Going Organic

We started buying organic food way back when I was at Art College. Although I probably couldn't afford it so it was really my then husband-to-be who stumped up the cash. The link between less chemicals, in the way of pesticides and fertilisers, and better health seemed quite obvious and there were articles and general musings in the press about the health benefits of organic food.

When we bought our first home we found an organic box company in Edinburgh called Grow Wild and had a box of fruit and veg delivered to our door every week. We did get the odd strange vegetable in there that we had no idea what to do with, but luckily they would put in helpful recipe ideas and were always glad to give advice over the phone.
I am afraid we still did most of the rest of our shopping at the nearby-ish supermarket in the car. Looking back, buying only organic food having driven to a place we could have walked to was somewhat ironic. When we return to the UK that is something I want to avoid.

When our first child was born we went down the cloth nappy route. I think I need a separate post about nappies - I love them! I avidly read magazines and scoured the ads. I found that there were some companies making organic clothes for children and we bought one or two things, although they weren't that easy to come by at the time.

When our daughter was nearly two and I was heavily pregnant with our second we moved to Switzerland where we found it was incredibly easy to buy organic food even in the tiny local Co-op supermarket and they even sold organic clothes for children and adults too. So now not only do our children get to wear organic but we do too.

I did a bit of research and finally came up with a company in the UK, Bishopston Trading who sell Fair Trade organic cotton cloth by the meter and wholesale too. I decided to order their minimum wholesale amount in order to make clothes for the children for the summer. It was fantastic to be able to make my own organic clothes, shorts, skirts and tops for the girls and lightweight trousers for me. And then when I decided to set up Pogglers I already had some fabric to create with.

The more I read about the difference between organic and conventional agriculture the more I am amazed. It is something I will talk about in another post, as the facts deserve their own space and some of the statistics are truly shocking.

Happy poggling!