There are many reasons to eat locally grown foods. Over the next 2 months, I’ll be sharing 7 of those reasons.
Today, it’s all about freshness.
You’ve got 2 apples in front of you. One was picked from an apple tree in another country, thrown -probably not so gently – into a box, and flown here to your trusty grocery store. The other apple was picked from a tree growing right in your area. That means that it had much fewer people handling it and much less distance to travel.
Imagine how much jet-lag that poor apple that was flown from another country has? Because it’s lost some of its freshness, it has lost nutrients, and it’s not going to be able to work as hard for you as, say, our local apple can. Our local apple, well, he’s not quite so tired. He can do more! He’s fresher, spunkier, and therefore has more nutrients.
Which one would you choose? I’m not sure about you, but I’d much prefer the spunky, more nutrient-filled apple. It’s going to work harder for me, and it’s going to taste better too. It’s a no-brainer, really.
Think it might be too much trouble to get to this local apple? I’m here to tell you that it is not! In fact, it is easier. To get that over-worked, tired apple, you have to drive to the grocery store, fight your fellow grocery shoppers in their let’s-get-this-shopping-trip-over-with stupors, wait in a long line, and make it home. Sounds exhausting to me. To get the local apple, all you have to do is to order your weekly box from Wintergreen Organics, and it will be delivered to YOU.
So, next time you’re about to bite into a fruit or vegetable, consider where it came from. Has it made a long journey from where it was born to your table? Or has it only had to take a hop, skip, and jump to get to you? If you want fresher, more nutrient-filled produce, it will be the latter.
Stay tuned for next week’s post for reason #2 to eat local!