Related Posts

• Fresh Year, Fresh Food

  Many people find it easier to start a new diet plan as part of the fresh start a new year offers. Stocking your kitchen with locally grown produce will set you on the road to a healthier year. At the Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermen’s Market, you will find this month:Cabbage, Napa cabbage, turnip greens, collards, mustards, kale, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, bok choy, carrots, radishes, rutabagas, and other green, leafy vegetables and those with edible roots. Fruits include beets, strawberries, and satsumas. Fill your basket, then your kitchen (here is a link for vegetable storage tips http://www.popsugar.com/…/How-Keep-Fruits-Vegetables-Fresh-…), then your belly with delicious and healthy foods.  -Liz Tetley-

• Recipes from the market- Black eye Peas

    The entire experience of using Coastal Alabama Farmers’ and Fishermen’s Market results in using fresh foods as well as using what’s “on hand” in order to create something economical, healthy, and good.  Many times when I come home from shopping at the Market with a head of broccoli, I cut into florets or a bunch of carrots, I dice into bite-sized pieces, and just steaming either or both of these slightly is wonderful.  Add a little salt and/or some flavored vinegar and it’s a treat.  That’s one of the great things about being fresh from the farmers who grow vegetables – most food is picked the day before and nothing tastes better than a really fresh vegetable – something you can’t find in a grocery store.  Fresh steamed broccoli or carrots for lunch with a slice of bread.  Fantastic!   Another advantage of cooking from items selected from the Market is the economic value – both time and money – of using what’s on hand with what I picked up at the Market.  The recipe that follows is based on the ...

• The Blue Zones 1. Eat fresh

  The Blue Zones A few years ago, in coordination with National Geographic, author Dan Buettner published a book that he titled The Blue Zones that was based on research he conducted among the peoples throughout the world that exhibited unusual longevity traits.  To do so, he found locations where living past 100 years old was normal and the average lifespan far exceeded the world average.  I won’t go into all his findings and conclusions but there are some items worth noting that he found in these peoples throughout the world: Intergenerational living arrangements (the delightful owners of Forland Family Market must on to something) Walking as the main means of transportation (love the construction of sidewalks everywhere) Lots of social contacts (something you can get at the Market) Learn something new often (I hope that this blog does that for you) Being active outdoors (i.e. gardening).  Also, the people tend to stay active late in life.  Continuing to work past 100 years old is not unusual.   Of course, the primary recommendations from his book relate to fresh foods.  Keep in mind, most ...

• What Nutritionists from other countries have to say?

  What Nutritionists from Other Countries Have to Say?   Recently an international conference of nutritionists was held in the United States.  During the conference, a writer for a magazine devoted to nutrition organized a panel of nutritionists representing seven countries, all of which are known for healthy lifestyles.  A very basic question was asked:  What recommendations do they have for better nutrition?  Their answers were fairly consistent among the seven nutritionists.    Focus on Vegetables:  All of the nutritionists recommended eating more vegetables and to make vegetables the center of a meal.   They expressed shock that Americans ALWAYS have meat as the front-and-center focus of their plates rather than vegetables.  They also expressed surprise that Americans do not eat more all-vegetable meals.   All of the nutritionists described how freshly harvested vegetables are served in their countries routinely as the entire meal.   As I thought about this recommendation, I realized that this is so true.  Meat, front and center.  In fact, I pulled out an old etiquette book and an old style basic cookbook from 50 years ago.  In both books I found diagrams how ...

• CSA Community Supported Agriculture

  Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)   For more than 25 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically, the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.  This arrangement creates several rewards for both the farmer and the consumer. In brief:   Advantages for farmers: ·         Marketing their produce is simplified ·         Guarantees a cash flow ·         Learns directly what consumers are wanting Advantages for consumers: ·         More fresh food and fresh food = greater nutritional value ·         Exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking ·         Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown   Tens of thousands of families have joined CSAs, and in some areas of the country there is more demand than there are CSA ...

• Cucumber – Tomato – Avocado – Rice Salad

  There is a theory, an obscure, unsubstantiated theory for sure, but a theory that the human body desires or craves the nutrition derived from fresh, in season, fruits and vegetables.  If you enjoy the first strawberries or blueberries of the season as much as I do, you probably understand that feeling of tasting the first of the crop.  When we’ve gone months without fresh berries (no, grocery store berries just don’t satisfy) and the nutrients available, there is something immensely satisfying in the taste.  Of course, the same feeling results in first vegetables.  Is there anything better than a fresh off the vine tomato when they first start producing?  The theory is that our body is receiving nutrients that it craves and the nutrients are in greater supply in a fresh product.    The theory also includes a component the human body will crave a substitute of fats, salt, and sugar when the nutrients are not available.  Our bodies tell us that nutrients from fresh fruit and vegetables are needed and we substitute drive-through fast food and super sweetened drinks instead.  ...