No, I don’t suddenly have a passion for Biology. The Bio I am excited for is all about food (surprise!), which is the name given here in Germany for organic food.

Our meals over the years have grown steadily to include more natural food while the consumption of packaged food or meals has greatly declined. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we bought a pre-made meal at the grocery store. Every meal we eat is made with fresh ingredients. Friday nights have become our lazy night to order in a pizza, as it is our movie night with Little T. But the pizzeria is run by Italians, and you can tell the ingredients they use are fresh as you can stand by and watch them prepare it. So even though I prefer to make my own pizza, I don’t mind buying it pre-made from them.

We shop at our local farmer’s market every Friday and sometimes will make an extra outing during the week to a farmer’s market at a nearby village (more often in the warmer weather). In between, we pick up what we need at the grocery store, including our fresh vegetables and fruits. We are fortunate to live in a village that has a fish store and a fresh poultry store, and our meat purchases are only made at the market as we typically only eat red meat on the week-end (except for steak – our local supermarket carries a line of premium steak that surprisingly doesn’t compare to the offering at the market!).

Even though I think we have made a good effort of purchasing fresh foods, I got to thinking about how the vegetables and fruits we buy are grown, and the concept of Bio food.  I also started to question why I can purchase vegetables so cheaply at our local discount grocery chain. In the last few years, I have been inspired with a well-known German Chef Sarah Wiener, who would often talk about the importance of Bio food in her cooking shows. So when a lady I recently met at a dinner party mentioned a local Bio delivery service she uses, I was intrigued.

Before placing my first order, I did some further research into the concept of organic food and how it is beneficial. I was aware that organically grown food is not treated with pesticides, but didn’t know that it is grown using less water, and has a positive impact on the health of soil. I also learned that the concept of eating organically also takes into consideration the distance the food has to travel to reach you, which has a negative impact on the environment in terms of fuel emissions when food is transported many kilometers by truck or flown in from another country. And, often the product is picked before it is ripe, which is why imported strawberries often still look white and have no flavour.

The downside is that organic food generally costs a lot more money. But I started to compare that to the cost involved in treating disease that has resulted in consuming pesticide treated foods, and family farmers who have gone bankrupt due to large corporation farming that has turned food into a mass production money-making machine. I don’t mean to sound preachy, but perhaps purchasing more organic food is a moral responsibility.

A few weeks ago, I placed my first on-line Bio delivery order. What I like about this company is that you don’t have to sign up for a weekly box of surprise fruit and vegetables, although they do offer that option as well. I like to plan my meals in advance, and often what I decide to make is based on how I am feeling that day, the weather, or what other ingredients I have kicking around in the fridge that need to be of use. I don’t want to be forced to make cauliflower because it happened to arrive in my weekly vegetable box.

Instead, I could pick and choose what I wanted to order, and if I ordered 25 euros worth of stuff, the delivery is free. But they don’t just offer fruit and vegetables – I can order milk, butter, break, eggs, meat, cheese, yogurt, pudding, cereal, and even a bottle of wine! And the best part is, they deliver in our area on Tuesdays which fits in perfectly with our Friday market outing. I also like that they post a weekly update of the fruit and vegetables that are nearing the end of their season, and what produce they don’t have available. For example, on the week I placed my initial order, the local kale wasn’t available as the fields were too wet to harvest it.

On the day of our first delivery, it felt like Christmas morning for me. I literally jumped up and down when our box came, and lovingly removed all the things I purchased as if they were nuggets of gold. But the real thrill came when I cut up the Bio cucumber I purchased in addition to the regular one I bought at the grocery store earlier that week. I couldn’t believe the difference in colour, and the taste! Smugly, I sliced both up and had Hubby and Little T also compare. I excitedly explained to Little T that half the cucumber slices were Bio, and that they were better for our bodies (blah, blah, blah) and couldn’t he taste how much better they were? In true Little T fashion, he covered his throat and made gagging noises after eating his first Bio slice.

But later that day, he had a friend over to play, and devoured a plate of sliced Bio cucumber I placed in front of them. During which, I overheard Little T announce to his friend:

“These are Bio cucumbers. They taste real good, huh?!”