Buying Organic and Saving $$

I'm always looking for ways to stretch my dollars a little farther...  I am pausing on my organic produce co-op for now because I've found that I wasn't using all the produce :(  and that a lot of what we were getting, I didn't NEED to buy organic.  I'm going to go back to picking and choosing...and fitting in that extra trip to Whole Foods/Central Market/Kroger to get organic produce.

Helpful lists abound online about which produce to buy organic and which ones are ok to buy the regular version.  Here's a list from SixWise.com

15 Most Contaminated Fruits and Veggies

1. Peach           
2. Apple
3. Sweet Bell Pepper
4. Celery           
5. Nectarine
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries        
8. Kale   
9. Lettuce          
10.  Grapes - Imported  
11.  Carrot           
12.  Pear  
13.  Collard Greens       
14.  Spinach
15.  Potato

SixWise shares that peaches and apples can have up to nine pesticides detected on a single sample.  YUCK!!   Strawberries and grapes had 8.

Top 15 "Cleanest" Produce - these are ok to buy non-organic

1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet corn (frozen)
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet peas (frozen)
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon
13. Broccoli
14. Tomato
15. Sweet potato

Visit SixWise.com to learn more about cleaning veggies to remove pesticides.