So you want to eat your vegetables because they are healthy for you and/or they taste good. Just how healthy are they though and how good could they really taste?

Tomatoes from your grocery store are typically stored for up to six weeks before being sold. Lettuces can be 2 weeks old by the time they hit to store shelf. Why is all this important?

From the moment you harvest a vegetable, they begin to lose nutritional value. The same nutrients that are responsible for their healthy benefits, also contribute to their flavor. So by the time you get home with your “fresh produce,” they’ve lost some of their health benefits and flavor. If you’re adding salads to your diet specifically for the health benefits from lettuce and the other produce, you might be disappointed to hear that there might not be as many as you thought if you’re relying on prepackaged greens.

University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 percent of vitamin C, just as one example, within a week. Some spinach can lose over 90 percent within the first 2 days after harvest.

THERE IS A BETTER WAY

Buying local from a farm you trust will give you those nutrients and flavor you’re after. Here at Nature’s Grove Farm, when we bring produce to the farmers market or you are a CSA member, your produce is harvest the day before. The supermarkets don’t even have their tractor trailer loaded yet and you are already munching on produce grown in your local community. Just think of how much more nutrients you actually get to eat and how much more flavor you actually taste that would have otherwise been lost in its trip from California to Pennsylvania.