buying organic food on the road?

[Rachel]

Hi,

I am a vegan who eats organic food, veggies, fruits etc.
I like to have a big raw salad once a day, one fruit meal and then one meal of steamed veggies with a grain.
My protein are tempeh, tofu, lentils etc. and humus etc.

Does anyone have any info on finding fresh organic produce while on the road?

Just so you know, I was starting to get arthritis and turned it around by eating a high anti-inflammation diet and then tweaked it further buy eating about 9 cups of fruits and veggies a day. I broke my upper right arm at the head of femur, that goes into the shoulder socket in 2 places. I am healing very well but it is a long process. Almost a year now and I learned, when you break a bone, you can get arthritis. I did some research online and saw people in their 20's and 30's getting arthritis and reversed it by eating more raw food etc. so there is some reason to my madness of eating this way.

If you want to watch an amazing story of an MD who reversed her MS. 
Minding your mitochondria by Dr. Terry Wahls


I follow her plan of eating 9 cups of fruits and veggies a day, both raw and cooked.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or places to buy fresh organic food on the road.

Also, any suggestions for refrigeration of the veggies.

Thank you,
Rachel

 

[Gideon33w]

Walmart. It's the only store that is everywhere and has a reasonable selection of fresh organic foods.
Otherwise, just google what is available in the area you are about to travel to.
For instance, Frys is a mainstream grocery store with good organic selections but aren't everywhere.

 

[Gideon33w]

Oh! There is a vegan vandweller on youtube who has some great tips on storing fresh fruit/veggies. I think his name is Bill Burson or similar.

 

[TrainChaser]

You'll have better luck in the cities than in the small towns, obviously. But as Gideon said, google ahead of time and work it into your travels.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I prefer to eat organic and always look for it, however I'll buy non organic if that's all that's available. In rural areas, I'll buy from local farmstands, more often than not you can actually talk to the person who grew it and find out if they use any pesticides, i've found 95% of them don't. Farm stands are cheaper and the fruits/vegetables taste better than any grocery store produce i've ever bought.

If you have a freezer you can buy frozen organic stuff and stock up before a trip or in between city stops where it's more commonly available if full timing.

I've had great results with lyme and changing my diet, in addition to the antibiotics.

 

[CautionToTheWind]

It's a concern of mine also Rachel. I've slipped out of the lane quite a bit caring for my mother as her eating patterns are different than mine. Diabetes can be reversed too and many other things.

Yelp.com is a great resource in a variety of ways (mechanic, restaurants, etc). Type in organic grocery stores, etc.

250 Sprouts stores in various states. Sprouts is my go to.

Here is a largest national retailer 2017 short list: https://www.thebalance.com/organic-retailers-in-north-america-2011-2538129

 

[acfdexpo]

If you are able to have items shipped periodically Vitacost has excellent product at a good price.  https://www.vitacost.com/

Also Local Harvest has an organic farm locator.
https://www.localharvest.org/organic-farms/

 

[Thirsty Boots Nomad]

Oh! There is a vegan vandweller on youtube who has some great tips on storing fresh fruit/veggies. I think his name is Bill Burson or similar.

The one you probably want is Will Burson ---  https://www.youtube.com/user/RawItUp

There is a Bill Burson with a YT channel; but he only has one subscriber and it doesn't appear he cares about eating anything raw/vegan/etc. ...

 

[kundrup]

Hi Rachael, you wrote me an email, had a hard time responding so I'll post here. Lots of good tips already on this thread. I was very very surprised how much organic food is out there when I thought there would be almost none in the heartland and outlying areas. Walmart indeed has it. Fry's has little health food sections and they are pushing it big time. I even found organic heads of kale in Quartzsite in the little grocery there! But that wasn't common.  Amazon is a great way to go if you can wait for packages and Quartzsite has a service there where you can ship and receive packages for a small fee.  I brought WAY too much food with me because I thought there would be none.

Of course avacados are everywhere, and in Walmart, organic lettuce, carrots and celery are almost always there. Other veggies tend to be pretty expensive if organic. Out in the desert, you can find really cheap citrus sometimes.

I had a very cheap ice chest and used containers to keep the ice in so that when it melted it wouldn't make everything else wet. That worked pretty well. Ice isn't cheap, so figure that will be at least 6-10  bucks a week maybe more. Or you can invest in a really expensive cooler and ice will last much longer.

If you don't need everything to be organic, then you'll be fine. I just focus on the "dirty dozen" those with the most pesticides and avoid those when I'm out there.

One of the things I'm going to do is sprout more. Mung beans are so easy and delish. I soak organic almonds and sunseeds to make them easier to digest and to make them more nutritious and that's like "cooking" them. I'm thinking the back window of my car this time will be the place I store my sprouting jars. Tahini is another thing you can get organic from Amazon and will last a long time and is a good protein. Sprouting your lentils and other beans and eating them raw instead of cooking them will make life easier in general.

Get your organic beans, seeds and nuts from Amazon or bring enough to last a while.

I didn't cook much, almost not at all. But I didn't eat junk. I didn't eat pre-packaged food other than humus and guacamole. Salads are easy to do, fruit is easy to do and cook up a pot of grain and eat it for a few days with sprouted beans and nuts.

Hope this helps!

 

[KathyC]

Depending on where you are, the ALDI chain has a fantastic (and growing) selection of organic and locally grown foods. Very good value.

https://storelocator.aldi.us/Presentation/AldiSued/en-us/Start

 

[towhee]

Also look for food coops. They are usually heavy on the organic and bulk foods.

Baker City, Oregon has a nice coop. Th west coast has many. Bellingham, Olympia Portland, corvallis, Ashland. Also Silver City, New Mexico. Tucson, Arizona. 

I am starting to learn where and when the farmers markets are for the places I frequent.

For example. Friday morning in Borrego Springs, California. Organic citrus, amazing variety, $1 per pound. Also several xcellent growers of greens etc. Snap peas in February. I am already looking forward to that market.

 

[CautionToTheWind]

Speaking of co-ops, try out Bountiful Baskets. 100% volunteer co-op. Quite handy [maybe] for peeps on the road.

25 states thus far. http://www1.bountifulbaskets.org/?page_id=18 (locations: http://www1.bountifulbaskets.org/?page_id=6 )

 

[MrNoodly]

"The road" isn't another planet. It's just a series of places that are similar where you are. There are stores and services like every other part of the country, because things have become rather standardized, homogenized. Cities are all about the same, medium sized towns are all about the same, small towns are all about the same when it comes to being able to buy what you need.

 

[CautionToTheWind]

Rachael, I'm sure you'll be fine finding what you need.

 

[Rachel]

Thank you all for your suggestions.
I really appreciate it.

Thanks again,
Rachel