Buy Produce In Season, The 1st Step To Flavor & Nutrition

Buy Produce In Season, The 1st Step To Flavor & Nutrition

Most American consumers pick and buy their produce at at local supermarket, perhaps based on appearance, price or a quick smell test, only to return home disappointed by flavorless tomatoes, woody asparagus, peaches that never seem to fully ripen or greens that turn to mush quickly.

When produce is purchased at a large supermarket, the consumer is buying produce that lends itself to uniformity, size and long-distance travel, not flavor and nutrition.

In order to find the best-tasting, freshest and most nutrient-dense produce, the consumer must venture outside of the supermarket and into a local small farm or farmer’s market.

Aside from gaining access to vegetables and fruits picked just days or hours before you bring them home, shopping at local small farms and farmer’s markets encourages consumers to shop seasonally.

There is a reason why top chefs and others who demand only the best flavor from their produce plan their menus around what is in season.

The fresher the produce is, the better it tastes.

Perhaps the ancient medical traditions like Ayurveda, which have long recommended seasonal eating, somehow knew that produce picked at its peak of ripeness in accordance with the laws of nature was healthiest too.

A study found in-season broccoli (Fall) contained nearly 2X as much Vitamin C as out-of-season (Spring) broccoli.

And, according to the George Mateljan Foundation, “ … researchers in Japan found three-fold differences in the Vitamin C content of spinach harvested in Summer Vs Winter.”

Another benefit to shopping local at farmer’s markets is that many farmers encourage shoppers to taste what they are buying, so that they know if the strawberries, arugula, carrots or blueberries are ripe and ready to eat.

This is not possible at supermarkets.

Below are some “tricks” on how to buy right at the supermarket, as follows:

1. Smaller size is usually an indicator of a more tender vegetable: this works for beets, carrots, and leeks.
2. Look for greens still attached; it means they are fresher.
3. Most vegetables should be firm, as firmness is generally a sign of freshness
4. Know when your grocery stores gets their produce shipments and shop that day, for many stores, Saturday is the day with the freshest, most abundant produce, but ask the store manager to be sure.

Eat healthy, Be healthy, Live lively.

HeffX-LTN

Paul Ebeling

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