Today's food buyer has choices which previous generations never dreamed of. At any given time of the year, they can go to the wholesaler and buy produce that was once only seasonally available. You can have strawberries in November and corn on the cob in February. One is tempted to throw restraint to the wind, offering a year-round menu of unlimited potential. But what are the best dietary provisions in Missouri Fresh Produce Market?
The problem with an all-year round menu of unlimited potential is that your offering will be mediocre, homogenized, and bland. To say nothing of not being as healthy as it could be. With produce more than anything, you can taste a very pronounced difference between an item fresh off the tree and something that's been frozen and stored in a bin for six months. True, you can't tell the difference at a steam table restaurant in the middle of the desert - but you aren't that kind of restaurant, are you?
In spring: Buy fresh artichokes, apricots, asparagus, beets, avocados, cauliflower, radishes, cherries, spinach and rhubarb. In summer: Buy corn, berries, cucumbers, garlic, eggplant and tomatoes. In fall: buy apples, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, squash, sweet peppers, pears, and sweet potatoes.
For large commercial vegetable farmers, nutritional value isn't even at the top of the agenda. In the long-gone days when all produce was local, horticulturists who were developing new strains of fruits and vegetables only had to consider taste and nutritional value.
With much of the growing and harvesting today handled by machines and with produce being shipped around the world, several other criteria take priority with taste and nutrition taking a back seat. The focus is instead on how sturdy it is, how easily it can be shipped, and the eye-appeal. When today's farmer may never even actually touch the crop, things that make it easy for machine handling like the uniformity of size even come into play.
While all of these new criteria are significant to the farmer's profits, they add nothing to the health of the consumer. If anything, they may detract from it. Sturdy product that stands up to lengthy shipping will be shipped over long distances, taking many days on its journey to your kitchen, and losing nutritional value and flavor with every day that passes between harvest and serving.
An excellent hobby for a chef is gardening. Raising a little home plot of backyard produce is good for getting you out of the kitchen and in the nature environment. And there's no comparison when you harvest - you will never forget your first bite of a tomato fresh off the vine, and from then on store-bought tomatoes will taste like licking a brick to you.
Whatever fresh yield you are buying, the golden rule is - look, smell feel, and when in doubt, don't buy it. If you have to ask yourself 'Is it good?' Then probably it isn't. Trust your instincts.
The problem with an all-year round menu of unlimited potential is that your offering will be mediocre, homogenized, and bland. To say nothing of not being as healthy as it could be. With produce more than anything, you can taste a very pronounced difference between an item fresh off the tree and something that's been frozen and stored in a bin for six months. True, you can't tell the difference at a steam table restaurant in the middle of the desert - but you aren't that kind of restaurant, are you?
In spring: Buy fresh artichokes, apricots, asparagus, beets, avocados, cauliflower, radishes, cherries, spinach and rhubarb. In summer: Buy corn, berries, cucumbers, garlic, eggplant and tomatoes. In fall: buy apples, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, squash, sweet peppers, pears, and sweet potatoes.
For large commercial vegetable farmers, nutritional value isn't even at the top of the agenda. In the long-gone days when all produce was local, horticulturists who were developing new strains of fruits and vegetables only had to consider taste and nutritional value.
With much of the growing and harvesting today handled by machines and with produce being shipped around the world, several other criteria take priority with taste and nutrition taking a back seat. The focus is instead on how sturdy it is, how easily it can be shipped, and the eye-appeal. When today's farmer may never even actually touch the crop, things that make it easy for machine handling like the uniformity of size even come into play.
While all of these new criteria are significant to the farmer's profits, they add nothing to the health of the consumer. If anything, they may detract from it. Sturdy product that stands up to lengthy shipping will be shipped over long distances, taking many days on its journey to your kitchen, and losing nutritional value and flavor with every day that passes between harvest and serving.
An excellent hobby for a chef is gardening. Raising a little home plot of backyard produce is good for getting you out of the kitchen and in the nature environment. And there's no comparison when you harvest - you will never forget your first bite of a tomato fresh off the vine, and from then on store-bought tomatoes will taste like licking a brick to you.
Whatever fresh yield you are buying, the golden rule is - look, smell feel, and when in doubt, don't buy it. If you have to ask yourself 'Is it good?' Then probably it isn't. Trust your instincts.
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When you are looking for information about s Missouri fresh produce market, come to our website today. More details are available at http://www.anthonysproduce.com now.
