how to eat happy fruits and veggies

I love this little project from Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane. Heidi's always sewing up plush foods with smiley faces... now she's created a handy little cheat sheet that you can use when you go to the grocery store or market in search of (non-plush) fruits and veggies to eat.

If you're concerned about all the pesticides used in commercial farming these days, keep this guide ready in your wallet. It shows which fruits and veggies are most and least affected by pesticides.

We have been trying to buy as many organic fruits and vegetables as we can, but the area when live in sometimes makes it a bit of a challenge. Our local grocery store has just started to carry a few organic items like strawberries and potatoes, so I almost always drive the 15-20 miles outside our town to get groceries elsewhere.

That being said I wanted a handy way to remember the "dirty dozen" (or foods with the highest pesticide residue which was measured after washing and or peeling) and the "clean fifteen" (or foods with the lowest or no pesticide residue) Because sometimes I can't find something organically and need to decide if I am still going to buy an onion or not ;) You can find lots of info on the tests etc by googling "dirty dozen organic".

You can download the printable card from Heidi's flickr.

On related note, another handy cheat sheet to keep on-hand is Canada's Seafood Guide from SeaChoice.org; it lists which fish and seafood are best (and worst) choices, in terms of having a well-managed, abundant stock, if they are caught in environmentally sustainable ways, as well as the impact on your health (yay omega-3 fats / boo elevated mercury or PCB levels!). You can download the PDF from the SeaChoice website.