Lately I've been thinking about the concept of organic food. "Organic" is a word that's thrown around quite a bit. And honestly, since being back in Thailand, I haven't paid much attention to it. I don't really run across an abundance of organic markets, restaurants, or even grocery story items in my every day life. So even though I had been buying mostly organic food the last time I was in the US, it has basically drifted off my radar these last 7 months or so. Until recently...
A friend who's lived in Chiang Mai for awhile gave me a little talk about the essential difference between organic and non-organic produce: chemicals. Most likely, unless you're growing your own fruits and vegetables here in Chiang Mai, the produce you'll find at markets and grocery stores has been sprayed with toxic chemicals, to kill the bugs and weeds. Maybe we don't normally call pesticides and herbicides "toxic." But then again, if they didn't have the ability to kill bugs and weeds, how could they be anything except toxic? The immediate effects of these chemicals on the human body are probably minimal, but over time, they accumulate, causing sickness and disease. I can't do a whole lot to control my environment; the pollution in the air is not going away any time soon. But I can make an effort to control what I put in my body. But how? Well,
this blog post about organic and non-organic food by my friend Lee gave me some great information, and some good encouragement, too.
I also got some practical advice from two professors at the college where I teach, who led me to this ORGANIC market right in Chiang Mai:
It's located just to the east of Chiang Mai University. From what I understand, this bi-weekly market is a part of CMU's department of agriculture, as well as being under the patronage of the King's Royal Project. Some of the produce comes from crops on CMU's campus (see the first two pics in this post), and other is brought by farmers in the surrounding area. All farmers' fields are checked on regularly to ensure that chemical herbicides and pesticides are not being used.
There are probably about a dozen or more different vendors, selling all sorts of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and even rice. The market is open twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 5am until about 2pm. It's best to get there early, but honestly, I haven't ever gotten there before 10:30 am, and there's usually still a fair amount of veggies left to choose from.
When you see carrots shaped like this, you've gotta know they're organic! A little bumpy, but comforting. When I cook up and eat these funny-looking roots, I know that I'm getting all their vitamins and nutrients, sans toxic elements. So I purchased some of these carrots, along with a bunch of other good stuff!
Multi-colored (multi-grain) rice, cauliflower, mustard greens, carrots, bamboo shoots, limes, cucumbers, limes, mushrooms, pumpkin, kale, and rolls of dried mango. I dished out about 200 Baht for all this, and felt like that was a lot to spend on groceries. But once I laid it all out on my table and remembered that 200 Baht is only $7, I felt pretty rich! Eating organic in Chiang Mai doesn't have to be expensive - yay! Honestly, I think if any of these items were more expensive that what I'd pay at a regular non-organic market, it was by pennies if anything.
I had a great time cooking a few different dinners with this purchase. Unfortunately, by camera's SD card died from a virus and I lost the pictures. (Quite the bummer, and which is partly why I haven't posted in this blog for awhile!) But here's a picture of a meal I cooked with produce from my second Saturday shopping spree at the same CMU-King's Royal Project Organic Market: Stir-fried Eggplant-Mustard Greens-Mushroom over rice.
I used onion, garlic and chilis for some spice and zest; plus the three flavors of salty (soy sauce), sour (tamarind paste) and sweet (raw sugar). First, I sauteed the onion, garlic and chili for a minute. Then I removed them fromt eh pan to start cooking the mustard green stems. I don't know if people generally eat the stems or not. But it seemed like a lot to cut off and throw away, so I wanted to give it a try. I kind of steamed/-stir-fried them for a few minutes (oil in the pan, add some water so it boils and steams) until they started getting soft. Then I added the mushrooms, then the mustard green leaves, along with the soy sauce, tamarind paste and sugar. It just took a few minutes to cook. Placed atop some rice, and voila, done!
I love the chewiness of the mustard greens, which is different from the mushrooms' chewiness, and then the more crisp and solid eggplant. And I'm pretty happy with the way my "four-flavor sauces" are turning out lately. It definitely feels like a good balanced meal, especially when I have some nice tropical fruit for dessert: lychees!
So, I'm super happy to have found this organic market. I'm planning to check out some organic markets in the next few weeks that I've found out about. And I'm going to make an effort to eat at some organic restaurants too - which should be fun to blog about! So I'll keep you posted! For those of you who are in Chiang Mai, I hope the info is helpful; and those of you who aren't here, I hope you can soak up a little of the joy I've found by knowing that it's not so hard (or too expensive) to find good organic food here, and probably almost anywhere in the world you may be!
Here's the sign in front of the market, whose literal translation brings some new light to what "organic" means:
Poison-Free Agriculture Market
Danger-Free Food
Every Wednesday and Saturday
6am - 2pm
Location: Agricultural Research Zone
