For you, not any pork will do. On Sloping Hills tenderloin you prefer to spend your coin.

But you don’t need to dine out to have it. New grocer Greens brings those Qualicum Beach Berkshires, among other choice meats, to your home kitchen. Started by two UBC grads, the market focuses on organic and natural foods and products, and making as much of that good stuff affordable and locally sourced.

While shopping we had a lengthy chat with their meat and seafood manager and learned that in-store workshops on beginner’s butchery are in the works (so you can also save bills by buying a whole bird instead of just a couple breasts).

Greens Organic and Natural Market, 1978 W. Broadway, Vancouver, 604-568-3079, www.greensmarket.ca

In your mind you spend Saturday afternoon happily baking oatmeal cookies with your kids. In your reality, you barely have time for lunch.

Sweetpea Baby Food’s new kids’ cookies are made the way you’d do them if you could: with whole grains like spelt and no dairy, eggs, or additives.

Healthful flavours like banana-pear and pumpkin spice mean there’s no guilt in doling them out by the handful. 

One for baby, three for mummy….

Sweetpea Organic Cookies ($5.99) at IGA, Planet Organic, Pusateri’s and other Canadian retailers at www.sweetpeababyfood.com

Three words: reduce, reuse, relax.

We recently escaped the concrete jungle and curbed our carbon footprint with a green getaway at Kw’o:kw’e:hala.

Alongside the coursing waters of the Coquihalla River in Hope, B.C., the eco-friendly retreat is the perfect place to escape your city life stresses for a weekend and get back in touch with nature (sans the crunchiness of camping).

Get cozy in your quaint, private cabin’s quilt-covered bed and chow down on gourmet meals made with fresh-from-the-garden organic fruits and veggies. If being active clears your head, borrow a bike for cycling through the nearby Kettle Valley Trail tunnels, take an inner tube down the river or snag a section of sandy bank for yoga.

If slowing right down is more your bag, sway in a river-side hammock, soak in the wood-fired hot tub and sweat out toxins and tension in the traditional Finnish sauna.

We did it all and felt green with peace. Particularly because nary a paper napkin passed over these lips.

View photos, packages and rates at www.eco-retreat.com

Just when you’ve mastered the term locavore, the 100-milers throw another one at you: foodscaping.

But if growing your own veggies sounds like too much dirt under the nails, yet you crave a Jamie Oliver-style kitchen garden, you can now turn to the services of Vancouver’s Backyard Chef to create your edible estate.

They’ll design, build, sow and tend your organic garden, showing up weekly to pull weeds and harvest everything from strawberries to string beans.

They’ll even invite a chef to cook up the bounty for you and your guests.

And when the kids say “please pass the carrots” it’s a miracle indeed.

Read more at www.thebackyardchef.ca

To: All free-ranging locavores
Re: Upcoming field trip
When: Saturdays, from 10 a.m.
Where: Vista D’Oro Farms in Langley
Bring: Rubber boots, marketing basket, good appetite
Description of excursion: Vista D’Oro’s gourmet farm gate shop is packed with local mini scones and jams, cheeses and breads (picnic under the walnut trees anyone?) and lovely French candles, herb pots and heirloom tomato plants. Pick up some duck sausages for the grill and now your grocery shopping is done too.

No permission slip required (holding hands optional).

Now that’s our idea of a field trip.

Vista D’Oro Farms, 20856 Fourth Ave., Langley, 604-514-3539, www.vistadoro.com

You recycle your New York Times, bring your own bag and wear a bamboo bra, but when it comes to lunch, you're stumped.

Enter Eat Local, a new line of stylish grab & go meals (think jambon–beurre sandwiches on organic flour baguette with hand–churned butter, or organic white bean salad with arugula and local duck confit) that are as tasty as they are good for you.

With salads from $4.99 and sandwiches $7.99, you can stock up for a romantic picnic with your favourite eco–warrior or impress your clients with a healthy, gourmet catered lunch.

They'd expect no less from the queen of green.

Eat Local is available on weekends at Edible B.C. in Granville Island Market.

Read more and view menu at www.eatlocalfood.ca

1.Dreamy boxes of handmade vanilla marshmallows at the entrance

2.Yuzu rice wine vinegar made with a delicate Asian citrus fruit for oursalad dressings

3.Pre-washed boxes of mache salad greens

4.Tiny shelf-stable jars of white truffle butter for our mashed potatoes and risottos

5.Fresh bins of sea asparagus to garnish our wild salmon

6.Ridiculously low fat buffalo meat for curries

7.Jumbo prawns the size of lobster tails for the grill

8.Dry aged Alberta beef that's the closest to Wagu we've tasted

9.A complimentary Emergen C fountain at the checkout, which will give you sustenance for...

10.The swift realization that Whole Foods does justice to its nickname: "Whole Paycheck."

Whole Foods is located at new outdoor mall, The Village at Park Royal. Visit www.shopparkroyal.ca or www.wholefoods.com