Fresh Vegetables

From LoveToKnow Buy

Fresh vegetables not only enhance your enjoyment of a meal, but they are good for you, supplying minerals and vitamins that aren’t found in meats or fish. Buying quality vegetables is easy once you know what to look for. Here’s some tips on how to do just that.

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Fresh Vegetable Types

All vegetables are either grown in the soil or produce while growing on vines stalks, branches or bushes, like leafy beans, peas, tomatoes, squashes, melons or corn, by no means a complete list. Root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, radishes and beets are grown in the soil and have leafy stalks above ground.

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How To Choose

While there is no arguing with the variety of vegetables available in supermarkets, freshness is relative. Buying vegetables requires a trained eye and nose. A basic rule of thumb is: if it smells good, looks good, with a firm body and pure green leaves, the veggie is a good choice. If the veggie has wilted or drooping leaves, soft body, obvious spoilage on the body, or smells like its seen better days, or looks like flattened road kill buy something else.

What you’re looking for is appearance. A fresh or ripe vegetable has a bright, natural color and firm, healthy skin. Over-ripe vegetables are darker and softer than they should be. Vegetables should be free of cuts, bruises and spotting. Rot gains a foothold at a bruised spot or cut. Only the unwary buy vegetables without looking, eventually discovering that most of the product has to be cut away and discarded before the rest can be cooked, if at all.

For example, a corn cob is wrapped in leaves upon a stalk. To test freshness, peel back the leaves and run a thumbnail against one of the kernels. It should pop and taste sweet, depending upon the variety. If the kernels are discolored, more white than yellow, again depending upon variety, blackened or if the kernels are soft and pliable, choose another ear.

Root vegetables should not give when touched. Be wary of wilt when choosing lettuce, spinach, green and kale. If the leaves are darkened, discolored and limp, that’s a sure sign of wilt. Discard. If some leaves have been chewed on by bugs, they’re generally OK, unless the majority of the product is riddled with holes and trails.

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Your Supermarket

Vegetables are available from your local supermarket, but freshness there may be more hype than reality. All supermarkets buy vegetables when slightly under ripe and shipped to warehouses where they are treated with gases as a preservative and stored in environments where temperatures and humidly levels are tightly controlled.

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Roadside Stands

If you live in a part of the country where roadside stands abound, count your blessings. Vegetables purchased at these stands are the best, offering mouth-watering flavors fresh off the vine or stalk. Nothing beats the flavor of a freshly picked vegetable. Try a comparison test of store-bought tomatoes versus those from a roadside stand to get my meaning. The flavors simply don’t compare. In fact, all vegetables taste better when fresh and have higher nutrient values. He longer something sits on a shelf or in your refrigerator, the less nutritional value it offers.

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How To Store Fresh Vegetables

Potatoes should be stored in bowls on top of a cabinet or table. Discard any that appear to be rotting because touching other potatoes quickly spreads the rot.

Leafy and vine-grown vegetables should be washed then placed in open plastic storage bags lined with one or two sheets of paper towels to wick away excess moisture. Store these bags in your refrigerator’s vegetable bins. Check the produce every few days and discard those that have shaken off their mortal coils.

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