Serving Up The Harvest

My recipe selections for next week are inspired by what's fresh right now.  I recently signed up for an organic produce delivery called : Suburban Organics.  They will deliver me a box of mixed produce each Wednesday to use for the week. (BTW if you sign up, mention I sent you cause I get free produce!!)  There is much to be said about cooking the freshest in-season items.  This site gets it produce from some great farms throughout PA, MD, Florida and Cali, so despite the obvious downside of transporting the florida and cali produce the upside is fresh organic in season produce for the fam delivered weekly (or bi-weekly!)

Top Ten Reasons to go Organic
by Ysanne Spevack, Editor organicfood.co.uk

1. Organic produce is not covered in a cocktail of poisonous chemicals. The average conventionally-grown apple has 20-30 artificial poisons on its skin, even after rinsing. Trust your instincts, and go organic!
   
2. Fresh organic produce contains on average 50% more vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other micro-nutrients than intensively farmed produce. Science says that it's good for you.
   
3. Going organic is the only practical way to avoid eating genetically modified (GM) food. And by buying organic food, you are registering your mistrust of GMO's and doing your bit to protest against them.
   
4. If you eat dairy or meat products, going organic has never been more essential to safeguard you and your family's health. Intensively-reared dairy cows and farm animals are fed a dangerous cocktail of anti-biotics, growth promoting drugs, anti-parasite drugs and many other medicines on a daily basis, whether they have an illness or not. These drugs are passed directly onto the consumers of their dairy produce or meat., which must be a contributing factor to meat-related diseases like coronaries and high blood pressure.
   
5. About 99% of non-organic farm animals in the UK are now fed GM soya. And there has never been a reported case of BSE in organic cattle in the UK. Common sense says that organic is safe food.
   
6. Organic produce simply tastes so much better. Fruit and vegetables full of juice and flavour, and so many different varieties to try! There are about 100 different kinds of organic potatoes in production in the UK, and that's just potatoes!
   
7. Organic farms support and nurture our beautiful and diverse wildlife. Over the last thirty years, intensive farming in the UK has led to dramatic erosion of the soil, a fall of up to 70% of wild birds in some areas, the destruction of ancient hedgerows, and the near extinction of some of the most beautiful species of butterflies, frogs, grass-snakes and wild mammals.
   
8. Organic food is not really more expensive than intensively farmed foods, as we pay for conventional foods through our taxes. We spend billion of pounds every year cleaning up the mess that agro-chemicals make to our natural water supply. And the BSE crisis cost us 4 billion pounds. Go organic for a genuine more cost-effective future.
   
9. Intensive farming can seriously damage farm workers' health. There are much higher instances of cancer, respiratory problems and other major diseases in farm workers from non-organic farms. This is particularly true in developing countries, and for agrochemical farms growing cotton. So go organic if you care about other people.
   
10. And if you simply like the idea of your children and grandchildren being able to visit the countryside and play in the forests and fields just like we did when we were young, go organic for the sake of all of our futures.
    

I found this great book a few years ago that organizes recipes by season.  It has some great recipes for early summer!!  It also tells you how to harvest, prepare and cook each vegetable yourself:)  I can't wait to try out more recipes using my fresh organic produce box each week!

Book-Serving Up The Harvest

The menu for my produce box comes out on Friday afternoons so I will be posting my recipes for my week night dinners on Friday nights if you want to cook them along with me.  I will also be posting the produce menu for the week up here so you can send me your favorite recipes using those ingredients or at the very least you will know what organic in-season produce should be offered at your grocery store that week.