I couldn’t possibly say that this applies only to people with kids, because that’s just simply not true, but when you “all of a sudden” do have another little mouth to feed it gives you pause for thought. “What am I actually putting into my body? What are we actually putting into our child’s body?”. It gives you just one more reason to re-examine your dietary habits and while I’m certainly far from being the healthiest person in the world – heck, I sure do love my butter, olive oil, chocolate, and cake – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying to do better.
My wife and I always tried to buy organic when we lived in France. There was once a time when organic produce was a real novelty and the price reflected that. These days, it still tends to be a little more expensive, but the difference is often negligible. Indeed, for some things, such as the milk I’d buy in France, the organic product was cheaper than the non-organic counterpart. I would always buy organic, free-range eggs without fail, simply because the chicken and egg industry is a vile process and there’s really nothing wrong with trying to make the lives for hens a bit better. I recently saw a picture of a box of American “Cage Eggs” recently, which proudly proclaimed that its hens lived in a “safe, stress-free environment” and I had to chuckle rather mournfully. I’m not sure when being squished into a cage with a bunch of other hens started being called “safe and stress-free”, but I suppose you’ve gotta hand it to the marketing department for putting a positive spin on something.
Anyway, I recently signed up to a company called Loppi which occasionally runs some promotions where they will send out a “Loppi Blogbag” to a selected few. This time around they teamed up with Coop, a supermarket chain, which has a range of organic (and where possible fair-trade) products called Änglamark. Anyway, I was picked to test it out – hooray! From reading their little leaflet in the delivery box, I learned that apparently they have the biggest range of organic products in all of Sweden!
Don’t forget as well, before you start thinking that I should really go to some markets and get my produce from there… “markets” aren’t really a thing here. If you want food, you go to the supermarket. It’s pretty much the only way of getting vegetables and fruit, sadly.
Anyway – in my Loppi blogbag I got the following:
- Organic fusilli pasta – would have been nice if it had been wholegrain, but still good
- Organic roasted onions – the kind that people often eat with hotdogs, but I find they work amazingly in a salad (though I have a habit of eating them by the handful whenever I have a pot)
- Organic ketchup – I know a lot of people think ketchup is a bit “basic”, but it’s great to have in the house. Even if you don’t eat it as a sauce, you can use it as a base for so many “home-made” sauces, or give a bit of sweetness to meat sauces with it.
- Organic, fair-trade cocoa powder – perfect for making something like biskvi!
- Organic walnuts – my all time favourite nut, great on their own, but of course you can make something like a nut roast
- Organic, fair-trade mint chocolate (pictured) – which was just awesome. It had these little crispy bits inside, so even though it was 70% cocoa, it was very enjoyable and not at all bitter.
And William certainly enjoyed some of it. Here he is giving his seal of approval to the mint chocolate! Incidentally, the top was from a very talented friend of ours – you can see more of her work on her blog, Chou d’Iris.
It’s nice to be a blogger sometimes – I started my blog as a personal project and didn’t expect recognition or opportunities like this. Indeed, I didn’t know anything at all about the blogging world when I started, so when things like this happen it’s a really nice little bonus. Naturally this experience has made me aware of these products’ existence as well. The nearest Coop is on the other side of town to the store I normally go to so previously it’s not necessarily somewhere I might have gone. Would I go there now though? For sure – the products were very good, and while I might not always be able to afford organic food on my current student budget, if the price is right then it’s definitely worth it.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my little surprise this week – join me next time for something sweet and an awesome giveaway!
I love your Loppi bag and the idea behind it! What an awesome variety of loot!
I feel much like you do – I started my blog for personal reasons too – but all the perks of friendships and products and opportunities have been wonderful
Hi Shashi – yeah, it was a lovely perk, and it even gives you encouragement to keep going. Little things like this can be a real motivator because you end up feeling that maybe you aren’t just a tiny voice after all, and that perhaps sometimes people do care about what you write!
It looks like William would have great career as a model for children’s clothing as he certainly wears that sweater well. 🙂
As to the whole issue of organic food, I just had a long talk with a student whose parents have a pig finishing farm (I’ve mentioned the fine pork in Ontario before), the place that gets pigs up to weight before they go to their final destination, but I won’t go into that at this point except to say that it’s not always possible to buy organic. Still, everything in your basket looks and sounds great. I bet it ended up in some great dishes.
Well, it’s a very good fitting sweater… and soft as anything too. I keep rubbing my face against it, much to his annoyance :D.
I know what you mean – I fully agree, it’s not always possible to buy organic, but for a whole bunch of reasons. Sometimes it’s financial, sometimes it’s simply because it’s not feasible… after all, I still need to eat, and I can’t survive on potatoes all year round. It can be a big problem for farmers – I read about an organic farmer whose apple crop was infected by some blight. It basically wiped out his entire crop, and while it’s something which is easily combatted by fungicides and the like, for him it was devastating.
Of course, other times the supply chain becomes ridiculously long and complex and then who the hell knows if something is organic or not. They might say “this is organic meat”, but if it’s been through 3 different rearing facilities, sometimes in different countries or jurisdictions it becomes super difficult to know for sure, although I am thankful that correct labelling is very strictly enforced in Europe. I think I read that anyone could put “free-range” on their eggs in the US, regardless of where the chickens came from. Not sure if this is still the case, but I can’t understand how that’s legal!
Merci Charles <3. I'm so happy to see Will with the pullover I made him <3 Thank you
No problem! I like to give him extra “calins” when he’s wearing it because it’s so soft!
You certainly were sent some good quality products and what a thrill. I’m always excited when a package arrives at the door. Wee William looks gorgeous in that jumper – what a great colour it is and beautiful knitting. I agree it’s very important to buy organic free-range eggs – the egg industry (and the pork) has been cruel for far too long and we all need to show these industries we’re unimpressed by refusing to purchase their goods xx
Thanks Charlie – yes, it was such a nice surprise to have a chance to try these things. Did you have a chance to check out my friend’s site? She’s really talented – I’m not any good at knitting or crafting like that, but it must be amazing to be able to make clothes… like “real clothes”!
Totally agree about the pork industry too – there’s been some real scandals in Denmark recently about the condition they keep their pigs in… absolutely horrifying!
It’s a tricky choice…to go organic or not, but I guess we make the best possible choice that’s available to us. I do like to buy organic though, and your bag of goodies look great. But it’s that little buddy of yours who takes all the cake…or chocolate in this case 🙂
Hey William, I could use some sharing, lol! I love organic food, so these products fit me well 🙂
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Oh my word! He is absolutely gorgeous! Really nice pic! And I love that you got freebie.
I’ve decided on a few items that I always buy organic and, preferably, fair-trade (such as chocolate, coffee and, particularly, bananas).
I always go full organic on eggs (krav-märkta). We do go through plenty of eggs at my house so it sparks up a cost, but knowing how chickens are made to live out their lives, it feels like the best thing to do. I also stay away from overly cheap, imported meat.
That is an adorable picture of William. Look at those eyes! This looks like a cool box of products, and fun too. I’m fascinated that your organic milk is cheaper than regular. Here it’s still $2-$3 more for organic. I went crazy buying organic raspberries the other day. They were priced at half what they usually are. Made for a great pie. Looking forward to the sweet thing coming soon. You do always have great sweets Charles!
How lovely and congratulations for being selected, I love how things come together like that! Some organic products are hugely more expensive here but veg are usually not as much. A dozen organic free range eggs are $10 compared to $3 if the regular kind, butter is $9 for 454g (fall out from the days of the pound) compared to $5. Meat is also hugely different but I think you get better bang for your buck. But still, if I had a little mouth to feed, I’d likely buy organic if I could. I suspect that Europe has less GM than North America.
Gorgeous sweater!
Master William is looking quite handsome… and he could be the new all star kid for the new Loppi products commercials. I wish there were more organic goods in Hong Kong too. I try to buy them when I can and an online store is just the way to go… for me as well. I was making pasta the other day and my friend asked me why my pasta dough was such a beautiful gold color and I told her it was because I use organic free range eggs. She could not believe the difference. Enjoy your bag of goodies. Take care, BAM
William looks adorable and that sweater sets off his eyes nicely.
I’m glad you have passed to the green side too 🙂 The Loppi bag looks fantastic! I’m glad you can get organic food in Sweden too (it’s not obvious in every country…). As you know, I have been buying organic for quite a long time (and I started because of the taste, not the ecology 😉 and I got hooked, even though it does mean a bigger food budget: I simply eat out less; a skipped dinner in a restaurant makes more than a weekly “space” for organic food budget and I frankly prefer to spend money this way). Not everything of course (I’m far from that!), but meat and eggs must be at least free range, mainly because of the farming conditions. I am lucky though because as you know, in France organic products are always that expensive (one shouldn’t compare organic products to the cheapest standard ones anyway, but to the higher priced because the quality is simply better…) though meat is still much more expensive, but this is the product where the difference is the biggest both in taste and health aspects, so I simply eat less meat.
I wish I could eat organic cheese too, but French producers have to work on maturing ones (my favourite cheesemonger has a tiny percentage of organic cheese and he agrees when I say matured organic cheese is usually tasteless, but I thought about your brie because the man started to sell organic brie which is to die for! pity I cannot send it by post).
There is a French organic brand producing chocolates which are soooo much better from the standard brands…. so I can imagine how good this chocolate is. Some organic products are just amazing.
Talking about markets… I have noticed there are less and less real farmers on the markets in France (at least in my area) and in my Swiss city too. Moreover, even if people sell their own produce, it’s often as sprayed with pesticides as in the supermarkets, but more expensive, so I wouldn’t worry about the absence of markets. Personally, I prefer to buy vegetables and fruits in my small organic grocery shop. At least I know what I buy.
I hope you will enjoy the rest of the Loppie bag!
OMG he’s gorgeous, Charles. I want to think about Loppi, I really do but I keep going back to that beautiful little boy. I have no idea how you two have time to do anything but play with him. 🙂
The organic food is a lovely treat and I look forward to seeing what you do with it.
You know, I noticed William’s sweater right away – very happy to discover Chou d’Iris and congratulations to your friend on her excellent work. Yeah… I’ve written quite a bit on the subject of misleading advertising. Sadly, it is highly effective and the consumer myths continue to swirl about; I encounter them all day long ;-). In the US, the Environmental Working Group publishes an annual rating (the “dirty dozen” is the best known of their various pubs) that highlights the most environmentally polluted produce — it’s very helpful for prioritizing organic purchases when working with a budget as most of us do. Enjoy your goodies!
What a fun surprise! It all looks so good, especially those mint chocolates.
Charles, yes, the perks are nice! I buy nearly all organic foods, but of course we consume a lot of non-organic food when we eat in restaurants or other people’s homes. Do what you can — every little bit helps! PS William is beyond adorable!