We all love our salads and our fresh fruit and veggies. So often, we all speak of how we could stay out of the stores, except for fresh goods. When I think about it - I wonder why we call it fresh!!!!!!!
It may look pretty and it may not be processed - but most things are anything but fresh.
Lettuce and cherry tomatoes are a basic for me in the winter. Not fresh either. Neither one is from my area. The tomatoes are picked before they are ripened fully to be able to survive for your purchasing pleasure. That lettuce is some of the best I have found - and it lasts forever. WHY? I find it kind of odd that it stays 'fresh' for so long! That isn't normal. I can grow lettuce and not be able to keep it as long as this.
So fresh - truly isn't fresh. Unless you grow it and pick it - or you get it straight from a farmer at a farm market - odds are the items were picked before their peak and spent weeks getting to you at your local grocer.
Canned and frozen fruit and veggies are generally packed and processed within 4 - 5 hours. They are actually far fresher and contain more nutrients than that 'fresh' we are buying. Granted canned goods have gone through heat processing - but so do our home canned goods. I try to buy canned goods that list ingredients as veggie/fruit and water or juice. No other ingredients.
Frozen items are flash frozen within a few short hours of being picked and then packaged and kept frozen. This is my ideal product to purchase IF I can't get 'fresh'! They actually contain more nutrients than the stuff in the produce department.
So, the next time you make a salad or eat an apple, banana, or orange when the snow is flying and the weather is frigid - think about just how fresh it is!
If it is not naturally grown in your area and you are not picking it yourself nor is a local farmer - well kiddos it ISN'T fresh.
We are all lured by the beauty of items in the produce department. They look so pretty - so perky - so fresh - so they have to be healthy! RIGHT?
Really stop and think about the areas that your food comes from. You know a ripe tomato can't survive a trip from another country in various trucks, and in your produce dept. for a period of time and really be fresh! A real fresh tomato from my garden doesn't last but a few days within getting soft.
How much of what we love and buy comes from nowhere remotely close to where we live?
Citrus only comes from certain area. Bananas don't grow around most of us. Melons don't grow around here in the winter. Veggies are shipped in from other regions or countries. FRESH??????
Just some "food" for thought.
Think about supplying your pantries with some canned and frozen items. They are fresher than you think!
At the onset of the pandemic, the dentist asked me where I was going to get cauliflower when the supply chains were interrupted. I told him I wasn't going to worry about cauliflower; I would eat the kale, beans, carrots, chard, etc that I had processed from my garden. Eating seasonally and putting up garden produce is essential to me.
ReplyDeleteIt surely is the best way to eat. Seasonally and foods that can be purchased in an area surrounding you. I have read books about families that stayed with only foods that could be purchased, grown or harvest (gleaned) in a 100 mile radius. It is a good method to have.
DeleteThe produce all looks pretty stacked in the bins at the store, but you're right...not fresh. I noticed that the crates holding produce at Costco have the harvested date on the front along with the suggested sell by date. Canned or frozen has more nutrients but we all like the appearance of "fresh" produce and the mouth feel. We have been buying "fresh" strawberries and they actually aren't too bad. The blueberries have been very good. We do have radishes ready to pull in the Urban Farmer's garage garden and lettuce is almost ready.
ReplyDeleteGonna get nasty...hope your outdoor kitties, and I'm talking to you Blackie!, stay in the greenhouse and stay warm.
WOW you have harvest ready? Good for you.
DeleteIt does all look pretty, and so much tastes decent - but fresh - NO!
So far so good - the girls will definitely stay in, and he has been in and eating and resting for a day and half now! Much warmer here than they said it would be today! Fingers crossed.
Makes me wonder " What did they do for fresh back in the day".
ReplyDeleteThe ate what they grew or could barter or glean. They didn't have groceries to go to. They did put food up - or canned - as we do. But if they couldn't grow it or get it from the woods - they did without. We have it so good!
DeleteThe only way i like salad is between 2 slices of bread... Not on a plate.
ReplyDeleteThe only way i eat vegs is frozen and in a stew or stirfry. I do like dark green cabbage and turnip/swede.i also like tin tomatoes.
I like bananes, small oranges and melon
Im difficult to please. Lol
We had a few flurries of snow this morning but it didn't last.
Sylvia
A salad sandwich! Hmmm - I guess I can relate. I do love a fresh tomato sandwich!
DeleteI am glad I am not difficult to please - I will eat about anything (almost!). I just like food. I figure if things ever got too bad - there would be something I would eat!!
No wonder you think many of my dishes and concoctions are strange. SMILES
We had flurries overnight - supposedly ice and sleet coming soon. I sure hope it misses us. I am real tired of that junk!
I’m so grateful for apples and carrots at this time of year because they last so long in my fridge because I know they are not fresh. Great blog post.
ReplyDeleteThey do last and I have them too.
DeleteThank you!
Interesting food for thought. It amazes me that romaine picked in Yuma, Arizona is still fresh after a month but it has been chilled and transported in refrigerated trucks. Refrigeration is the key to keeping perishables fresh. I store my winter squash in a cool dry place and eat it months after harvest. It is more ripened and delicious than when fresh picked. Apples also will develop sweetness as they rest in storage. The question that counts is how good is the nutrition? Has it suffered? But the nutritional value of fruits and veg depend on the soil from which they came. Chemically fertilized soils produce inferior foods, nutrition wise, and yet modern farm techniques favor chemicals.Just another reason to grow your own, compost and protect the beneficial microorganisms that make up healthy soil. Makes me long for spring and the garden!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. The nutritional factor is about nil for much of what we buy. I hear all the concerns about the shortages on fertilizer this year - yet organic farmers use no commercial fertilizers. I use no commercial fertilizers. Our ancestors didn't have a lot of commercial fertilizers either. It can be done. We need to eat healthy food - not just pretty food!
DeleteI grew up eating canned vegetables. It was a constant battle at dinner to get me to eat them! Sometimes we'd get frozen, which were better but not by much. I know the produce at the grocery isn't really fresh and is less nutrious, but it's so much better! Other than canned tomatoes and beets, I rarely buy any canned, and I doubt I have any frozen veggies. Maybe some corn lost in the depths of the freezer? I figure I'm old enough now I can eat what I want! I love green salad. I eat a big salad twice a day, and I admit sometimes even for breakfast. Ha! Celie
ReplyDeleteI do love salad and eating it for breakfast is cool. Sure, we can all eat what we want - we just shouldn't convince ourselves it is healthy. It has very little nutritional value unless it was picked just hours before.
DeleteI buy the 'fresh' stuff too - we all do. We all seem to think pretty and crisp means healthy!
Your so right about "fresh" not being fresh, I just call it produce anymore. I buy mostly frozen veggies and can ones. Most of the produce I buy is when I am in salad mode. Great reminder on the "fresh".
ReplyDeleteYou might like the blog and facebook One Dish Kitchen. The author has tons of recipes that she has made into 1 serving sizes. Most of her dishes take 5" cake pans, ect that are smaller than regular baking dishes.
DeleteDebbi - Salad stuff and fruit are my 'fresh' items I buy. That is about it for me.
DeleteThanks Grammy D, I will give that a check. Never thought about looking for a blog about eating for one!
DeleteMy mother canned and froze produce we grew and from the big Farmer's Market in Memphis. Or course, we ate food fresh from our garden and had eggs from our chickens. I had chickens but no longer do. I eat fresh, frozen and canned food. We are working on eating 40 lbs of sweet potatoes I picked up from the farm where they grow. I freeze and dehydrate fruits and vegetables now. Plus, I dehydrate.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many ways to extend the life of fruits and veggie for future use. I do love a salad and fruit - those are my big 'fresh' items. That is a lot of sweet potatoes! Neer been a fan of them myself.
DeleteLove eating fresh from my garden, but eating what I have picked and frozen is my best way to eat "fresh".
ReplyDeleteLiving in Canada, no fruit or vegetable is really fresh.
God bless.
I totally understand. Fresh veggies are common in the summer and some fresh fruit and berries - but once summer ends - "fresh" is not really fresh. That is what they call it - but nothing much grows here in the winter.
DeleteLook forward to fresh from the garden!!!
I live in Fla. and our fruits/vegetables are not fresh either. We have an almost year-round commercial growing season for various produce. However, in grocery stores the packaging usually state Mexico, Peru, or Brazil. Hot-house tomatoes come from Canada. Even more strange, I see alot of California produce. Why? Do the trucks pass each other on the Interstate? I just don't understand the system of food delivery.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that just the craziest thing? I am with you on WHY!
DeleteIf you can grow it locally, then it should be sold locally. I understand some things must be imported and exported - but for places like CA and Florida and states like them - it sure seems like more local items would be available.