How to Eat Fresh, Healthy and Nutritious Food
In today’s modern world, in a capitalist society in which we live, we are drowning in the sea of the most diverse products and groceries everyday. The important question here is what can we safely consume and what can we buy in order to be certain that we are eating healthy.
Well, we can be sure about one thing- fruits and vegetables. We are taught from our childhood that fruits and vegetables are definitely the best thing and the safest thing in our nutrition. They are full of vitamins and minerals and they are essential for our good health and high energy.
But, are all fruits and vegetables really healthy? Nowadays, with the information that we get in media, on Internet, we begin to doubt that. Many people are not comfortable with the way this food is grown. Because of all of this, presently people who are thinking about their nutrition shop less in the supermarkets. They often decide to get their food in other ways-some of them are shopping in a more natural environment- in the local market, and some people even grown they own food in their own garden.
However, there is one more solution- a solution that stands between these two ways of getting food and that is a local community growers network.
In this community-style agricultural system, a farmer offers a limited number of “shares” representing portions of produce and/or other products from the farm. The shares would be portions of the items grown, like vegetables and could also include fruit, milk, eggs, etc…
The shareholder receives their portion of the farm’s products delivered weekly throughout the season.
The farmers receive cash from shareholders up-front before the growing season starts. This alleviates the start-up costs required at the beginning of the season. This kind of a community sharing system also reduces the efforts necessary for the farmer to exert when taking their produce to market.
The shareholders win because they get the best vegetables and organic farm products in their freshest, most natural and nutritious state. The consumer who participates in this program may receive vegetable varieties they may not have purchased otherwise, exposing them to new menu items and dishes that may be derived from the new selections.
You will enjoy receiving a large number of different types of fruits and vegetables, between 7 and 10 species. However, there is a different situation than the regular shopping when you go for fruits and vegetables in the supermarket or local market. You don’t choose your own groceries. On a weekly basis you get different types of fruits and vegetables, depending on what is available that week.
One of the most beneficial for the people who get their food in this communal fashion, is that they absolutely know the source of their food, and have likely met the organic farmer face-to-face and know them by name.
Engaging in this type of sharing system, commonly referred to as Community Supported Agriculture or CSA, helps to relive some of the exposure of risk to the farmer and shares the variations in a particular year’s growing anomalies with the shareholders.
For instance, in bountiful years, participants receive extra proportions, in lean yielding years the portions may be more modest. If one year, the strawberries are not more plentiful, there may be fewer strawberries in your portion, but maybe more corn in your weekly basket, box or bag.
In a sense the participants are partners with the farmers, with a feeling that, “We’re all in this together.”
Interesting, right?
Forget about boring meals that you’ve had in the past and open up for new varieties of groceries, new tastes.
What is guaranteed is that you’ll have fresh and healthy food every week, you will explore new things, you will protect the environment, you’ll support local farmers and you’ll be a part of one big healthy community.
If you are a local farmer who wants to share their garden crops or if you are a consumer wanting to connect with local farmers leave a comment below.