Preparing Fresh Produce For Consumption

Properly preparing fruits and vegetables will increase the health benefits of consuming the fresh produce and limit the risk of coming into contact with harmful bacteria or contagions.

Without a doubt, fresh produce will provide vitamins, minerals, and more when they are eaten. Components of fresh produce can also help to protect the body from certain health conditions, such as heart disease and stroke. However, according to the CDC, sometimes detrimental germs can end up on the surfaces of raw fruits and vegetables. These germs include salmonella, listeria, and other things that can make you sick. This doesn’t mean that the produce was mishandled while it was growing. However, it does indicate that the fruits and vegetables became contaminated at some time during the the trip to the grocery store or marketplace.

With this in mind, it is very important to be mindful when buying produce. When purchasing fresh produce, you should strive to select undamaged fruits and vegetables. They don’t have to be perfect in appearance, but avoid buying any produce that has noticeable gashes or bruises that would allow bacteria easy access. Additionally, if you are buying pre-cut produce, make sure that the items are visibly stored in a refrigerator or on ice. The North Carolina Consumers Council suggests storing foods in a clean refrigerator that is set to 40° F or below. If they are not stored at an appropriate temperature, produce can spoil or become contaminated.

When storing fresh produce, you should also keep them separate from raw items such as meat and seafood. Doing this helps prevent bacteria that can reside in raw proteins from cross-contaminating the produce.

When it comes to preparing the fruits and vegetables, the first step is always to wash your hands with soap and warm water. Always use running water to clean produce; you don’t need to invest in commercial fruit washes, but you should use a produce brush for produce with hard skin. Use a paper towel or clean dish cloth to dry the produce and remove any remaining dirt or grime.

Following the above suggestions will help ensure that the foods you consume are safe and nutritious. However, if you feel that you’ve gotten a foodborne illness anyway, the FDA recommends visiting your healthcare provider immediately. Foodborne illnesses can occur within minutes of eating contaminated foods. Illness symptoms can also appear days or weeks later. Taking precautions with your fresh produce can limit your chances of getting sick while also providing you with the most health benefits.

Cranberry Bogs: Growing, Protecting, & Harvesting

You may have seen commercials featuring waist-deep reserves of water and floating berries, but how much do you really know about growing and harvesting cranberries? There are reasons behind the flooded fields and cranberry bogs; other methods of harvesting the fruits exist, as well.

Cranberry harvesting occurs in autumn, usually until mid-November. While all cranberries were once harvested by hand, the scale of cranberry production has rendered this method obsolete and inefficient. Because of the sheer volume of berries produced (between 5.45 and 14.4 tons per acre in 2016 alone), innovation has led to unique, time-saving methods of growing, protecting, and of course, harvesting them.

 

Irrigation

Though cranberries are not aquatic plants as media might have you believe, they do thrive in wetland environments known as bogs. In the off-season, cranberry plants can tolerate saturated soil, but this is not ideal for healthy growth. Utilizing an irrigation system to deliver an appropriate amount of water to the cranberry plants throughout the day, especially during the summer when temperatures rise and the air is dry, can help prevent damage from occurring.

Winter Flooding

Because of the risk of winterkill, or the event in which plants are killed by winter conditions such as low temperatures and frost, farmers had to identify the best way to protect their plants over the winter months. The most effective way to protect cranberry fields is by flooding them, providing a protective layer of water that freezes around the plants and effectively preserves them until spring.

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To learn about how cranberries are harvested, read on at EliteFarms.org

How This Vegetable-Growing Startup Became 400 Times More Productive Than Traditional Farms

Looking back into human history thousands upon thousands of years ago, the advent of agriculture is what ultimately gave way for the human population to grow more rapidly than ever before; this eventually led to the world we know today. In other words, agriculture has been an essential part of the human race’s success since the beginning of time. That being said, that doesn’t mean even now, years and years later, it’s the most effective process.

Sure today, the world depends on far fewer farmers than it once did due to constant improvements in agricultural technology – modern farmers have greater yields per acre of land than any farmer of yesteryear. One thing has stayed the same since the dawn of agriculture, however – farmers have always used land as the foundation that their figurative grain silos of success are built on. Today’s agriculture sector benefits from countless modern marvels that make today’s farming relatively easy. Society also gets better-tasting food than our ancestors due to domesticated strains of plants.

Agriculture’s greatest minds bestowed upon modern farmers an idea.

Vertical farming is a relatively new method of farming that uses large metal racks that hold countless trays of miniature farms – in a sense, at least. The earth only has so much land space, though vertical farming is expanding the available room to farm tenfold at a minimum.

Vertical farming isn’t just a theoretical pipe dream of a practice – here’s a company that has been practicing it for years.

AeroFarms is a startup in the realm of vertical farming. The field isn’t the hottest in Silicon Valley, New York City, or Los Angeles, per se, though New Jersey’s own AeroFarms is certainly doing well for itself.

The agriculture technology startup employs precisely 120 people at its Newark-based warehouse. Its facility is essentially the same thing as packing acres of farmland under one roof; one wide-open farmland’s worth of vegetables, grains, other plants, and fungi is packed inside the middle of the city of Newark.

Being able to grow so much food without being forced to buy or rent many acres of land in a far-away rural area is also highly convenient. AeroFarms further finds itself able to sell its product throughout the city of Newark; just about all of the stores with produce in them within a few miles of AeroFarms use its products – that’s market domination.

Believe it or not, AeroFarms’ indoor crops’ yields are 400 times that of traditional, farms. Is vertical the next step into the farming future?

 

Seasonal Spotlight: Strawberry Season 101

Summer’s bountiful harvest is all around us and one of nature’s greatest gift is the strawberry. As the most cultivated berry in the nation, the strawberry is available as a farm fresh product in every state. With more than 600 varieties of this venerable fruit grown in the U.S., there is a strawberry for every taste and preference. Boasting healthy doses of vitamin C and other powerful antioxidants, strawberries are the perfect summertime treat. Here are a few tips on how to make the most out of strawberry season:

CHOOSING: When selecting strawberries, choose varieties that look plump and firm. The brighter berries will have the freshest and deepest taste. Running the strawberry through a smell test is an easy and effective way to ensure that you are choosing the freshest and juiciest strawberries. Also consider the variety and which season they perform best during. Earliglows are a great tart spring strawberry while Allstars are a heartier berry with a bit longer growing season.

WASHING: While you may be tempted to take your fresh picked strawberries straight to the sink, don’t wash the strawberries until are you are ready to eat them. Doing so will dry the berries out and dilute the flavor. The best way to clean the strawberries is to place them in a colander under running cold water, following this with a gentle pat dry with a clean towel.

HULLING: Because the green tops of the strawberries are not edible, special care must be taken to remove this inedible portion. The easiest way to do this is with a specially-designed strawberry huller. However, the task can also be finished with a simple knife. Place the tip of the knife into the base of the strawberry cap and gently turn until the green cap and white fleshy core pops right out of the berry.

FREEZING: Freezing any leftover strawberries is an ideal way to preserve the fresh summer flavor of these delectables. After hulling the berries, lay them flat on a baking sheet and then freeze overnight. Store them in a freezer in an airtight freezer bag until ready to use. When properly stored, frozen strawberries will keep fresh for up to one year.

SERVING IDEAS: Strawberries can be consumed plain or in a variety of dishes. Some ideas include using strawberries in salads, as the starring ingredient in pies and muffins, over shortcake with whipped cream, in smoothies, or as part of a fun summer cocktail such as a fruity sangria. Check out some fun recipes from BonAppetit.com here.