Make Fruit (and Veggies) a Fun-Time Food

My 6 year old niece and 3 year old nephew inspired my article today. It’s June 30^th and I’m in Calgary providing childcare while my brother and sister-in-law enjoy an adult-only vacation. This morning my mini sous chefs “helped” me make red (watermelon-strawberry) home-made ice-pops in preparation for tomorrow’s Canada Day celebration. They are super excited for tomorrow’s popsicles. And they taste-tested the fruit while we were making them this morning.

Sometimes I feel badly for poor vegetables and fruit because they often don’t get invited to parties. They’re the obligatory foods that one must struggle through in order to earn dessert. When we stack the odds against vegetables and fruit in this way it’s no wonder that kids don’t want to eat them.

Instead, I encourage you to make vegetables and fruit a fun-time food. By including them in fun times, you’re creating a positive association with these healthy foods. Fun is more likely to drive kids to eat foods rather than health. Studies have shown that kids are less likely to try a new food if they’ve been told that it’s healthy. In addition, if they do try the food, they rate it as less yummy than kids who aren’t told anything about the food. The exact opposite of what we want.

I certainly see this reflected in my own childhood memories. My favourite veggies and fruit all have good memories attached to them. I remember sitting on the back porch in the summer with my Grannie shucking corn and playing “bean, no bean” while snapping the ends off of green beans. I remember picking raspberries in my best friend’s backyard. I didn’t eat green beans, corn and raspberries because they were healthy. I ate them because they were fun.

I’m grateful to my Grannie and others who inspired me to enjoy vegetables and fruit. As an Auntie and a dietitian I work to pay-it-forward and inspire the next generation. This past Valentines’ Day I led an activity where we made cupid’s arrows from fruit and veggies strung along wooden skewers, some cut out with heart-shaped cookie cutters. These kids, who were notorious picky eaters, enjoyed cucumber, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries and more. Not once did anyone complain about there being no candy at the Valentines’ day party.  At tomorrow’s Canada Day picnic we’ll have a veggie tray with red cherry tomatoes and radishes, red watermelon, and the red watermelon-strawberry popsicles. You won’t hear a single word come from my mouth about how healthy these foods are.     

Actions are much more important than words when it comes to getting kids to eat vegetables and fruit. Don’t teach your kids nutrition. Just include vegetables and fruit in fun times. When they get older, there will be lots of time for kids to learn why we eat these foods. Right now all we need is for kids to develop positive attitudes towards them (and eat them).

Looking for fun fruit & veggie ideas? There’s a ton of ideas on Pinterest. Check out my theme boards at http://www.Pinterest.com/KristenYarker

Kristen Yarker, MSc, RD helps moms and dads support your picky kids to get good nutrition today…and instill a life-long love of healthy eating. After 7 years of moms asking for help with their eating too, Kristen created 40 Days to a Healthier, Happier You women’s weight loss program. Find out more at www.KristenYarker.com

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When Was The Last Time You Tried a New Food?

Did you know that the physiology of our taste buds change as we age? These changes cause us to experience food differently. The result is that a food that you didn't like as a child, you may enjoy now.

Do you want a simple step for improving your nutrition?

Or, perhaps you have a child who is a picky eater? Last week I shared that an important way to encourage picky kids to try new foods is to be a “trying new food” role model. As the saying goes: “actions speak louder than words”.

The simple step is to play the new food challenge. It’s easy, just pick a new food or recipe to try every week. Think once a week is too much? How about 2 new foods per month? Or, once a month?

I've found this to be an especially successful technique when working with families with picky school-age kids – kids who should have long ago grown out of the picky eating phase. It engages their love of adventure and exploring the world by creating a game of it.



I admit it. I play this game myself! In the past year I re-tried polenta, chia seeds, spaghetti squash, radicchio, and Belgium endive. And, I discovered that I now love polenta, chia seeds, spaghetti squash and Belgium endive. Radicchio was just okay. Four out of 5 is an incredible success rate! On my radar this winter are Brussels sprouts, okra, and millet.

Be honest. When was the last time that you tried a new food (or re-tried a food that you didn’t like previously)? Whether for your own health or to be a role model for your kids, I encourage you to join me in the game!

Kristen Yarker, MSc, RD helps you experience the pleasure (and energy) of healthy eating. After 6 years of only working with the toughest customers (i.e. picky kids), she is now serving adults who want amazing energy to live their busy lives without sacrificing the pleasure of delicious food. Discover how (and get recipes too) at:

www.KristenYarker.com

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Did you know: Farm to Table at Green Earth Organics!

Have you ever wondered how your fruits and veggies get from the farm to your table? “One, Two, Three, Door!” has been a slogan of Green Earth Organics for years and, secretly, is also one of the things we pride ourselves on. Not only is it how easy to place an order sign up, pick your fruits and veggies, submit your order, and have it arrive at your door. It is also exactly how many steps your produce travels before it arrives at your home or office ready to eat.

One! Your fruits and veggies are planted, cared for, and harvested at the farm.
Depending on the farm, they may clean and process everything directly or they may pack everything into produce boxes for pick up. They are then stored in a cool area until they’re picked up for the next leg of their journey. Thanks to the resurgence in family farming versus mono-farming, there are many different sizes of farms.

Photograph by Nikki

The farmers you see at local outdoor Markets, for example, are usually very small and don’t produce enough during the harvest season to use a distributor to sell large quantities. Instead they bring their harvest directly to the markets themselves and, that way, save money to reinvest in their farm. Larger farms often find themselves with extra produce once the harvest gets going, so they sell to distributors who pick it up for them and then move it all over British Columbia. Our company prefers to use distributors because asking a small farm to produce the quantities we need each week, would be very taxing for them and would defeat our purpose of supporting local food.

Two! Produce from hundreds of different farms arrive at a distribution warehouse.
If the produce has not already been cleaned and processed at the farm, then this is where all the extra leaves and bits of dirt get removed or brushed off. Once ready to sell, each piece goes into nicely labeled produce boxes and is split up into the many different orders. Green Earth Organics orders from two main organic produce distributors. Fun Fact! In order to distribute organic food, a distributor must also be certified organic, even if they do not grow any organic food themselves. We place orders with our distributors every day, based on the projected orders of you, our wonderful customers!

In fact, we get updates twice a week on what sort of produce is coming out of the various farms. This week one of our distributors let us know to keep an eye out for large quantities of canning peaches and pickling cucumbers, as well as upcoming first harvests of local pears. They also let us know if there will be any supply problems. Blueberries, for example, will see a slump due to all the rain and local apples will be expensive and harder to find due to a hail storm earlier this season.

Three! Your fruits and veggies arrive early each morning to our small warehouse ready to be packed into your bins. The bins themselves are washed every morning before packing and are then sorted by size, ready to be filled. Our two packers utilize a long counter with rows of produce both in front and behind them. Each person’s order is individually printed out and the items collected to be placed into a bin. Once your bin is ready, it is stacked with the other bins on the same route to wait for your driver.

Door! Your drivers arrive in advance of their delivery time to look over and make changes to their route. The bins are checked over for any missing items and, if an item is unavailable, your driver makes a note to stop by one of our suppliers to see if we can pick up any individual units of that item before delivering. If the supplier does not have an item available, the drivers then check local stores along their route in a last effort to find that item for you. Then the bins are carefully packed into the van and away they go, straight to your door!

Quick & Easy Freezer Jam

Adapted from
A Girl Worth Saving



Ingredients

1 lb berries or other fruit, cubed
1 Tbsp gelatin/pectin
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Note: This recipe can also be used with frozen fruit, no changes necessary.

Directions

Throw your fruit, the sea salt, vanilla and honey into a medium sized pan and bring to a boil. 

Let the mixture cook into a low boil for roughly 45 minutes or until the mixture is reduced by half.

Leave the pan on the stove and mix in the gelatin. Stir thoroughly for 1 minute and then pour the mixture into a mason jar. Be careful not to add more than the recommended amount or to go over the 1 minute. Gelatin/pectin is very fussy and can easily turn your jam grainy if overcooked or too much is added.

Allow to cool, then seal with a lid and store in your freezer for long term storage or your fridge if you want to eat it right away.

Once opened, the jam is good for one week. 

If you don't eat jam that often, I recommend storing it in small stackable square jars so you only need to unfreeze what you're going to use and they save space in the freezer by being a square shape.

Did you know: Giving Green Earth Organics as Gifts!

"Did You Know" is our series of blog posts about Green Earth Organics: how it works, how you can do more with your account, etc.

Original, thoughtful, useful, environmentally- and socially-conscious gifts can be hard, especially when you don’t know if the recipient will be able to use your gift. By giving someone a gift of good healthy food you can be assured that your gift will be useful and appreciated.

When would you give food as a gift? Any time! Our gifts have been given to new moms who don’t have time for grocery shopping, as house warming gifts, as congratulatory or sympathy gifts, or as get well soon gifts. They’ve also been given by parents to their children while they’re away at university (otherwise, who knows what they’d eat!) or even to help out family or friends who have hit hard times by making sure that food is not one more thing they need to worry about.

Giving food as a gift is extremely versatile and you can arrange it to be given in a variety of ways. Our most popular gift option is to pre-pay for a set number of regular deliveries. Our pre-built gifts can be anything from a regular medium bin every week to just a one time delivery of that week’s available fruit to a collection of teas and other grocery items. We are more than happy to help customize any gift with you.

For any of these options, you can email us, phone us in the office directly or create an account with your recipient's information and instructions in the "Delivery Instructions" such as: "One time gift delivery" or "Deliver 3 bins only - gift".

When we see that an order is a gift delivery, we will deliver it in a cardboard box, so you won't have to worry about paying for a bin deposit and the recipient won't have to return anything to us. When the gift has been delivered - whether it is one basket or a dozen bins over several months - we will put the account on hold automatically.

If you aren't sure when your recipient will want to receive food - say, if you're giving a wedding gift - we can also do gift certificates. To arrange for a gift certificate, just give us a call or email. We can do any amount and we can customize it, then we can email it to you or even send it directly to your recipient.

Whatever your occasion, we'd be pleased to help you create the right gift.

Gluten-free and Vegan Fruit Cobbler

Use some of our seasonal peaches, pears, plums or berries for this delicious take on a traditional cobbler!

Adapted from
Poundfit

Ingredients
4 cups organic fruits (cut into bite size pieces)
1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup raw almond meal
1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar or coconut sugar (or other sweetener for baking)
a pinch of sea salt
4 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8x8 (or similar size) baking dish with oil.

2. Add fruit directly to the dish as you chop it and spread until flat.

3. In a mixing bowl, add the oats, almond meal, pecans, sugar, salt, and the 4 tbsp oil.

4. Using your hands, mix until everything is evenly coated.

5. Layer the mixture evenly over your chopped fruit.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the top is crisp and golden.

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seeds, are loaded with omega fatty acids, protein, minerals, vitamins, and fiber. Even better, when introduced to a liquid they absorb it and transform into a gel-like consistency. This is perfect for adding to recipes as a thickener or egg-substitute (pancakes!).

They also make a great base for a simple two ingredient pudding.

 
Ingredients:

3-4 tbsp Chia seeds

8 oz unsweetened almond milk/coconut milk

Optional toppings:
Vanilla extract, honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa powder, coconut flakes, graham cracker crumbles, granola, fresh fruit, etc…


Directions:

Combine the chia seeds and room temperature almond milk into a bowl. Let it sit at room temperature for approximately 30 – 60 minutes. Mix every 5 – 10 minutes to break up clumps. Once pudding is at the desired consistency, mix in any option items you want and enjoy!

Prolonging Your Produce

How many times have we set something on a shelf in the fridge or placed it inside the crisper, only to come back not even two days later to find it has gone bad? Thankfully, prolonging the life of your organic produce is not as hard as you’d think. It all starts from the moment it enters your home.

The cleaner your produce is before it enters your fridge, the longer it will last. As a side note, the cleaner your fridge is, the longer your food will last as well. Gently wash and dry all produce before storing it, even those with protective skins on them like oranges and bananas.

 I recommend using a solution of 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar, the vinegar works as an anti-bacterial and keeps the produce from breaking down as quickly. For an even more complete clean, try adding a tablespoon of baking soda and a squeeze or two of lemon juice.

The baking soda and vinegar will react together, helping to actively clean the produce by forming bubbles of hydrogen dioxide. The lemon acts as an astringent, helping to close the pores of the exposed plant tissue and prevent access to invading bacteria.

Once washed, spread your produce on a flat surface and separate all your leafy greens from everything else. Interesting fact, if you put spinach or kale in the same bin as apples or peaches, the greens will become yellow and limp within a day or two.

The reason for this is differences in production and reactions to Ethylene gas. By keeping your leafy vegetables separate, you are actually prolonging their life in your fridge.

On to storage! Keep the locations that you store you produce dry. Some people prefer to wrap each leafy vegetable in paper towels until they are ready to be used. This is a good method and helps to absorb the water, keep the leaves cooler, while still letting them breathe.

Another greener alternative is to invest in some new produce dedicated dishtowels. Wash the dishtowels in the same vinegar/baking soda/lemon solution as I mentioned earlier, rinse well and let them air dry.

Line the bottom of each bin with a dish towel and then, once the greens have been placed in the bin, place another dry dishtowel on top. You can layer additional towels as needed. By using dishtowels, you can easily switch out a damp towel for a dry one and lower your paper usage footprint.

If you are interested in finding out the optimum temperatures and storage for a specific type of produce or knowing more about which types of produce are sensitive to Ethylene (like Avocados and Carrots), please check out this produce storage table.

Summer Storage Tips for Fruits and Veggies

We get a lot of questions about how best to extend the shelf life of the produce you receive in your bins and how long different items are expected to last. Keeping fresh food fresh throughout the week can be especially challenging in these hot summer days. Here are a few tips on how best to store your produce this summer to make the most of what arrives in your bin.
Fruit

If you want to speed up the ripening on your peaches, plums, apricots, or nectarines, place them in a paper bag at room temperature. Cold makes stone fruit mealy, so skip the fridge and keep them on the counter instead. Be careful not to pile stone fruits on top of each other, as they bruise easily.

Berries are so hard to keep fresh -- and everyone's favourite treat this time of year. When you first get a basket of berries, pick through it to remove any moldy ones, as mold spreads incredibly quickly through berries, and then spread everything else on a baking sheet and cover gently with a towel. Store in the fridge.

It's always a guess as to whether tomatoes would be best included in the fruit or vegetable section, but either way you want to store these summer beauties stem side down in a single layer. They like room temperature best and prefer to be away from direct sunlight, which can cause bruising and softening.

Vegetables

If you have an overabundance of summer squash and zucchini (and who doesn't at this time of year?), the best way to keep it fresh is to store it at room temperature or in the fridge for up to a week. You may find sturdier varieties last longer in the fridge than that -- great! As long as it's still firm and fresh, eat it!

Bell Peppers do best kept in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to a week, while cucumbers can be kept either uncovered or in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to a week.

If you're eating good, sturdy greens like kale, swiss chard, or collard greens, wash them in lukewarm water to remove any dirt, then wrap in a damp paper towel and store in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to a week.

Who doesn't love corn in the summer? And who doesn't feel immensely disappointed when you peel back that husk to discover your cob is not as fresh as it could be? Store corn husked or unhusked in the fridge for up to a week and avoid that disappointment!

Fresh tender greens like arugula and baby spinach stay fresher longer if their roots are still attached. Store these guys in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to four days. If the roots are still on, wrap the roots in a damp paper towel.

Beets can be a double storage issue if they arrive with their greens intact -- cut their tops off and store the greens separately the same way you'd store heartier greens like kale and chard. Store the beets in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to three weeks.

Summer is the time of fresh herbs, so make the most of them by storing them correctly. Heartier herbs, like mint and parsley can be prewashed, wrapped in a damp paper towel and stored in a plastic bag in the fridge. Others, like cilantro, do well to be kept upright in a glass of water in the fridge. Only wash tender herbs like basil and chervil right before use.

Fresh Fruit Popsicles

INGREDIENTS

Fresh fruit of your choice, especially grapes, nectarine, strawberries or blueberries
Your favourite juice, especially grape juice, apple juice, or whatever you like best!
A popsicle mold

DIRECTIONS

Take advantage of this June sun to get your popsicle making skills in shape for the hot summer months ahead. These can be made with any combination of fresh fruit and juice, so choose your favourite!

Cut the fruit into bite-size pieces. Fill the popsicle molds with as much or as little fruit suits you and then pour juice in to fill up the rest. Freeze and enjoy!