Here are a bunch of resources for eating more locally, nutri­tiously and fru­gally on a budget. I will be adding to this as time goes by and I grow in my knowl­edge. Please use your dis­cre­tion in view­ing these sites and resources as I do not nec­es­sar­ily agree with every­thing they pro­mote or support.

CON­SUMERISM

Video: The Story of Stuff

This video is well worth watch­ing. I watched it at at a class I was attend­ing on Sus­tain­able Living. Your eyes will be opened to the results of how we, as a nation, have become con­sumed with stuff. We strive to find hap­pi­ness and ful­fill­ment by accu­mu­lat­ing stuff (out with the old, in with the new men­tal­ity), of which 99% goes to the trash pile within 6 months. Please sit down and watch this with your spouse and eval­u­ate how you can begin to be better stew­ards of our envi­ron­ment and resources. As Chris­tians, we too often brush this infor­ma­tion aside, think­ing this is a joke, and not for us to be con­cerned about. We are respon­si­ble before God to be good stew­ards of the world he has bestowed into our care.

Cau­tion: I do not agree with every­thing pre­sented in this video. They unfor­tu­nately speak ill of the gov­ern­ment and mil­i­tary, which I believe is com­pletely unnec­es­sary. I would also add that as believ­ers, it is so impor­tant that we con­tinue to honor both God and king!

FOOD

Eat Wild - Local, and sus­tain­able farms that you can buy directly from. Mainly farms rais­ing grass fed meat of dif­fer­ent kinds.

Local Har­vest - This is a site where you can find local farms, CSA’s (Com­mu­nity Sup­ported Agri­cul­ture), which is an excel­lent way to go for pro­duce. It is very rea­son­able and you get what­ever is grow­ing in that season. I am start­ing a CSA in my area this Spring, and they actu­ally deliver the pro­duce every week. There are many options for get­ting the best qual­ity, and in the fresh­est pos­si­ble manner.

Azure Stan­dard- An excel­lent family run busi­ness that dis­trib­utes all over the North­west, Mid­west, and other areas. Check out here for my recommendations.

Weston Price - Great info about eating like our ances­tors did. The cook­book “Nourishing Traditions” is based on his findings.

Real Milk - Won­der­ful site on the lost value of raw milk, the his­tory of why we stopped drink­ing it, and local farms that sell raw cow’s and goat’s milk.

Fer­mented Trea­sures -Get yogurt and sour­dough starters and many others.

Urban Home­maker - I love this site for very help­ful infor­ma­tion for making the steps towards improv­ing your health. She offers tips on bread making, soak­ing, lots of recipes, prac­ti­cal kitchen items and tips.

Sus­tain­able Table - Info about shop­ping sus­tain­ably, and local food resources, as well as recipes. You can find info about what veg­gies and fruits are in season in your area all year round.

Dr. Mer­cola - Infor­ma­tion about pos­si­ble haz­ards of microwaves, and infor­ma­tion about dif­fer­ent oils.

COUPONS

You would be sur­prised at how many com­pa­nies will send you coupons if you request them. I have also found suc­cess in receiv­ing coupons by sign­ing up for their newslet­ter (always use another email account, as you never know how much junk you might also receive in the process).

www.​Organ​ic​Coupons.org: Click on “Offline Coupons” to find a huge list of web­sites that offer organic coupons. You’ll find links to spe­cific com­pa­nies that some­times offer coupons - like Kiss My Face or Stony­field Farm - as well as links to other coupon web­sites.

www.​AllOr​gan​i​cLinks.com: This web­site fea­tures thou­sands of links to the web­sites of organic com­pa­nies. Use their resources to easily find your favorite organic food com­pa­nies, then visit their web­sites and request coupons. Some food com­pa­nies will send you coupons when you sign up for their newslet­ter, too.

www.​Mam​boSprouts.com: This healthy living web­site offers reg­u­lar coupon book­lets with money-​saving dis­counts on many dif­fer­ent types of organic foods. It also pro­vides links to free print­able e-coupons, too. Their newslet­ter pro­vides a lot of help­ful infor­ma­tion on living green and eating nutri­tiously.

Gro­cery Coupon Guide: This is another web­site that links to lots of dif­fer­ent organic food com­pa­nies. As an added bonus, they include tips about how to get coupons (such as “sign up for spe­cial offers”).

BOOKS

Nour­ish­ing Tra­di­tions, by Sally Fallon - a good resource for nutri­tious living! I do not sup­port her new-​age approach, but I do appre­ci­ate the wealth of recipes, infor­ma­tion, etc.

Sue Gregg Cook­books - I appre­ci­ate Sue Gregg’s Chris­t­ian per­spec­tive in regards to healthy eating. She pro­vides a wealth of recipes that are nutri­tious and yummy incor­po­rat­ing soak­ing meth­ods. I own the Main Dish and Break­fasts cook­books, and I believe they are the best. Her Whole Grains Cook­ing class book is well worth using to glean infor­ma­tion on grains, soak­ing and other processes.

More with Less - cook­book by the Men­non­i­ties - also a ton of recipe for living simply and nutri­tiously on a budget.

Super Nat­ural Cook­ing by Heidi Swan­son - (my review) - cook­book with infor­ma­tion on unique grains, sweet­en­ers, etc.

Living Green: A Prac­ti­cal Guide to Simple Sus­tain­abil­ity by Greg Horn - (my review)

The Green Kitchen Hand­book by Annie Berthold-​Bond (my review) - get­ting started on equip­ping your kitchen for green and healthy living!

Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan (my review) - nat­ural house­clean­ing solu­tion recipes

The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin