Our local grocery stores are trying hard to be natural food stores. Kroger, Ingles and Food Lion are looking to provide us with more organic and locally grown produce and we should support them in this.

Ingles has their organics spread out throughout the store within each section of foods, while Kroger concentrates theirs in the Nature’s Market section located at the front of the store between the cashiers and the pharmacy. Food Lion has theirs in a small section by the wines.

Dawsonville’s local health food store, Nature’s Health, is located in the Kroger shopping center a few doors down to the right of the grocery store. While not offering foods, it does carry Stevia and Xylitol, among other things. all of these natural food stores should be patronized whenever possible.

For those of us in the Dawsonville area, the closest natural food stores that carry a wide variety of organic and alternative foods are Whole Foods and Natural Foods Warehouse. I’m aware that Whole Foods is often referred to as “whole paycheck”, but you can either pay the grocer or pay the doctor, whichever you prefer. After all, what is your health worth?

I also know that they are far away but I go once a month and get everything I need to last a whole month. You need to plan ahead so that you don’t waste fuel as well as time. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail, it’s as simple as that.

Make a day of it and do all of your errands at once, including going to some natural food stores. If you are going to Atlanta down GA 400, Harry’s Market (a Whole Foods store) is off of Exit 10, which is Old Milton Parkway.

Once you have exited, turn right (heading west) and go to Hwy 9/120, which is Main Street, and turn left. (This is the road right after Haynes Bridge Road.) Once you have turned, proceed straight, go past Wills Road and turn right at the next light, which is Upper Hembree Road.

Whole Foods (Harry’s Market) is located about a quarter mile down this road on your left. You will see the signs for it and you need to be aware that it is one way only.

The other one of the natural food stores, Natural Foods Warehouse, is on down GA 400 to Exit 8, which is Mansell Road. If heading south down 400, when you exit, you will turn left (east) and go one mile down Mansell to Old Alabama Road Connector.

Turn right onto Old Alabama and look for Spa Sydell on your left. Natural Foods Warehouse is a stand alone strip mall right behind Spa Sydell on the left.

Natural Foods Warehouse is just like the name implies, a warehouse. What they have varies from month to month, but there are many staple items that are offered consistently. If you find an item there, it is most likely going to be the best price to be found of any of the natural food stores. Be aware that they do not accept checks.

Going Down 141 to Norcross

If you are going from Dawsonville down 141 (Peachtree Parkway) from Exit 13, both natural food stores are located there as well. Heading south on 400, from Exit 13, turn left and drive for 10 miles (yes it is exactly that far). You will pass Parson’s Road, and then the road after that is Wilson Road.

Immediately after Wilson Road, turn right into Medlock Bridge Shopping Center (there is a sort of clock tower by the entrance) and Natural Foods Warehouse is directly in front of you. This location is their flagship store and it carries a wide variety of goods.

This is their purpose statement from their website which sums up their philosophy pretty well:

We welcome you to the Natural Foods Warehouse family. Natural Foods Warehouse is an organic grocery store featuring dry grocery, freezer, perishable, vitamin, supplement, and health and beauty departments as well as 1000’s of the top selling items from the natural foods industry. At Natural Foods Warehouse, our goal is to bring you the top name brand items at the deepest possible discounts every day. We strive to give our customers a complete selection of name brand products as well as monthly featured specials. Natural Foods Warehouse requires no fee or membership to shop.

If you turn right out of the shopping center and go down to State Bridge Road and turn left, another Whole Foods will be on your left about a quarter mile down that road. From Natural Foods Warehouse to Whole Foods is a mile total, so it is easy to access both stores in one trip. By the way, it is only 1.6 miles further to this Whole Foods location from Dawsonville than it is to Harry’s, so it’s no big deal.

This Whole Foods store is more geared to convenience foods in that it has a lot of salad, soup and entree bars set up for people to buy food on the go. They have a seating area too so that you can eat it there like a fast food restaurant.

Of course, Atlanta has all sorts of great places for organic foods such as Sevananda, Return to Eden, Life Grocery and the Dekalb Farmer’s market to name a few. Dawsonville’s Farmer’s Market is the epitome of local and many times the produce is organically grown, even though not certified.