Tips For Choosing The Best Quality Fruits And Vegetables

Modern grocery stores display shelves of colorful fruits and vegetables that often look fresh but turn out to be overripe or under-ripe once they're at home in the kitchen. Here are a few guidelines to finding quality, fresh vegetables and fruits for truly meals that are truly memorable and healthy.

Rich, vivid colors indicate ripeness in fruits and vegetables. Produce that looks wash-ed out has been picked while still unripe. For example, dark-red tomatoes are ripe, but pale red color indicates unripe fruit (and the tomato is actually a fruit, because it carries its seeds inside). Likewise, melons should be the epitome of their ripe color, such as dark green stripes on a watermelon.

Buying fruits and vegetables in season is another way to ensure freshness and quality. In general, whether north or south of the equator, late spring and summer are the seasons for buying most vegetables and fruits, with the exception of certain root vegetables such as pumpkins and squash, which ripen in colder weather. In this case, globalization is not the cook's friend, since off-season fruits and veggies are picked early, shipped via refrigerated railcars or trucks, and ripen on the grocers' shelves. Instead of buying off-season produce, learn the local growing seasons for favorite vegetables and fruits and buy them at the local farmers' market.

By the way, many cooks are adopting the "locavore" philosophy, meaning they strive to buy their food from local producers within a certain number of miles. There are several reasons for this practice. Chief among them is a rebellion against the industrialization of agriculture, which has led to increased use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers without clear knowledge of any side effects. Cooks also want to help relieve climate change effects through buying food that has traveled less far than global markets.

Another environmental practice is to find out if the vegetables or fruits have been genetically altered. One example is soybeans, which often come from genetically enhanced seeds but aren't always labeled as such. Learn the organic labeling standards of your state or nation to be a well-educated food customer.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program regulates standards for organic food production.

An environmental consulting panel has identified what its calls the "Dirty Dozen" of produce, or fruits and vegetables that are best purchased from organic sources in order to avoid pesticide residues. This list includes spinach, apples, imported grapes, cherries, nectarines, pears, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, celery, bell peppers, and potatoes. Other countries are likely to have their own lists of produce best purchased from organic farmers.

Finally, there is one foolproof way to be assured about the quality of fruits and vegetables and that is to grow your own. While no one can grow all of a family's food unless they live on a working farm, many foods that might be questionable could be grown in amounts sufficient to feed one family or possible share with neighbors. Community gardens and local growers' markets are springing up everywhere as people take charge of their food once again.

Once you have managed to get your hands on some fresh organic vegetables, it’s time to start cooking. One of the best ways to make sure that all the nutrients are retained while cooking is to use a crock pot. Apart from some fantastic meat dishes available for crock pots there are hundreds of vegetarian crock pot recipes.