppers who aren’t eating as best as they could and don’t understand that everyone can eat most organic produce for free or even make a profit off of it.

As a person involved in the movement for non GMOs and an advocate for teaching everyone how to grow personal gardens to help become more self sustainable, I’ve also learned a few tips and tricks along the way. One trick I’ve discovered is that most organic produce contain seeds. These are seeds that can be grown, unlike the GMO produce seeds which were manufactured to not grow seeds that can reproduce naturally and sometimes produce no seeds at all.

Organic produce will reproduce dozens, if not hundreds of seeds naturally. In a natural cycle, seeds would drop to the earth when the fruit ripens enough to fall off on it’s own allowing for new plants and new fruits with more seeds to grow season after season. This is the natural way. This is getting back to nature!

But in modern times, we’ve cleared the food bearing plants and growth to allow for more construction of buildings and homes. Forcing us to rely on our foods to be shipped in from all over the world instead of relying on the natural ecosystem of the surrounding region we all live in. And even with all this construction all around, not much of it is being turned into greenhouses or modern vertical grow operations to replenish what used to grow here naturally. And building rooftops can easily be utilized to grow gardens on top of, which not only generates an abundance of food, but will also help keep concrete jungles much cooler and lowers co2 emissions.

So I’ve discovered a solution while experimenting with composting. Early on I realized that seeds from food scraps would end up growing naturally in the compost pile and I would end up saving many of them by re-potting them or planting them right away, instead of turning them back into the compost pile which would kill them. It dawned on me that I could remove the seeds from the produce after preparing a meal, and set them aside to grow them more managed instead of just throwing them into the compost pile and having to save them in the end anyways.

When I started hearing people say it’s too expensive to eat organically, I had to stop and think of all the seeds I’ve saved by saving them from my compost. And in turn all the money I have also saved by not having to buy seeds for my own garden. So i started thinking about a bell pepper and using it as an example. Most organic bell peppers cost around .88 cents to about $2 each. For 1 bell pepper, that could become quite pricey and would discourage some consumers from purchasing it. But when you start to equate the value of the seeds into the price of the entire bell pepper and if you understand that organic seeds cost an average of $2-$5 per package, then you can realize by saving the seeds and selling them to a grower who needs them, or growing them yourself, the bell pepper essentially pays for itself.

A package of seeds usually cost around $2 for a couple dozen and $5 for 100 or so. Each bell pepper contains 300 or more seeds worth $10-$20, so you can then realize you will actually stand to make a profit by collecting and selling organic seeds! It’s really easy to start saving organic seeds, start saving money, and start saving our ecosystem all at the same time by eating organic today!

Together, we can all make a difference and teach each other better ways!
Find more of my Back to Nature articles here.

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“The Glassman” will be posting more blogs and ideas as well as hosting many workshops on Self-sustainability, urban farming/agriculture, windowsill gardening, composting, upcycling, self water planters and grow beds, solar passive heating, collecting and purifying rain water, mass heaters and rocket stoves, papercrete, hemp cement, and so much more on his blog!

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