The good advice to increase our intake of fresh fruits and vegetables comes from just about everywhere these days — including Betsy Hornick, Jody Perrecone and Carol Burmeister, three of HealthyRockford.com’s Good for You bloggers.
Farmers markets are a great place to get the goods and the downtown market across State Street from the News Tower on Friday evenings and the market at N. Main and Auburn streets on Saturday mornings are two of the more popular places to do just that. (I know there has been a popular one on Wednesday’s and/or Friday’s in the parking lot at Colonial Village, but I haven’t heard of it this year.)
So I was interested the other day when I received an email from Amelia Winslow, M.S. MPH, who offers healthy eating advice on her website at www.eating-made-easy.com because she was offering an article on A Beginner’s Guide to Shopping at the Farmer’s Market.
Here is an abbrieviated rundown of her suggestions:
1. Stick with what you know — Skip exotic items and go for produce with which you’re familiar. You’ll be much less overwhelmed.
2. Limit the number of items you buy — Overbuying will lead to wasted food, wasted time thinking about what to do with the food and, of course, wasted money.
3. Do some meal planning before you go — That way you’re looking to buy the specific produce you need.
4. Prep produce when you get home — Or, she suggests, set a time aside when you can attend to all the prep work, making it more likely that you’ll reach for healthy items when you’re hungry.
5. Keep it simple — Produce is best eaten in its simplest form, she says.
Like I said, this is a really cut-down version of her article. You can read the whole thing — including recipes embedded in the copy — at http://eating-made-easy.com/2011/07/06/a-beginners-guide-to-shopping-at-the-farmers-market.
