How the fruit and vegetables look on the outside is only part of the story when it comes to choosing the freshest and best produce at a farmer’s market. Asking the produce grower a few key questions about the produce will provide the rest of the story by the answers given.
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It may be an irrelevant question to ask, but the answer will reveal how informed and involved the farmer is in the growing and selling of the produce. The more involved with the growing process the produce seller has been, the better produce quality. Plus some new preparation tips may be garnered from the produce seller.
The best produce will be offered for sale in various stages of ripeness, such as green tomatoes for frying, partially ripe tomatoes that will continue the ripening process and be ready to eat in a few days and fully ripe tomatoes that are at the peak of ripeness and ready to eat immediately. When asked how to tell if the produce item is ripe, the produce seller should point out various stages of ripeness and ask when and how the produce will be used, then help the buyer chose the produce.
The fresher the better. Often produce is picked in the early morning and sold the same day at the farmer’s market, but it could have been laying in the back of a truck for a few days too. The answer to this question will also reveal if the produce seller is the farmer that grew and picked the fruits and vegetables or if the seller is an uninvolved middleman.
If the produce seller is also the farmer that grew the produce, he will know if the pest control was organic or chemical. Any chemicals used on the plants or on the soil for pest control will have trace amounts of the chemical seep into the produce. An organic farmer is usually happy to tell exactly how garden pests were controlled and what soil additives were used to amend the garden soil.
Asking the produce sellers at the farmer’s market what the item is, how to prepare it, how to tell if the produce is ripe, when the produce was picked and what type of pest control was used will garner the best produce at the farmer’s market.
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