Join Debbie as she raves about whole foods, rants about chemicals and generally celebrates cooking and eating with fresh, local, nutritious foods. And sometimes she might get a little feisty….
Inspired by Bob’s post on when cooking becomes cooking, I was pondering today how fresh something has to be so that it can be considered fresh. This is really a question with many layers, so those of you who poo-poo the frozen vegetable aisle, listen up.
Those of you who stick your nose up at canned vegetables, keep on doing that. There is never a good reason, nutritional or taste-wise to eat a sodium-soaked, soggy vegetable from a can. That’s not entirely true: canned beans are a completely inspired invention that are to be glorified by everyone, no holds barred. There’s not really such a thing as fresh beans anyway; canned or dried are pretty much your choices.
As I yanked some severely limp scallions out of my fridge tonight to use in a fresh tomato salsa I whipped up for our grilled halibut, scallions that were freshly picked from our CSA farm just a few days ago, I wondered how many nutrients could be left in the shriveled little tubes. I know they weren’t stellar examples of crops from heaven, since it has rained for almost two months here in the northeast, and I don’t look so pretty when I’m waterlogged either, but they sure didn’t look as fresh as they were.
So then I started wondering how disgustingly old the produce in the supermarket must be. It’s traveled a long way, and even though it might look OK, we just learned that looks can be deceiving. Is all that plumped-up pretty produce weeks old? Is the shriveled red pepper that’s on sale left over from last season’s harvest? You never know.
That’s why buying local is such a great idea, beyond supporting local agriculture and saving the environment by reducing fuel usage needed to transport produce. It’s a lot easier to know what you’re getting if you go to the local farm stand, farmer’s market, CSA farm — even your own yard!
So back to my thought at the end of the first paragraph, which leads me to believe that the entirety of this post was one huge digression: are frozen vegetables actually fresher than fresh ones? This idea has been tossed around a bit though the years. Over at Eating Well, they think that off-season frozen veggies retain more nutrients than the fresh ones, even though they are blanched before frozen. Since they are picked fresh and ripe and frozen right away, they beat the non-local fresh veggies.. interesting.
Is there even an answer to my original question, “How fresh is fresh?” I’m going with local whenever possible, and trying to freeze as much as I can myself so I know where it’s coming from and that it hasn’t been blanched. What do you all think?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jul 16, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I vote for using fresh produce. I feel you can tell if it has been sitting there for days or if it just arrived. I do agree buying from local farms is the best this time of year, even if the prices are a little higher. It is worth it. I believe in supporting local businesses of all kinds. It makes me sad when a small business has to close the doors. As far as frozen, let’s say I am not a fan as of now, but I will keep open for the future.