People have since the very conception of Peeled Snacks asked, "so why aren't they Organic"?  Notice how I wrote the "O" word with a capitol "O"?  These days, "Organic" food is treated with the utmost respect, so it feels only natural to appoint it, you know, a wider letter.  Wiser people than I have written much larger volumes than I'll ever attempt about the virtues of "Organic" food, and I won't question their insights in my little entry.

I will, however, put forth a theory that people in the Organic world are nicer than, say, your average Joe (who is nice enough to begin with, if perhaps occasionally a little crusty around the edges).  I say this because I have just moments ago received in the mail a tin of my favorite, my Favorite, my FAVORITE organic tea from my favorite organic tea company, Ineeka (shameless plug, check out www.ineeka.com for BANG up tea, and then write me and thank me).

They sent me this tin of tea because of some minor favor that I did for them, and in fact they were the ones who told me that Organic food producers are nicer.  They therefore not only pepper my thoughts with new ideas, but also back up those ideas with action, creating in me a conviction, thus forcing me to actions of my own, like telling you all about them.

But in this little shameless plug I must confess I find a terrible fault, at least in terms of Peeled Snacks' own Organic aspirations.  Some of you may know this already, and most the rest hopefully already assume, but we have our eyes on creating an Organic (there goes the O again) line of Peeled Snacks, and have been pursing this goal in many ways, several of them involving sampling a lot, a Lot, a LOT of Organic fruit (see the blog entry A Delicate Sound of Puget for more details).

Ah, and here we have the challenge before us- we aspire to make a nicer product with the help of nicer people, and we have found many great orchards and farms that are eager to get on board... yet this darn Organic food costs twice, Twice, TWICE as much!  That HURTS!

It doesn't just hurt- it nearly negates the whole idea.  Peeled Snacks is obviously a new, up and coming company, and we're just getting our bearings in several aspects of our business.  Our margins are thinner than we'd like, though understandably so given that we're building our brand and our client base and our, uh, blog.  The idea of doubling (DOUBLING) the cost of our ingredients seems like pure insanity, however good the cause.

Quite a pickle this all is- the clear, worthy goal of going organic (or, rather, Organic) is quickly met by the cold, hard slap of the hand of reality- Organic food costs more to produce.  That's one of the curses of industrialization- it cheapens THINGS, which inevitably cheapens PEOPLE.  One of the MANY, Many, many curses.

Funny little secret: many of Peeled Snacks ingredients are actually Organic.  Often we find some O fruit or nut that we can afford, and we use it.  We don't make a stink about it, but I daresay that the pickiest of taste buds out there would pick them out, probably favorably.  Oh, if only Organic were always affordable, we'd only use it and never look back.  More on this before the month's out....

Three Haikus about Ineeka, though it would help if you looked at a picture of their tea bag on their website...

tear bag,  pull wings, steep.

drink tea after 5 minutes.

whipe leaves off your nose...

Afternoon tea's fun.

We push bags with our noses

Looks ridiculous.

This must be your first.

I can tell by your nose tip.

You've a bag stuck there.

I love that stuff, and I love you, whoever you are.

EN "Peel-en" K