If you eat organic, nutritional content is important to you, right?
I've been at the farm for years and have to share with you what I've learned & what makes Sage Mountain Farm unique! A look into the scientific facts about the nutrition of produce on store shelves, creates an uncomfortable revelation about the food we're serving our families.
Did you know that the nutritional merits of fruits and vegetables steadily loose vitamins while in storage and transit? That the antioxidants decrease rapidly after harvest making it difficult to reap the full health benefits of fresh produce?
Four big factors that impact the nutritional value of the produce you eat:
-The ripeness of the produce
-The length of time since harvest
-The varieties chosen
-The harvesting methods
Sage Mountain Farms produce:
-Only the best nutrient rich, flavorful seed varieties
-Hand-picked & handled
-Harvested at the peak of ripeness, maximizing nutrient content
-Harvested to order! Your order is harvested and delivered within 24-48 hours.
-Minimal travel necessary (none for farm pick ups CSA & Farm Stand)
Let me show you some examples of why this should be important to you:
Studies have shown that tomatoes harvested green have 31% less vitamin C than those allowed to ripen on the vine (Lee and Kader, 2000). Vine ripened red peppers too, have about 30% more vitamin C than green peppers (Howard et al., 1994). It is not just vitamin C content that is reduced, in fact vine ripened tomatoes contain more of the important antioxidants beta carotene and lycopene than those harvested prematurely (Arias et al., 2000).
Lettuce loses 46% of some key nutrients within seven days of cold storage. Spinach loses 22% of lutein and 18% of beta carotene content after just eight days of cold storage (Ramberg and McAnnelley, 2002). Culinary herbs, when used fresh, contain significant amounts of antioxidants. These antioxidants decrease rapidly after harvest making it difficult to reap the full health benefits of fresh culinary herbs with products from commercial grocery stores (Bottino, 2010).
Nothing compares to the juicy flavor of a tomato picked fresh off the vine and eaten right in the garden. Today's global food system ensures that we can find ripe tomatoes any day of the year in any store across the country but the flavor of those tomatoes is often a far cry from that deep red, vine ripened fruit in your garden or the next best thing, Sage Mountain Farms CSA box. Moreover the fresh produce we find in our grocery stores today actually contains fewer nutrients than the same types of produce did just 30 years ago.
Did you know that in 1951, an adult woman could meet her daily requirements of vitamin A by eating two peaches? But by 2002, she would need to eat 53 peaches to obtain the same amount of vitamin A !!! (Ramberg and McAnnelley, 2002). Commercial agriculture of the 21st century seems focused on enhancing shelf life of produce, often at the expense of taste and nutrition. This means that maximizing your nutrient dollar in our current grocery store climate is a daunting task and can result in produce lacking in both flavor and quality.
The perceived convenience of global food sourcing and mass shipping of produce to achieve lower prices has been a detriment to our diets and our planet.
I hope you join a local CSA today and insure that farm fresh produce is available for you and your family every day. It really has made a difference in my life. read more