Veg Can Lose Over 50% of it’s Nurtients in 3-5 days!!!
We are super passionate about good quality local food that doesn’t have any nasty chemicals involved in its growth! That’s why we do what we do!
And in all the hustle and bustle of setting up the farm, growing veg, surviving extreme conditions and getting veg boxes out; we’ve not been able to share that passion with you as much as we would have liked. That’s why we’ve put together this series of blogs and emails across this week, and today we are starting with one of the reasons that we are so passionate about local food….
As an average… did you know that vegetables lose upwards of 55% of their nutrients within 3-5 days of them being picked or harvested!!!
This is a staggering statistic but it has become more true over time as the countries vegetables have been produced in accelerated ways with chemical fertilisers rather than natural growing methods.
Remember a good few years back, the campaign of “5-a-day fruit and veg”…. Did you know that recommendation is now up to 8 because the way we buy and consume our veg the nutrient value is already down… and now there are studies looking at it being between 10 and 12 items of fruit / veg a day as we import more and more of our veg and its nutritional value drops more and more.
When we buy fruit and veg from the supermarket it is normally past this point of 3-5 days before it’s on the shelves. Here are a few examples:
Lettuce: Normally lettuce is on shelves 4 days after packing, and packing can take place 1-2 days after harvest. This means we are looking at 5-6 days before it hits the shelf, and likely a week before you put it on your plate.
Tomatoes: The typical storage time of tomatoes is 4-6 weeks. When picked tomatoes are quickly chilled to take the “field heat” out of them. They can then be stored at cold temperatures for a week or two. Green tomatoes can be stored for 6 weeks before hitting the shelves.
Spinach: Much like lettuce is often a couple of weeks old. The leaves are often packed several weeks before packing, processing and transporting to stores. Spinach is also one of the vegetables that’s nutrients have been seen to decrease the most rapidly. Studies show that over 55% of nutrients are gone within 3 days.
Apples: Did you know that the average supermarket apple is over a year old!!! The fruits ripen within a short period throughout the year and therefore to have them available all year round apples are treated with chemicals and kept in cold storage! One investigation of supermarkets showed that on average apples are 14 months old on shelves!
This is just one of the reasons we are so passionate about the locality of food.
We pride ourselves that the vegetables in our veg boxes are in your homes within 24 hours of them being picked or harvested. This means that you have the best chance (other than growing veg yourself) of getting the full nutrients available from delicious seasonal food.
Our lettuce, kale, tomatoes and other leafy greens are picked the morning of delivery and other veg like beetroot, courgettes and spring onions are harvested the night before delivery to maintain the ultimate freshness but also to give you nutrient dense veg that has absolutely no nasty chemicals on them.
Tomorrow we will be talking more about the chemicals that are on the veg we buy from supermarkets, and it might shock you to know that even some certified organic vegetables can still have chemicals used.
We hope you enjoy this series of emails and sharing our passion for local, chemical free veg too.
If you want to find out more about our veg boxes then please head over here: https://fanfield.farm/east-sussex-veg-boxes/
Thank you for reading and supporting.
Best Wishes,
Chris and Emily
– Fanfield Farm