Selecting and Storing Fruit and Vegetables is Easier Than You Think!

Healthy Food Choices starts with buying and storing fruits and vegetables. Here are some ideas for you to consider.

Buy in season, locally grown fruits and vegetables. If you have farmers markets in your area, take advantage of buying bulk at low cost. The fresher the product, the more nutrients that will be available.

When buying, check for ripeness. The more ripe, the more intense the flavor, but be sure to use the ripe fruit first.

We buy under ripe product in addition to ripe product, and let it ripen during the week. Saves another trip to the store. You can let it ripen just buy putting it in a bowl by a window.

Storage: Store your fruits and vegetables in a cool dry location. Try to store like items with each other, ie, don't store carrots with oranges.

Also, refrigerate items that are ripening too quickly. You can also freeze almost all items in gallon sized zip lock bags.

There is a lot of talk about buying organic. The talk revolves around the subject of whether or not we are really eating healthy fruits and healthy vegetables.

Much is being written about how our soils have been stripped of their nutrients, and the foods being raised are nutrient poor, and chemical laden. Organic farming is all about reversing that trend.

Organic crops are all about being more nutritious, and free of chemicals and pesticides.

While organic foods cost more, you can often find bulk organic foods for relatively the same price as you would pay for smaller amounts of non organic foods.

It is going to pay you to buy in bulk, not only in better food, but in making healthy food choices, you'll get better nutrition.

With regard to making smoothies, you will find the best flavor is going to come from fruits that are fully ripe. There are bananas I won't eat, but I will put into a smoothie. That is how ripe I am talking about.

Which brings up one heck of a way to save money. You don't have to throw out food anymore. The stuff laying around, if it get's a little too ripe to eat, it goes in the freezer.

Remember, smoothies love frozen fruit!

You will be able to pack it full of in season fruits and vegetables. Storing fruit and vegetables no longer becomes a problem, and ends up being a time saver, and money saver.

Other methods of storing fruit and vegetables would be canning and drying. Both of these methods tend to take a lot of time, and are probably not the best method of storing if your goal is to make smoothies.

I would rather enjoy canned or dried fruits and vegetables just as they are, and would not want to waste their flavor and texture in a smoothie.

Finally, if you don't have a freezer, or a lot of space for storage, you will need to buy smaller quantities from your market. The good news is that more and more of the major chains carry fresh frozen product, such as a mixed berry blend, or super antioxidant blue berries.

You can also buy low calorie, high nutrient fruit juices in the bottle juice section of the store. Look for labels that say 100% fruit juices!

The bottom line, is storing fruit and vegetables is doing what works for you when you consider the time you have, the space you have, and the availability of the product. Just use some common sense, and you will be alright.

This is the storing fruit page, click here to return to the healthy eating page