3 Reasons Why Fresh is Best

It is a universal truth that fresh fruits and veggies are a staple in a well-rounded healthy diet. Fresh veggies dipped in some hummus or fresh fruit on top of yogurt are my favorite snacks. They give you that pick me up midafternoon and satisfy my need for crunch without having to reach for the chips or my need for sweet without reaching for the leftover easter chocolate (which let’s face it I really should have thrown out by now). That being said, not all “fresh” is equal, the “fresh” I get from the fresh produce aisle at the market is not equal to the fresh produce I harvest from my garden. There are multiple reasons store bought is not equal to locally grown and we discuss some of them in our blog post “Is Eating Local Really Important?” but today we will focus on the “fresh” in Fresh produce, the difference at a nutritional level. 

Fresh is defined as “recently made or obtained; not canned, frozen, or otherwise preserved” it is synopsis to newly harvested so can this term really be used to define grocery store veggies? 

#1 Beat the breakdown!

Once cut from the plant or pulled from the earth a fruit or vegetable begins to lose available minerals and vitamins which is exactly what we rely on our produce to supply us with! In nature when a fruit falls off or a plant dies it starts to break down so that it can be recycled and its nutrients used to feed the next generation of plants. A berry that you pick from your garden, or a cucumber undergoes the same process. The enzymes in the produce get to work breaking its nutrients down, it is a slow but steady process. A cucumber that has to sit on a truck for a week to be delivered to a grocery store where it will then sit on the shelf for days before you pick it up will have less available minerals and vitamins and nutrients for your body, because some has already been digested by the cucumber itself. On the other hand, the one you picked this morning and are now cutting up with your tomatoes for a wonderful summer salad (my favorite seasonal summer salad recipe!) is going to give you the full benefit of all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that it gathered while on the vine. 

#2 Take Control of Your Storage

When you pick the produce fresh from your garden you are in control of how it is processed and stored. Many large production farms have ways of preserving produce so that it retains its “freshness” as long as possible; many of these involve coating it with something like wax. The less treatments or coatings your produce goes through the better and when you pick it at home you don’t have to do anything else to it. When you’ve harvested the crop yourself you also know exactly how long ago it was harvested and when you need to use it by, the use by labels on fresh produce at stores is often confusing and not as accurate. Nothing upsets me more after a shopping trip than coming home with a carton of berries that I checked over at least three times and compared to 5 other cartons only for there to be a rotten one snuggled right in the center infecting all its neighbors and I have to throughout 5 berries and cut up 5 more to save them. When you harvest fresh from your garden you can store the produce right away in a cool place and keep track of it with precision. 

#3 It Just Tastes Better

Have you ever wondered why a store bought tomato or strawberry doesn’t taste as rich and isn’t as soft as the one you pick? Once again, it’s all about transport. Produce produced by a large farmer has to be transported across the country sometimes and with this in mind they choose their cultivars and harvest differently. You can choose to grow an heirloom tomato that grows large and soft and let it ripen on the vine as long as you want because you simply have to pick it and take it into your kitchen. A production grower has to pick tomato cultivars that are tougher and then as soon as they reach maturity while they are still green, they must be picked and processed so that they do not bruise or go bad in transit. It’s no wonder that your tomato will taste better from the garden. This is similar across all produce in your garden you have the freedom to manage each plant and each fruit or vegetable individually, taking only what is ready to harvest. You can also skip all the other processing like wax coating and artificial hormone ripening.

The fresh produce from your grocery store is still good food but it lacks all the benefits and richness of locally grown food and its important to know what kind of processing your food goes through before it reaches your kitchen. Take control of your fresh produce and make sure you are getting the full benefits of the fruit or vegetable by growing your own or buying local!