Urgh! Stupid small towns!!!!

[todzwife]

I didn't realize how lucky I was in LA...we had a whole foods, a trader joes...but here we have a wal-mart, and a very small one at that. I have ben trying to introduce solids to Dallin's diet, and of course I'd rather make them myself, but organic produce is not available here, period. The produce section is pathetic. There is a serious obesity problem here, and I can totally understand why!!! So I drove 30 minutes to the nearest town with a bigger wal-mart and they don't have much of a selection either. Grrrrr! So I want to feed Dallin some yogurt.Does anyone carry the kind WITH fat?? No. No one. I spent 20 minutes calling every grocer in 2 towns and no one has yogurt with fat? Ugh! I am at a loss! I want to feed this poor kid, but the produce here scares me, so we've been doing gerber organic...I need ideas! I am so frustrated!!

[redhookmom]

How frustrating!

I am not sure how desperate you are but you could make your own yogurt. Let me know if you want directions.

[deborah_r]

I was just going to say that! The Super Baby Food lady says it's easy, but some of the things she claims are easy completely blow my mind!!

[missym]

It's not organic, but Dannon's La Creme yogurt has lots of fat; that's what we're using. All of our grocery stores here carry it. It comes in vanilla, strawberry and other flavors. The regular La Creme is creamy/runny; the Mousse variety is fluffy. DD loves it, and so do DH and I!

Missy, mom to Gwen 03/03

[brubeck]

Most of the kiddie yogurts have fat too.

I suppose if you REALLY wanted to get into this you could start your own vegetable garden. :)

[Melanie]

Did you try asking for 'Yo Baby!' Albertsons and Ralph's, here obviously, carry it...as well as Whole Foods, etc.

[farsk]

Hello!

Welcome to my world...welcome to my world...welcome to my world of being one of the only mommas I know that feeds organic!

I have to drive TWO hours to get YoBaby, Earth's Best, etc., though there is some organic produce.

My only suggestion...buy online or drive to the closest metro area.

Good Luck!

[jec2]

Shandelle, most groceries let you special order or request products. For a year, everytime I went to the close grocery I requested fresh mozarella and then went to Trader Joes to buy it. Well, the grocery finally did start carrying it, but I now got in the habit of going to TJ's. Nevertheless, see if they have "customer request" forms and just stuff the box!!!!

[todzwife]

>Most of the kiddie yogurts have fat too.
>
>I suppose if you REALLY wanted to get into this you could
>start your own vegetable garden. :)

Nope, we live in an apartment with no place to put it. :(

[todzwife]

Closest metro area is 4 hours away... I doubt anything would make it back fresh enough to eat. :(

[amp]

We use La Creme also.

[cdlamis]

I have no other suggestions but wanted to say I feel for you. I have been thinking of you since I read this yesterday and I can't imagine how frustrated you must feel. I can't imagine not having those options around me.
Hope you find a soultion!
Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
And baby #2 EDD 12-30-04!!

[rorycam]

Does your town or any little towns nearby have a healthfood store? I live in a town of 13,000 and we have 2 healthfood stores, plus a town about 7 miles away (population less than 4000) has a tiny store, too, with a small refrigerated section and produce section. Check your phonebook for the area and you might come up with something. Also, will there be any farmer's markets through the summer? We have stands out everywhere all summer long, and every Saturday morning there is a farmer's market, and that is pretty much the norm in even the tiniest of towns; however, I live in the midwest in farm country, so that may not be available where you are. I don't know that it is all organic, but they have a good selection. Also, and this is another thing that may pertain strictly to my area of the country, but are there are Amish or Mennonite stores where you live? We have them around here and they sell all kinds of homegrown organic produce and organic grains, spices, etc, all reasonably priced. HTH!

[papal]

Ugh! so sorry Shandelle!
For the yogurt, it really is pretty simple to make your own and if you make it using full fat milk, then you have full fat yogurt.
I am guessing it is super expensive to buy organic produce online and have it shipped right?

[miki]

I second the suggestion about finding a health food store nearby. Even if it is tiny, they should be happy to order things you are interested in. The one I go to has about 4 different brands of plain full fat yogurt, so they are out there. You can also order Earth's Best baby food directly from Earth's Best via internet. You can also mail order lots of organic food items. I found this site, www.orgfood.com , in a quick search and their prices seem comparable to the health food store I go to. It's not fresh produce, but if even the regular produce is looking scary to you, when Dallin's ready for more finger foods, you can always try things like canned organic green beans and such.

[wendinbill]

Do you live in my town?? LOL!!!!

[justlearning]

Your town sounds just like the small town we just moved from, so I know how frustrating it can be! I also agree with another suggestion regarding asking your grocery store if they can special order certain items for you. In a small town, it's pretty easy to make friends with everyone in town--including the manager of your local grocery store. Our manager was willing to order special items that he knew you would definitely buy. This won't work at Walmart and you may have to pay a little premium for the service, but it is at least one possibility.

I do feel your pain, though... One of the first things I did when we moved back into a larger city was wander the aisles of a huge grocery store and marvel at all the things I could easily buy once again if I wanted to!

[workaholic]

I was also going to suggest Yo-Baby for it's fat content. It has a rich cream layer on the top and a smooth vanilla flavor.
I'm not sure that it's organic but Cooper used to love it.
I would ask your local grocer to start stocking foods that you know you'll buy. It worked for my mom when they stopped carrying a certain brand of facial soap. You could also contact the makers of some of the foods you prefer to see if anyone near you carries them.

As far as organic veggies go, you may find a farmers market in your area that has them.
Good Luck,

Aimee Larsen
Momma to Cooper
Crossing fingers for another...
Owner: Ella-Bags

[C99]

If you can find Yo-Baby, it's organic. You may be able to request that your grocery store carry Yo-baby. Another idea is to make your own yogurt from whole milk -- you should be able to get that from your local grocery store. There are recipes online for how to make your own yogurt, but all you need is whole milk and some yogurt with live cultures in it.

[kijip]

Yo-Baby is organic.

I second asking the grocer to order things for you- they can get more than you think from their distributer in the same truck that everything else comes in. It is a great idea and really simple but you do have to buy a lot at once! Just talk to the dairy manager and the produce buyer. If you live within 300 miles of a city that does stock what you want, your grocery store can get it too since they are serviced by the same sets of warehouses.

[Dscvrlifewith3]

I belong to a food coop. We buy organic foods through a direct supplier, cutting out the middle man. I have been doing this nearly five years. You can look online to see if there are any food cooperative in your area, try to locate a cruncy momma because she may know. I learned about our food cooperative through LLL.

[squimp]

I second the idea of looking for a crunchy mama. I lived in several small towns on the east coast (<1000 people), where small groups of people banded together to buy from the regional Co-Op. There was a big catalog that we would order from every month. It takes some planning and time, but was kind of fun and worth it to get things you want. You could definitely get organic yogurt, baby food, all kinds of stuff. Fresh produce was expensive, if I recall correctly.

Also, there may be frozen organic produce in your supermarket freezer section that could be a help to you. We've found organic peas and beans. I think it's part of Green Giant.