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My nearby Whole Foods already has 'California strawberries' in the produce section. How is that possible in March?
They are already here in California. South of me. We had a pretty dry winter. And don’t forget winter for us isn’t very cold, we just get rain. And many parts of the state do not get any rain at all. Strawberries show up typically in March and sometimes a bit earlier.
Suit yourself, you are free to ignore the warning. But the so called "fresh" food in the produce section is not fresh unless it was locally produced, and picked within several days.
I only buy cherry tomatoes at the grocer. IMO they continue to have decent flavor whatever the season, although it is not consistent.
I long for the tomatoes of late summer. But, even then, it is hard to find a truly flavorful, ripe tomato. Backyard tomatoes are best. Truck farm tomatoes are often a distant second best. Tomatoes at the grocer are a waste of money, in my experience.
And I honestly dislike the newer strains of sweet corn. Even when turning starchy, the flavor stays sweet. But, to me, the flavor of a fresh ear tastes fake. But even then, it is better than starchy flavorless corn you used to find at the grocer.
We buy a lot of produce at our local farmers’ market when we can. I like buying what is in season. I could easily pig out on fresh peaches! And fresh strawberries.
I have a pick-your-own peach orchard fifteen minutes away. It opens for picking in late July, and the season runs until maybe the beginning of September, by which time the apples are ready.
It's become something I do each year with my oldest sister. We go peach-picking and then get lunch somewhere. And OH, those fresh-picked peaches are good.
Depends on the fruit or vegetable in question: many do ripen after they are picked. The whole point of harvesting them early is to allow them to ripen while in transit to the areas that do not have the luxury of fresh-picked produce. If you would like to demonstrate that they are measurably less nutritious this way, please do so with science-based evidence, not blog posts.
Really, picture yourself mid-February: snow up to the window sills, and the last of your home-canned harvest has been eaten. It’ll be months before you’ll see green earth, let alone pickable fruit. The apples at the IGA were picked just last week and trucked in from Peru, and the only other alternative is a few mealy, brown-spotted local apples picked back in October. THAT is the whole point of having produce shipped in from points south, when fresh local produce is inaccessible.
How can produce ripen properly in an unnatural environment? And how on earth did people who lived in earlier times ever survive without food shipped from another continent, or not being able to go to their local Whole Foods? Yes, there was trade, but that doesn't usually include staples. They ate in season, and had root cellars to store food stuffs in, they preserved foods, and knew which types of foods to grow that would store through the winter. Everybody prepared throughout the warmer seasons for the wintertime. In general all western modern man knows how to do is go to the store for their food.
Anybody who has done any reading at all on this subject is already aware of what goes on in the food industry. If you prefer artificially manipulated, gassed, irradiated, and waxed food that is kept in a high carbon dioxide warehouse then be my guest. I know that we have to eat, and I end up eating some of this stuff too.
All I said in the beginning is to buy in season, buy local, and organic when you can afford to because it's healthier. If you don't agree with my simple premise, then the burden of proof is on you.
How can produce ripen properly in an unnatural environment? And how on earth did people who lived in earlier times ever survive without food shipped from another continent, or not being able to go to their local Whole Foods? Yes, there was trade, but that doesn't usually include staples. They ate in season, and had root cellars to store food stuffs in, they preserved foods, and knew which types of foods to grow that would store through the winter. Everybody prepared throughout the warmer seasons for the wintertime. In general all western modern man knows how to do is go to the store for their food.
Anybody who has done any reading at all on this subject is already aware of what goes on in the food industry. If you prefer artificially manipulated, gassed, irradiated, and waxed food that is kept in a high carbon dioxide warehouse then be my guest. I know that we have to eat, and I end up eating some of this stuff too.
All I said in the beginning is to buy in season, buy local, and organic when you can afford to because it's healthier. If you don't agree with my simple premise, then the burden of proof is on you.
They canned food that they produced in season. And they went MONTHS without fresh fruits and vegetables.
Well OK. But what can you do? But the freshest, buy organic when you can, and eat as much raw as possible.
There is no way to always have fresh produce directly from garden to table. In order to do so you would have to live in a subtropical climate and own a large garden that you managed yourself. Most of us cannot do that. So we do what we can.
I honestly think the cause of obesity for many of us is that we simply eat too much. Food is always available to most of us. And of course junk food is most freely available to us all the time. We do not burn up the calories we eat, because most of us are not athletes or farm workers or ditch diggers.
And, for restaurants, veggies are not important the way protein and starch are. They are often not prepared well, and they do not lend themselves to the mass production of fast food. I do think this reflects the priorities of many households though. Veggies often are not important enough to do right, or to spend very much money on.
But, believe me, there is more abundance of good produce now than at any time I can remember. And I take advantage of this.
Yes (o:, what I was talking about is more of an ideal to aspire to. You change what you can. Personally I need to eat better if it kills me, lol. I learned about eating locally, and in season from the slow food movement which makes a lot of sense to me, and I wanted to share it. Diary of a Foodie was a cool show too. They would visit several local farms, and then have a dinner from those farms at the end.
That coupled with organic farming practices is, to me, ideal. But I live on my social security now so have to make my money stretch. I can't go hog wild on the more expensive selections. A couple weeks ago while exploring my new town on foot I found a family farm that sells real farm eggs, yay. So now I have a source for that. In Colorado I used to have a cow share where I got raw milk, and cream every week. It was sooo good. Then in Washington state you could buy raw milk at certain stores. You didn't need a cow share. This new farm sells salad greens, berries, and other goodies in season. So I will try to work some of this better food into my diet along with the "other" stuff I should eat less of.
Slow Food Movement
"At its heart is the aim to promote local foods and traditional gastronomy and food production. Conversely this means an opposition to fast food, industrial food production and globalization."
They canned food that they produced in season. And they went MONTHS without fresh fruits and vegetables.
Yes, they had many methods of preserving food, but I think canning is relatively more recent. According to wiki from the early 1800's. But it's a great method. Another method is lacto fermentation. Sauerkraut, and Kimchi use that as well as others.
About going months without fresh fruits, and vegetables, I remember a story I ready about the 1700's on the frontier that brother, and sister each got an apple for Christmas, and it was a wonderful treat. I bet it tasted so very good to them.
I just found this neat chart that shows the shelf life of different root crops that they may have stored away. It sounds yummy, maybe with some homemade bread, and a roasted chicken from the old hen. Then make some soup from it's carcass, and some of the root vegetables below. I want some ;oD.
That's not even the half of it. I live in Florida, and I at one time had fruit trees galore, but then here comes the county with a letter demanding that my trees be cut down because there is some disease outbreak in the area. They took almost all of my trees save my mango and avocado trees. Many places are putting up laws that prohibit residents from growing edible gardens on their homestead without a license. Talk about the USA becoming more and more communist by the day.
Are you talking about actual laws or HOA rules? I have never heard of any city/county/state banning growing fruit and vegetables in your yard
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