while setting up the garden

WHILE GETTING THINGS SET UP - shop organic, shop smart - where from in bangalore, reliable stores and products - Namdhari's, ERA organics and the twice a month sale of Navdarshanam. Processed foods to avoid and organic foods to buy organic from supermarkets. Navdarshanam’s list of healthy foods.

Organic foods are expensive. Why?
- Low demand in the country.
- No subsidies to thr farmers from the government.
- No fundings for further research into bettering the techniques and practices involved.
- Current certification bodies overcharge as well.

You can avoid getting fleeced by shopping for these at the right places and ensuring that you buy the right things.
Tip ~ Shop for things grown and produced locally – that way you pay lesser for the transportation costs.

Shopping tips:

• A basket of imported organic food, containing 26 regular shopping items, will travel almost
250,000 kilometres to reach the supermarket shelf.
• In commercial salad production systems over 11 chemical pesticides are sprayed on lettuces, more than any other vegetable crop!
• Many tomatoes sold on supermarket shelves (besides being sprayed with a concoction of chemicals whilst they are growing) are given a dose of phosphonic acid before they are picked to accelerate
uniform ripening.
• 70% of food miles are created by the consumer driving out to buy food. Why not grow and pick
some from your own garden?
• Supermarket bagged salad is often washed in chlorine at a level twenty times higher than the average swimming pool which disinfects out the taste of the leaves.

What to buy Organic :

The dirty dozen – These foods have been sampled for the highest pesticide residues amongst all the rest.

Rice – Tested for over forty pesticides.
Stone fruits – Peaches, plums and other nectarines.
Baby food- make your own; its mashed bananas and boiled cereals.
Milk and other dairy – the cows have been pumped with antibiotics and been fed pesticide sprayed feed.
Apples, Sweet bell peppers, Strawberries, Pears, Spinach, Lettuce, Potatoes, Carrots, Green breans, Cucumbers, Raspberries, Oranges.

Processed foods –
“Produced with a set of techniques and methods used to transform raw ingredients into food for consumption by humans. Food processing takes clean harvested/slaughtered and uses these to produce attractive and marketable food products. What it creates are non- foods with a lot of eye candy value and less taste and nutrition value.”

What makes them bad – Hidden sugars, artificial colours, emulsifiers, stabilizer, bleach, texturisers, softeners, preservative, deodorizer, flavourants. Flavoured milk has 6000 chemicals including ammonium sulphate.
These foods have been linked to cancer, obesity and heart diseases.

What to avoid –
Ready to eat breakfast cereals- have high contents of High fructose corn syrup and sugar. Granola bars are terrible health foods and can easily be replaced with any candy bar.

Buy cooking oats/ broken wheat instead. Boil/ roast and add sugar and milk to make your own cereal.

Juices – Excessive use of sugar and no fiber.
Juice your own fruits and drink up.

Frozen dinners/ ready to eat packets.
Fish sticks, chicken burger patties and other processed meat. ( sausages, luncheon meats, hot dogs, salami, ham)
Buy these at a local butcher shop instead where they make them fresh.

Rule of thumb – If you don’t recognize the ingredients mentioned on the packaging – don’t buy it.

The where :

Shops around Bangalore.

Namdhari fresh near Bengaluru

This store is great for vegetables – everything from zucchini to herbs to tomatoes, cheeses from Auroville and Navdarshanam health food products.

#576, 30th Main, Banagiri Nagar, Near Devegowda Petrol Bunk, BSK, 3rd Stage, , Banashankari, Bangalore
133, MM Road, Bengaluru, Bangalore
# 821, Kusal Arcade, 20th Main Road, 80 Feet Road, Koramangala, Bangalore
# 774, 7th Cross, 2nd Stage, 16th Main, BTM Layout, Bangalore
# 717/60A, 5th Cross, 6th Main, Vijaynagar, Bangalore
# 849/7, A-Block, Sahakarnagar, Bangalore
Bangalore Club, Residency Road, Bangalore
# 529/3, 10th Main Road, 5th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore
# 134, Doopanahalli Road, 60 feet Domlur Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore
#The Woodrose, Campus, 7th Phase, Puttenahalli, Brigade Millennium, JP Nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka 560078‎ - 09900490252‎

24 Lettered Mantra
686, 16th Main, 39th Cross, 4th T Block, Jayanagar,
Tel: +91 80 4146 7737/38
24 Lettered Mantra
Belandur, Outer Ring Road,
Tel: +91 80 4148 6611/22
Era Organics
This is a one stop shop for all organic goodies.
Vegetables, Fruits Cereals, Pulses, Spices retailing, reference books, vermicompost, organic fertilizers, earthworm, arts and crafts products, clothes, candles, incenses, masalas, nuts, beverages so pretty much everything you would want to pick up at a supermarket.
No. 348, Dollars Colony,
RMV Club Double Road,
RMV Second Stage,
Bangalore
Tel:080 9900543881
email: info@eraorganic.com
Green Channel
20/1, Ali Asker Road (off Cunningham Road).
Tel: 41235739
email: green channelbangalore@gmail.com
Green Channel
20/1, Ali Asker Road (off Cunningham Road).
Tel: 41235739
email: green channelbangalore@gmail.com
Health Food Stores
.Sadashiv Nagar
Tel- 2360-1777, 2360-0630
Jaiva
8, Hospital Road (parallel to Infantry Road), next to Subway,
Open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Holiday: Tuesday
Tel- 94484-70353
Khandige
Spices, Coconut oil, Sesame oil, Jaggery, Beauty Products, Ayurvedic medicines
68/1, Jaraganahalli, Near Sarakki Gate, Kanakpura Main Road,
Tel : +(91)-(80)-26714599, Fax : +(91)-(80)-26714599
Email : vikasb@satyam.net.in , pureherbs@vsnl.net
Ostara Shop
3201,3201, 7th Main (Along Shirdi Sai Baba Road), HAL II Stage
Tel- 2521-5707/2520-1616

Open: 10am - 8.30pm. Open all days
Sahaja Samruddha
'Nandana', No.7, 2nd Cross, 7th Main, Sulthanpalya, Bangalore
(Paddy, Sapota, Guava, Banana, Mango)
Ph: 080-23650744
savayavasiri@gmail.com
Navdarshanam –
This sustainable society located in Gomulapuram a little outside of Karnataka sells health food items ranging from cereals and grains to sweets, pickles, papads and snacks.
On the SECOND SATURDAY of every month:
At “Buoyancee”, 52, Diagonal Rd., JAYANAGAR 4TH BLK (between Post Office and Ganesha Temple) – from 4 to 6 pm.
On the SECOND SUNDAY of every month:
At the home of N.S.Hema, 23, 17th Cross (between 6th and 8th Main- opp. Sri Sri Ravi Shanker Vidya Mandir), MALLESWARAM - from 10: 30 am to 12:30 pm.