If you have been buying organic produce for a long time, you’ll know that salad – or mesclun mix – wasn’t sold commercially in this country until the late 1980s. Even then, it wasn’t due to customer demand that it got started here in the US – it came from a desire to bring different flavors and textures to the American palette. Organic pioneers like Alice Waters and Warren Webber of Star Route farms played an essential role in bringing this organic staple to our dinner tables, and Earthbound – which has been producing salad for 25 years – helped to launch an entire industry.
Yes, I said a staple of American produce purchases; after all, packaged salads are the #1 selling organic produce item in the country. It’s easy to understand why: it’s convenient, tasty, and there are so many options to choose from. Mixed salad greens, baby arugula, herb mix, romaine salad, kits with dressing…the list goes on and on.

This brings us to a study led by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists, which found that the package you choose in your produce department may have an effect on the amount of nutrients you will get from your salad. Think about it – do you just grab the front package from the display? Or do you reach behind and try to get the one with the longest date? Either way, you’ll find the study done at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Crop Quality and Fruit Insects Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas to be of interest.

For the study, the researchers stored spinach at 39 degrees (the temperature it is stored at most stores) in market-type, light-transmissible polymer tubs with snap-tight lids. Then they exposed spinach leaves to light similar to the 24-hour artificial fluorescent light received by spinach in packages located at the front of the salad case.
At the same time they gave another batch of spinach leaves the dark treatment, so to speak. In this part of the study they put the leaves in double brown paper grocery bags. Guess what they found? Spinach leaves exposed to the continuous light had a significant increase in levels of carotenoids and vitamins C, E, K, and folate. So while you may get a little more shelf life reaching to the back, the healthier choice may be right there in the light!

In the children’s story Goldilocks, the titular character looked around the bears’ house for the perfect bed to nap in. One was too soft, one was too hard – and one was juuuust
right. Buying citrus can often be like Goldilocks’ experience when it comes to
flavor. Some are too sweet (yes, my friends, I do believe fruit can be too sweet -
especially when that is all you taste and the true flavor is hidden by the sugar),
some are too tart…but in the case of Minneola tangelos at the end of February,
they can be just right! The waning weeks of February and the beginning weeks of March are when Minneolas have the perfect blend of sweet and tart, and with this being such a great citrus year due to the low rainfall you can expect to find great tasting fruit wherever you go.

The Minneola gets its sweet-tart flavor from its parents, as it is a cross between a
Duncan grapefruit and a Dancy tangerine. So how do you pick the best fruit? As
always, look for fruit with the following qualities:
• Firm and heavy for its size. Pick up a few and you should be able to tell
right away.
• Isn’t too soft, or have soft spots.
• Has bright, shiny, slightly pebbly skin. If it is wrinkled or shriveled it has
started to age and may be dry inside.
• Has a scent that smells fresh and fragrant with no hint of fermentation.

Minneolas do well in your fruit bowl, as they can keep at room temperature for
three or four days if they are kept out of the warmest part of the house. Like most
citrus they prefer between 45° and 48° F so after a few days it’s best to move
them into the refrigerator. If you need them to last longer, they can keep for up to two weeks if you store them in the refrigerator when you get them home.

Minneola’s make a really nice juice – so much so that juice makers are now including
some Minneola juice in their OJ. If you’d like to make some juice at home here are a few quick tips that may helpful.

- It will take 2 to 4 medium Minneola Tangelos to make 1 cup of juice.
- If you are using zest in a recipe, 1 medium Minneola Tangelo will provide about 4
teaspoons of zest.
- Lastly, to get the most vitamins from your Minneola juice, make your juice as
close to the time you’ll be drinking it as possible. And for the best flavor do not store freshly
squeezed Minneola juice for more than 48 hours.

There are always so many choices for carrots when you go shopping at the store: loose, baby, 1-5 pound bags – and they are all good for you and quite flavorful! However, my favorites during this time of year are the bunched carrots, as they just seem to be a little bit sweeter and a touch more tender.

When you buy your bunched carrots, look for carrots with no cracks or damage and bright green tops that look fresh and perky. Choose the ones with the brightest color as the brighter the color, the sweeter the carrot – and of course a darker orange means more beta-carotene for you.
When you get them home, cut off the greens before storing them in the fridge as leaving them on robs the carrots of moisture and essential vitamins. You can store your carrots in the refrigerator in a plastic bag or a sealed container, and they’ll keep for 7 to 10 days.
Make sure you keep them away from fruits such as apples and pears, as the ethylene gas those fruits release can make your carrots bitter. If you’ve keep your carrots around a bit you may notice a dry white coating or bloom on them; it’s not mold – it’s a sign of dehydration. You can take care of that by soaking your carrots in ice water for about 10 minutes. The white will disappear and they will regain their bright orange color.

A few more tips: first, always wash and scrub carrots before using, because they’re harvested directly from the soil. Peeling is a matter of choice; depending on your preference and the size of the roots you buy. Larger carrots can sometimes be bitter and if there is any bitterness it will be in the peel – so give ‘em a bite before you break out the peeler!

When I was a produce manager, customers would often ask me: what’s the best bunch of greens to eat to get the most calcium? When I first heard this, I would recommend greens like arugula or collards – then I realized that some folks may not like these greens due to their strong flavor during certain times of the year. So then I started asking them what greens they did like, and tailored my recommendations around that. After all, it doesn’t matter how much calcium or antioxidants a particular green has if you won’t eat it, right?

Well, whether you are a fan of fresh bunched greens or not, now is the time to eat them. Why? Because even though they grow year-round, in the winter they are especially good because the cold makes them sweeter. With the mild but cool weather we have had around most of the country this winter, greens are abundant, tasty, and reasonably priced.

When choosing fresh greens like kale or chard look for fresh green, red, or purple leaves. In the spring the rule of thumb would be to choose bunches with smaller leaves, as they would be more tender than greens grown in warmer months. In the winter, however, you can have smaller leaves and bunches and still use leaves that are a little less tender since it takes them longer to grow in the colder nights.
There is a bonus to this besides the sweeter flavor: in many tests, organic greens have shown to be higher in antioxidants because winter plants have to work harder to grow, which makes them stressed. Stress in a plant creates more antioxidants, and more antioxidants can make you healthier!
If you are not sure how much to buy, figure that you get about two cups cooked for every pound (or 6 cups) of raw kale.

When you are at the store look for greens that are kept in a chilled display case or on ice. While this is the most common way to buy them, sometimes during big promotions a store may pile them off the chilled display for quick sales. Greens left off refrigeration will wilt faster and will not hold up as long when you get them home. Kale in particular will become bitter if left in a warm place for a long period of time.

When you get them home, place unwashed organic greens in a plastic bag in the refrigerator and they will keep for up to a week in the crisper drawer. If you prefer milder greens you should plan on eating them sooner than later as the taste becomes stronger the longer they are stored.
If you find a good deal on greens and want to stock up, you can freeze them and use them in recipes later on. Just wash your greens and dry them well. Yes – even organic greens should be washed as it may have dirt or grit stuck to the leaves and may have been handled by many people. The easiest way is to fill your sink, dip your unbanded bunch into the water and swirl around letting the grit settle to the bottom. Once should be enough but with particularly sandy greens like spinach you may want to do it again.

Pat them dry with a paper towel then chop by hand into small pieces or mince in a food processor.
Place chopped greens in a bag or container and freeze. Minced, frozen greens can be used similar to raw since they thaw very quickly.
Greens are so healthy for you and really quite versatile: they can be steamed and added to a can of soup, laid in a tortilla with hummus and cheese for a healthy quesadilla, or wilted on top of pasta. Healthy, hearty and full of flavor – what’s not to like?

Enjoy the bounty.

If you look at the latest statistics on the growth of local food, you’ll see that we’ve come quite a ways in a very short time. Here are just a few:

• Direct-to-consumer marketing amounted to $1.2 billion in 2007, compared with $551 million in 1997.
• The number of farmers markets rose to 5,274 in 2009, up from 2,756 in 1998 and 1,755 in 1994.
• The number of farm to school programs, which use local farms for school meals programs, increased to 2,095 in 2009, up from 400 in 2004 and 2 in 1996-97.

And yet, with all of this growth in local food you may find these USDA statistics about imported food consumptions even more surprising:

• The food we eat that is imported from other countries has grown 11.3 percent in the past two decades. Equaling almost 16.8 percent today.
• Since 1975 we’ve more than doubled the amount of imported fruit we eat to where it makes up about half of our total consumption.

Now, it could be that there is just more available to us, as we have become a global society – or it could be that as more people immigrate to our country they are bringing new flavors from home with them, which allows all of us to expand our palettes.
Our palettes are changing as well. Consider that we eat about 4 pounds less apples per year than we than we did 3 decades ago, and our consumption of mangoes, kiwi, avocadoes, and papaya has gone up. If this means we are eating more fruits and vegetables, it’s good. But we still must be mindful of what we choose! After all, we did have low levels of carbendazim (a fungicide that isn’t approved in the U.S.) discovered in some orange juice from Brazil (a major supplier for the U.S.) sold here this past month. This is another great reason to choose organic.
So where does this leave us? With lots of great food choices! Especially when you consider that according to Organic Monitor, global organic sales reached $50.9 billion in 2008 – double the $25 billion recorded in 2003. So you can support local, expand your plate and tastes, and support your beliefs as well. I guess if you want, you can have your fruit and eat it too!