Ancestral Eating on a Budget Part 2

Plants. I like my fruit and vegetables but to paraphrase Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF), plants will kill you slowly and animals quickly.

Animals are far more nutrient dense than plants but then plants are rich sources of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, phytonutrients and, in the case of herbs I use, have many beneficial constituents. Many plants have anticancer and health giving compounds, including something I use a lot in clinic, broccoli sprouts (rich in sulforaphane). Ideally, as much as your produce is better being spray free or organic to reduce the burden on your body.

Fruit and veges also contain a lot of antinutrients like oxalates (that are especially high in spinach and some other fruit and veg), toxins (I think most people know to avoid green potatoes), goitrogens (found in raw, unfermented cabbage family that adversely affect the thyroid), and more.

We have the dental structure of omnivores rather than herbivores (fancy looking like Mr Ed) or canivores (think about your household cat).

Just like with other foods gone up a lot in price, what a good ways to save money on fruit and vegetables?

🍉🫛🥦🌽🥕🫜🥝🍇🍋🥑🫑🧅🧄

🍉Eat seasonally. There's no point thinking that watermelon are the thing to buy in a Canterbury winter, whereas you may find one for $2 in peak season.
🥦Connect with your local growers. Farmers markets and roadside stalls are a good place to hunt out more budget friendly fruit and veg.
🫜Grow your own if you have the skills. A packet of seeds and a decent pot filled with garden soil are the nuts and bolts of what you need.
🧅Swap with your neighbours and friends.
🍋Check out marketplace for people who have a glut of things (like feijoas at the moment).
🫛Frozen veges like peas and corn, now and again, are picked and processed at the height of freshness.
🫑Canning or bottling your own fruit and veges, are especially nutrient dense when lacto-fermented or are done as sauerkraut or kimchi (brined).
🌱Foraging for seasonal foods like blackberries, checking out your local community garden or roadside trees (not on private property).
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