Make Friends with a Farmer
We’re headed into the last phase of summer – the lazy days and heat of August.
We feel compelled to seize the last few weeks to squeeze in fun and enjoy summer’s bounties before most of us re-engage in the hustle bustle of kicking back into the higher gear of fall.
It reminds me that there is no better time to visit our local Farmers’ Markets to take advantage of the height of summer’s bounty.
Hopefully many of you are in the habit of doing this.
I know I can get lazy about visiting the summer Farmers’ Markets - even when I have the best intentions.
In the busy rush of our everyday lives … sometimes it does take more effort to remember … and sometimes go out of our way to pay a visit to these local markets. And often I’ve just stocked up on organic produce from my supermarket … and feel like I don’t need to do anything more.
So whether you’re a Farmer’s Market addict … or don’t pay too much attention to them … stay with me, and keep reading. I think you might find the below information really interesting.
If you’ve been lazy about taking advantage of your local produce - this might make you want to figure out how to make it a weekly habit.
First thing, that bunch of fresh arugula I buy at the Farmer’s Market is not the same arugula as that bunch I buy at the grocery.
Think about it this way:
Plants need light and photosynthesis for nutrient production, so the moment they are picked, their nutrient status starts declining.
Most of what we buy in the store has been picked, taken to a dark warehouse, then put on a dark truck for a few days, then transported to another dark warehouse, where it is finally transported to the local supermarkets.
When we buy “fresh” produce at the grocery, it is far from its pick date - days, weeks, and sometimes even months from when it was picked. While it still looks good, its nutritional status is significantly diminished.
Sure - makes sense if we think about our modern food system and complex distribution networks. But with our fast paced lifestyles … we just don’t think about it a lot.
Conversely - the produce at the Farmers’ Market is just picked … often organic … and definitely local. It enables us to maximize the phytonutrients that are so powerful for protecting our bodies.
A quick word on phytonutrients - as I think they’re pretty cool. Because plants can’t fight their enemies on their own (like insects, disease, inclement weather and foraging animals), they protect themselves by producing chemical compounds that defend them when they are attacked.
More than 8,000 different phytonutrients have been identified - and every plant produces several hundred of them. While they act as the plant’s defense system, for us they are powerful antioxidants that help provide protection against free radicals that can wreak havoc in the form of inflammation, cancer, obesity, and cholesterol levels, just to name a few.
So circling back … that arugula from the Farmers’ Market is profoundly different from that organic arugula I buy at Trader Joe’s. The Farmers’ Market arugula offers much more of an abundance of the healthy antioxidants our body’s need.
There are also some tricks to administer when you get home to preserve nutrient levels and prolong shelf life - especially when it comes to lettuce and greens.
This advice comes from Jo Robinson, the author of a really interesting book called Eating on the Wild Side. It’s a great resource for learning about how to maximize nutrients in the foods we eat.
When you return home, rather than tossing that lettuce in the fridge, take 10 minutes to pull off the leaves, rinse them and then soak them for 10 minutes in very cold water. This slows the aging process and infuses them with internal moisture, which will keep them crisper, longer.
Then spin or pat them dry. It’s important to make sure there is no moisture left on the leaves as this will promote faster decay. You want the moisture on the inside.
Now get this …
If you tear up the lettuce before you store it, you can actually double its nutrient/antioxidant value.
The plant is responding to our own assault against it - just as if it were being nibbled on by an insect. It’s weapon? The toxic chemical defense of phytonutrients to fend off the predator.
The good news is - while these chemical compounds are toxic for most of the plant’s predators … that doesn’t include us.
So when we eat those torn greens, we are benefiting from an even greater level of antioxidants. Pretty cool, huh? BUT … Just know that you should consume those greens within a couple of days if you do tear them up, because tearing will also hasten their decay.
Another way to preserve phytonutrients in greens is through proper storage.
Put the greens in a resealable plastic bag, squeeze out as much air as possible, seal, then use a pin to prick it with ten holes if a quart sized bag, and 20 if it’s larger. Then put it in the crisper drawer.
These tiny holes help to provide an ideal level of humidity, as well as the beneficial exchange of gasses. An excerpt from Jo Robinson states:
“When fruits and vegetables are harvested, they do not die in the customary sense of the word, even though they are detached from the plant. They continue to consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide; in other words, they “breathe.” If you store the greens in a tightly sealed bag without the pinpricks, the carbon dioxide levels rise and the oxygen declines. After a few days, the lettuce leaves will begin to die from lack of oxygen. As a result, their fresh flavor and most of their phytonutrients will disappear.
The opposite problem occurs when you put the greens in an unsealed bag or in the crisper drawer of your fridge without any covering. In this case, the lettuce is exposed to so much oxygen that it begins to respire very rapidly. As it does, it uses up its stored sugar and antioxidants, making them unavailable for you. The lettuce will also go limp because the humidity inside the fridge is too low to maintain the internal moisture of the leaves.”
So bottom line? Maximize your phytonutrient intake. How? Shop a wide variety of colorful produce at Farmers’ Markets. It feels good to support our local farmers, and it’s also one of the very best things we can do for our health.