Eating local means eating what nature provides

The Mystery of the Missing Green Beans

– By the Seasonal Roots Veggie Fairy Team

Green beans are a tradition on many a Thanksgiving table. So Sam, our Farmer Connector, always stocks our online farmers market with them for the holiday. This year, he scoured the whole region, but there was nary a green bean to be found. It was a mystery, but there’s a clue in that photo montage: One of these things is not like the other.

Mystery solved

So: The culprit? The hurricanes! All that wind and rain took them out. Fortunately, our family farmers still have plenty of local, sustainably grown produce to make your favorite holiday sides: Yukon gold potatoes, carrots, beets, chestnuts, winter squashes, apples, mushrooms, spinach and more! Eating local is still delicious, even without the green beans.

Still want those green beans?

If you just gotta have ’em though, you can always get green beans at the supermarket. But do it knowing you’re really just getting a pretty prop. Any green beans on the shelves right now have traveled a long way – guaranteed. In the process, they’ve lost most of their nutrients and flavor, and burned a big carbon footprint.

Eating locally means eating what nature provides while enjoying fresh delicious flavor, great nutrition, and a cleaner environment. All good things to be thankful for. Happy Turkey Day, everybody!

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, eggs, grass-fed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

sustainable greenhouse online farmers market

Year-round online farmers market = year-round healthy eating

As temps drop, farmers keep farming

– By the Seasonal Roots Veggie Fairy Team

Thanksgiving is coming, right about the time most traditional farmers markets are closing for the winter, or scaling back. But not your year-round online farmers market! We stay open all through the winter because a little dip in the temperature gauge can’t stop our local farmers from farming.

So what’s happening on the farm?

Family farmers are still out in their fields gleaning the last of the summer and fall crops like peppers and eggplant. They’re tending to cold weather crops like beets, carrots, parsnips, and greens.

They’re putting their greenhouses to work to grow more tender produce like tomatoes and basil. Check out that photo if you need proof of the power of a greenhouse — inside one of the greenhouses on Sion House Farm in eastern Virginia, the McKenney family extends the season growing crops like local tomatoes… and for wearing shorts!

Our farmers who raise animals are busy, too. Their cows are still producing milk and their chickens are still laying eggs.

What’s up with those lighter-colored egg yolks?

Lately you may have noticed that the yolks are little more light-colored than usual. Your eggs are still as fresh as ever, and the hens are still pasture-raised. So what’s going on?

The folks at Avery’s Branch Farms explain: “At this time of year the grass quantity starts to be depleted and we start feeding them alfalfa hay. It takes a couple weeks for them to get adjusted to the hay and that causes a few lighter weeks.”

So there’s still a lot going on out on the farms. And that’s why we stay open year-round – to support our local farm families and to help you keep eating fresh nutritious local food throughout the year.

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, eggs, grass-fed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

Why fresh local produce tastes so different

November 7, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

Case Study: Celery

– By Kristin Henderson, Chief Veggie Communicator

It’s celery season out on the Flores family’s farm on Virginia’s Northern Neck. Gerardo and his son Omar are harvesting fresh, aromatic celery bunches from their fields. Then our veggie fairies deliver it straight to you within just a couple days.

If you ever needed proof that freshly harvested local produce tastes better than the stuff you get at the grocery story (which is at least a week old), do a celery taste test.

What is celery really supposed to taste like?

Until I discovered fresh local food, I thought celery was supposed to taste like grocery store celery – bitter or, at best, blah – useful as a crunchy delivery vehicle for peanut butter, various cheeses, or hummus, but otherwise best hidden in soups, stews, or salads.

Compared to that, the first time I bit into freshly harvested celery, the taste was a revelation. It was loaded with so much zingy flavor that I ate it all by itself as a snack. When I roasted it, that peppery flavor turned sweet. And when I made cream of celery soup with it, as much as I love any kind of grass-fed creaminess, I had to admit the celery was the star of the show.

Lots of flavor, lots of nutrients

If produce is full of flavor, that’s a good indicator that it’s full of nutrients as well. Flavor and nutrients go hand in hand – the longer produce sits around after it’s been harvested, the more they both fade away. Check out how much nutritional value is lost during the week (or more!) that it takes most produce to get from the farm to the grocery store.

So when produce is bursting with flavor, it’s usually bursting with nutrients, too. In the case of celery, that includes B vitamins, and vitamins A, C, and K, plus potassium, calcium, folate, and fiber.

Why does fresh local celery taste so different?

I’ve already mentioned one of the biggest reasons: the amount of time between when it’s picked and when you eat it. Grocery stores just can’t compete with local produce that’s home-delivered within a couple days of harvest, the way Seasonal Roots’ produce is. Even grocery stores that carry local food can’t offer it to you until after it makes its way through the delivery and warehousing system… which all takes time.

But there are other reasons why our local produce tastes better and is better for you. It starts with the dirt. Our local family farmers use sustainable practices to keep their soil nutrient-rich so the produce they grow in that soil can then absorb those nutrients.

Next, because our produce doesn’t have to sit in a warehouse, our farmers can pick it at the peak of ripeness, after it has soaked up all the flavor and nutrients that it can get from Mother Nature. Produce that’s picked early for a long trip may turn the right color along the way, but it doesn’t gain any nutrients or flavor in the process.

Also, during our more direct delivery process, our local produce gets handled less. So it’s less likely to get bruised, cut, or damaged. Damage speeds up the natural deterioration that makes flavor and nutrition go bye-bye.

Gerardo and Omar’s celery comes fresh from their fields with the flavor, nutrients, and roots still attached. Eat it raw or use it to cook up something amazing! We’ve got lots of healthy, tasty celery ideas on our Pinterest celery board.

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, eggs, grass-fed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

ORGANIC vs SUSTAINABLE vs LOCAL

November 1, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

Which is best?!

– By the Seasonal Roots Veggie Fairy Team

We get this question pretty often: “So are your farms Certified Organic?”

When people ask that, we totally get where they’re coming from. We all just want to eat nutritious, safe, non-toxic, eco-friendly food. But who has time to research every item we buy? So the government’s “Certified Organic” label seems like a convenient shortcut to eating healthy without harming the planet.

If only it were true.

Organic vs sustainable vs local… how do you decide which is best? Here at Seasonal Roots, we’re more concerned about sustainable and local than organic, so we don’t require our local farmers to be Certified Organic.

Here are 4 reasons why.

1. “Organic” doesn’t equal “locally grown”.

In fact, it may even be grown in a foreign country and shipped to the U.S. The result? A bigger carbon footprint. That’s not eco-friendly.

There’s actually no standard definition for “local”. Our standard is within about 150 miles of our delivery areas in Virginia. So most of our local partners are in Virginia. A few are in southern Pennsylvania or Maryland or eastern North Carolina.

To maintain a healthy variety of options during the winter, we partner with sustainable farmers in Florida. We call that produce “regional” because it can get to us within a day of harvest without resorting to flying. Members who prefer to eat only what’s in season locally can opt out of our winter-time regional offerings.

2. Organic doesn’t equal nutritious, either.

The sooner produce gets to you the better. Research shows that most nutrients begin to degrade from the moment produce is harvested. Spinach, for example, loses up to 60% of its nutrients in a week, the typical age of most grocery store produce. Our local produce gets to you within just a couple days of harvest.

Also, many studies have found that fruit that’s picked closer to the peak of ripeness (rather than being picked green and ripening on the shelf or by being gassed) contains more nutrients, more vitamins and minerals, than fruit that’s picked before or after peak, whether it’s organic or not.

This is why we hustle to get your produce to you as soon as possible after harvesting, and why being local helps — it doesn’t have to travel very far. Much of the food in grocery stores has traveled thousands of miles and many days to get there, losing nutrients every hour of the way.

3. Organic is no guarantee of food safety.

That organic label can’t tell you whether the food was produced under clean and healthy conditions. Plus, Certified Organic farmers can still use herbicides and pesticides – just certified organic ones. While this changes the mix of what’s sprayed, it doesn’t make it better, and they often spray frequently as a matter of course.

Our local farmers are low- or no-spray. Many of them are multi-generational, so they care for their land, crops, and animals with the next generation in mind. They use sustainable practices like rotating their crops to avoid sucking all the nutrients out of the soil. The vast majority of our farmers don’t spray because that would jeopardize the integrity of their land. If they do spray, it’s minimal and only as required. You could call sustainable farming “old school organic”, the way it was often done before the government got in the business of regulating it.

One of our sustainable farmers has a friend who runs a Certified Organic farm not far from him. One year, our sustainable farmer sprayed his yellow squash one time all season because it was necessary. His Certified Organic friend, on the other hand, sprayed his squash on a weekly schedule using a spray approved by the USDA. Our farmer isn’t considered Certified Organic, but his weekly spraying friend is allowed to use that title.

4. The best way to know if your food is nutritious, eco-friendly, and safe is to know your farmer.

That’s not possible for most of us as individuals. But when we come together as a group like Seasonal Roots, that’s exactly what we do. We know our farmers. We talk with them, visit their farms, and develop relationships with them. We share their stories with you so you can know them too, even if you don’t have time to go visit them yourself. It’s not quite as easy as the “Certified Organic” shortcut, but it’s a lot easier than trying to do it all by yourself.

We support our local farmers because we know and trust them and their practices. They produce safe food for their families, our families. and your families. So whether you just celebrated Halloween or simply enjoy the season’s produce, sustainably grown local food (like the pumpkins pictured here) is better for you and better for the planet!

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, eggs, grass-fed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

seasonal eating fall foods healthy eating

Seasonal eating: 5 healthy tips to get ready for fall foods

October 25, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

Mother Nature’s gift gives us what we need when we need it

– By the Veggie Fairy Team

Do you clean out your closets in the spring, enjoy more outdoor activities in the summer, and crave all things warm and cozy in the fall and winter? Your eating habits probably follow the same cycle. Science tells us this is natural, and nature supplies food perfectly designed to give our bodies what they need to stay healthy during each season. Mother Nature’s fall bounty is like a bouquet of good health — a gift for our bodies.

The foods we need change with the seasons

Seasonal eating means eating what grows naturally in each season. Now that it’s fall, you’ve probably noticed all the apples that our friends at Saunders Brothers are harvesting these days. Apples are high in fiber and pectin that help cleanse the intestines and support the digestion of fats.

That’s important, because with the onset of winter our bodies need more fats and protein from meats, fish, nuts, seeds, legumes, root vegetables, and winter squashes. Winter’s cold, dry weather can dry us out and foods that are rich in protein and fat restore moisture to our bodies and make us less susceptible to colds and flu.

In the spring, Mother Nature provides bitter greens like arugula to help clean out our livers. We need to detoxify after processing all those fats and heavier foods that we ate all winter.

Next up: summer. Since we’re outside more in the summer, and more active, we need the extra energy we get from carbohydrates and sugars in warm weather fruits like peaches and strawberries. Produce like cucumbers and watermelon help us hydrate, more, too.

Get ready for fall foods: 5 healthy tips

Now it’s fall, and winter will soon be upon us. So here are 5 healthy steps you can take to make it easy to cook and eat fresh, local fall foods, the way nature intended.

1. In the winter we eat less cold, raw food and more hot, cooked food. Clean your oven so you can start the season without setting off your smoke detectors.

2. Start eating fruits and vegetables that are high in vitamins A and C. They boost your immune system so it’s good and strong for fighting off the germ attacks of cold and flu season. Add greens like kale and collards to smoothies, soups, and pasta dishes. Other A and C rock stars of our fall-season local produce include apples, cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, hard winter squashes, celery, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. Many of these contain more vitamin C than oranges!

3. You’ll get some of the fat your body needs when you snack on nuts and seeds, which contain healthy fats. Cook with healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil. Don’t throw away those seeds you scoop out of butternut and acorn squashes! Toss them in olive oil (don’t waste time picking out those strands that come with them, the strands will shrivel in the heat), spread them on a baking sheet loosely covered with foil, then roast them at about 400 degrees until they start to pop. (The foil keeps them from flying around inside your oven.) Stir them and keep an eye on them. Once they’re brown, take them out, sprinkle with salt, and start snacking.

4. Eat whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, millet, barley, and whole wheat breads. Their dietary fiber aids healthy digestion. Whole grains are also full of iron for healthy blood, antioxidants to keep your cells healthy, and B vitamins to give you energy.

5. Make a homemade, nutritious stock or broth to use in soups, stews, and sauces. Here’s how to make bone broth, which is both immune boosting and good for bone and joint health. And here’s how to make a healthy vegan broth.

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, pastured eggs, grassfed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

Too busy to cook? Try a slow cooker!

October 16, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

Here’s how you can cook fresh local food from scratch while you do something else

– By the Veggie Fairy Team

Too much fresh local food and not enough time to cook it? Try using a slow cooker! It gives you control and convenience – safely. Throw in the ingredients, set the heat and cooking time, then walk away and forget about it for hours… without burning down the house.

When you come back at the end of a busy day or after a good night’s sleep, a complete meal is waiting for you. Done right, it’s like the veggie fairies came in and worked their magic while you weren’t looking.

How to pick a good slow cooker

Depending on the recipe, you can fill a slow cooker and hit start in about five minutes, just enough time to listen to this fun interview with Top Chef judge Hugh Acheson while you chop and toss in fresh local ingredients. He’s got a new slow cooker cookbook and a some great advice.

Slow cookers are relatively inexpensive, and paying more doesn’t necessarily get you a better piece of gear. All you need it to do is cook slowly and steadily and keep the food warm when it’s done. Most new slow cookers these days are designed to automatically switch to a warm setting after they’re done cooking, which will keep the food at a safe temperature until you’re ready to eat.

When you’re picking one out, the most important part to consider is the insert pot. A heavy, ceramic insert is best for even heat distribution. Other than that, just pick one with a control panel that’s simple and easy to use.

While a lot of bells and whistles aren’t needed, a programmable option may be a useful convenience. It lets your meal start cooking at a predetermined start time for a predetermined length of time.

Planning ahead makes it even more convenient

If you want to start your slow cooker first thing in the morning and your mornings are pretty crazy, just start the night before.

Chop up the fresh local ingredients, measure out the dry ingredients, and prepare any sauce, putting each group of ingredients in its own container. Don’t refrigerate them in the slow cooker’s insert pot. If the insert is chilled, it will take too long to heat up. That will lengthen cooking time, reduce the cooking temperature, and could make your food unsafe.

So in the morning, add ingredients to the cooker according to the recipe. Reheat any sauce to a simmer before you add it to the mix.

When you set the heat level, here’s a general rule of thumb: Cooking on the low setting (170 degrees for most models) takes about twice as long as cooking on high (usually 280 degrees).

If you won’t be home close to the end of the cooking time, this is when it’s good to have a slow cooker that will automatically switch to the warm setting when the cooking is done.

7 easy ways to boost slow cooker flavor

Slow cookers are admittedly a bit glamour-challenged, mostly because they’ve got a reputation for producing pots of bland mush. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t need help from a Top Chef to make sure your slow cooker meals are satisfyingly delicious.

1. Use fresh ingredients, never frozen. If you want to include some of your fresh local produce that you preserved in the freezer, let it defrost before adding it. That way it won’t interfere with the slow cooker’s ability to get all the ingredients hot enough to kill any harmful bacteria that might thrive if the temp is too low.

2. If you’re cooking meat, choose the right cut. Fatty, tougher meats like chuck roasts, short ribs, pork shoulders, and lamb shanks will melt in your mouth after all those hours in the moist, low heat of a slow cooker. Leaner cuts like tenderloin tend to dry out. Same with chicken — dark meat thighs and drumsticks will remain juicier than white meat breasts.

3. If you have a little extra time, brown meat before you add it to the cooker. For a thicker sauce, dredge it in flour before browning. Then use some of the liquid called for in the recipe to scrape up and pour all the savory, brown, caramelized bits from the pan into the cooker. You’ll get a richer flavor that you can’t get from slow-cooking alone.

4. One more bit of meat advice: Trim the fat and skin the chicken to avoid an oily, greasy cooking liquid. By limiting the excess fat, you’ll wind up with delectably silky sauces and gravies.

5. For even cooking, cut everything into uniform-size pieces. Place firm, slow-cooking root vegetables like potatoes and carrots at the bottom and pile more tender veggies and any meat on top.

6. Definitely use spices! But watch the wine. The slow cooker is sealed so the alcohol can’t escape and evaporate like it would from a normal pot. A splash goes a long way.

7. Don’t overfill. The insert pot should be only one-half to two-thirds full, or whatever your cooker’s owner’s manual recommends. It’s okay to slow cook roasts and whole chickens, but make sure the lid still fits snugly.

8. Never lift the lid while it’s cooking — at least not until 30 to 45 minutes before it switches to low to check for doneness. Each peek lets heat escape and adds 15 minutes to the cooking time. Usually there’s no need to stir, either.

9. Add dairy last. Sour cream, milk, and yogurt tend to break down in the slow cooker, so stir them in during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

10. At the end of simmering, a sprinkle of fresh herbs or squeeze of lemon juice brightens flavors and cuts through all those rich slow cooker flavors. You can also finish off with hot sauce, citrus zest, grated Parmesan, good-quality olive oil, or even sauteed garlic.

Cooking from scratch with fresh local food ends in a meal that’s full of more flavor and nutrients than you get from processed foods out a box, bag, or can. And with a slow cooker, it’s almost as easy. Thanks to slow cookers, you can be busy and still enjoy healthy eating!

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, pastured eggs, grassfed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

Meet AnnaB’s: Local gluten free!

October 10, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

FOOD ARTISAN SPOTLIGHT: A local gluten free bakery

– By the Veggie Fairy Team

We’re excited to welcome AnnaB’s Gluten Free Bakery to our year-round online farmers market! Together we’re helping more people to eat better, live better with delicious, nutritious local gluten free baked goods.

Gluten free food is trendy these days, but for people suffering from Celiac disease, going gluten free isn’t a choice – it’s a life-changing requirement.

What’s up with gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. For Celiacs, it triggers an immune response in the small intestine that eventually damages the lining and prevents absorption of certain nutrients. In children, that can affect growth and development in addition to other really miserable symptoms. (Learn more about celiac disease.)

Kimi and Angela, the two sisters behind AnnaB’s Gluten Free Bakery, are the mom and aunt of a Celiac. When eating out they, too, have wondered, “Is this really gluten free?” They cite hidden wheat thickeners as just one of the lurking dangers. “Eating out is hard,” they say. “Actually, eating in general can be hard!” But not with their bakery!

Enter AnnaB’s

The sisters started their gluten free bakery in Mechanicsville, Va. There, the mixers are lined up in the kitchen like race cars at the starting line, as if they’re waiting for someone to announce, “Bakers! Start your mixers!” And the kitchen is busy all week, while the store is open on Saturdays from 8:00am to 2:00pm.

It’s a family business. “Our oldest daughters help bake and work in the kitchen while our younger kids help run the counter at the bakery on the weekends,” they report. “Even our 83-year-old father fixes any equipment that may break.”

Their stand on gluten is clear: “We don’t allow gluten in our kitchen at all, anytime, for any reason.” They’re also a peanut free facility. However, they understand that most Celiacs have other allergies as well, so they also clearly state they are NOT free of dairy, eggs, corn, chocolate, and tree nuts. Knowledge is power, as they well know.

Take a tour!

Get to know AnnaB’s, including where and when to visit the bakery. In the meantime, enjoy this photo tour. Thanks to Aly M for taking the pix during a recent yummy visit!

Bakers! Start your mixers!

The gluten free and peanut free kitchen at AnnaB’s in Mechanicsville, Va.

If the kids eat it, you know gluten free doesn’t equal flavor free!

It’s a family business serving local families.

Bagels — one of the many AnnaB’s baked goods that you’ll find at our Seasonal Roots online farmers market!

Dinner rolls? Yep, we’ve got those too.

Multigrain bread, and white, too.

Even cookies and more!

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, pastured eggs, grassfed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

12 fall superfoods to watch for

October 3, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

The seasonal health benefits of local food just keep coming!

– By the Veggie Fairy Team

Many farmers markets shut down or scale back as temps drop, but not us. No way do we want to miss out on the superfoods of fall! They’re just now starting to hit their peak – the perfect excuse to gather in a warm, cozy kitchen on cool nights and enjoy these fall superfoods that are super-charged because they’re local and super fresh! Here’s what you can look forward to, along with recipe suggestions from our Pinterest boards:

Apples

Sweet or tart, raw or baked into a delicious dish, apples offer health benefits like heart-healthy flavonoids that you get when you eat the skin; antioxidants; and 4 grams of dietary fiber per serving. Harvest season: August-November. Try this recipe: Winter Apple Slaw

Brussels sprouts

With a mild, satisfyingly bitter taste, Brussels sprouts are great with tangy or savory sauces like balsamic vinegar. Health benefits include the fact that a half cup more than maxes out your daily recommended allowance of vitamin K, plus these sprouts are a good source of folate and iron. Harvest season: September-March. Try this recipe: Creamy Sprouts Gratin

Cauliflower

The sweet, slightly nutty flavor of cauliflower is delicious raw, steamed, or roasted. It can also be blended to create a mashed potato-like texture or pureed into soup. Among cauliflower’s health benefits are compounds that may help to prevent cancer and phytonutrients that may lower cholesterol. It’s also an excellent source of vitamin C. Harvest season: September–June. Try this recipe: Sticky Sesame Cauliflower Bites

Fennel

Looking like the love child of an onion and a dill plant, fennel tastes mildly like licorice and offers the health benefits of free-radical-fighting vitamin C, and potassium, which is essential for your heart, muscles, nerves, and kidneys to function properly. Harvest season: Fall through spring. Try this recipe: Fennel, Fontina & Onion Pizza

Parsnips

They look like pale carrots, and like carrots, parsnips are sweet — sweeter, actually, and nuttier. Eat them roasted on their own, or they go great with just about every other fall vegetable. For your good health, they’re rich in potassium and fiber. Harvest season: October-April. Try this recipe: Roasted Parsnips & Carrots

Pears

Crisp or tender, they’re all juicy and sweet and so delicious. Enjoy them raw, baked, or poached. They’re a good source of vitamin C and copper, of all things, and deliver 4 grams of fiber apiece. Harvest season: August-February. Try this recipe: Asian Pear Cranberry Stuffing

Pumpkins

What is fall without pumpkins?!! This queen of the winter squashes gets a category all its own, because it’s good for so much more than jack o’ lanterns and pies. This is another fall veggie whose health benefits include lots of potassium, plus tons of fiber and it’s a good source of B vitamins. Harvest season: October-February. Try this recipe: Pumpkin Chicken Tacos (just go easy on the jalapenos and tomatillos if you’re not into hot’n spicy!)

Rutabagas

Rutabagas are like a cross between a turnip and a parsnip, with an earthy flavor that’s delicious in casseroles. Or puree them with turnips and carrots to make a sweet soup, or roast them with ginger, honey, or lemon. However you eat them, you’ll get their health benefits of fiber and vitamin C. Harvest season: October-April. Try this recipe: Curried Rutabaga Soup

Spinach

Not just for Popeye, spinach is good raw in a salad or steamed or baked into other dishes. Cooking actually makes it easier for our bodies to digest its nutrients. The health benefits are so extensive we can’t list them all here! (Read them here.) Vitamins A, C, K, and iron, and a storehouse of disease-fighting phytonutrients are just the beginning. Harvest season: Year-round, but it gets sweeter after the first nip from Jack Frost. Try this recipe: Spinach & Mushroom Quinoa

Sweet potatoes

These veggies are good for so much more than Thanksgiving casseroles! Sweet potatoes are more nutritionally dense than white potatoes, with health benefits that include vitamin A, iron, and anti-inflammatory properties. Roast them like a potato, or cut up like fries. Harvest season: September–December. Try this recipe: Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

Turnips

Tender and mild, these root vegetables are a great alternative to radishes and cabbage. Flavor them with fennel, bread crumbs, or even brown sugar, or use them as a slightly bitter complement to the sweetness of parsnips and carrots. Turnip leaves, which taste like mustard leaves, are easy to steam or stir fry and are even denser in nutrients. The health benefits of the roots include vitamin C, while the leaves are rich in vitamins A, K, and folate. Harvest season: September–April. Try these recipes: Mashed Turnips with Bacon (because for the meat-eaters among us, everything’s better with bacon!) and Warm Turnip Green Dip

Winter squashes

Cool weather squashes are denser, finer, and sweeter than summer squashes, and their thick skins mean you can store them for months without much loss of flavor or nurtients. They contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids (also good for kids’ brain health), are an excellent source of vitamin A, and taste even better with cinnamon and ginger, which have health benefits of their own. Harvest season: October–February. Try this recipe: Roasted Stuffed Winter Squash

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, pastured eggs, grassfed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

Welcome, Dominion Harvest members!

September 22, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

Everything you need to know to get started

– By the Veggie Fairy Team

Seasonal Roots is Virginia’s biggest online farmers market, and now we’ve joined forces with the oldest one, Dominion Harvest. Together, we’re supporting more local farmers and food artisans and spreading the veggie love to more local families – the more, the merrier… and the better for our planet! So for all our new Dominion Harvest members, here’s a step-by-step introduction to your growing fresh local food community:

When to place your order

From now on, you can place your order all weekend long. Your online farmers market is open from Friday at 2pm until Sunday at 11:59pm. We’ll send you an email on Friday to remind you that the market is open. During that time you can browse and shop all you want. When the market’s not open, you can take an offline tour of the ordering process by clicking here.

How to order your basket

When you sign in while the market is open, you’ll see that each order is fully customizable AND the ordering process is a little simpler — the best of all possible worlds.

It starts with a basket of fresh local produce that you can swap items in and out of. Then in the Extras section you can choose to buy dairy, bakery items, meats, artisan goods, or more produce.

First, the basket. There are three basket sizes to choose from:

To make it easy for you, we’ve pre-selected one of those produce baskets as your new default because it’s the closest match to the box you had in the Dominion Harvest system. But you’re free to change your default produce basket! Whichever basket you choose, it will come pre-filled with a selection of produce. You’re free to change that, too — just swap out items to get exactly what you want.

If you were used to getting extras like eggs, cheese, and bread with your order, keep reading!

How to order Extras

If you were used to getting extras like eggs, cheese, and bread with your order, here’s how you can easily add a pre-set assortment like that to your order:

Step 1: Once you’re happy with your produce basket, scroll down to the Extras section.

Step 2: Look for the “Mini-Bundles” tab and click on it.

Step 3: There you’ll find mini-bundles of those extra non-produce items. Select the one you want.

You’re also welcome to shop a la carte in the rest of the Extras section. In fact, you can change your order as often as you like until the market closes on Sunday at 11:59pm. If you do make changes, only your most recent save will be processed, so you can disregard the email confirmations you’ll receive for the earlier saves.

The money stuff

You’ll notice that, overall, prices will not be higher. In fact, for some items you may see lower prices. The main difference is that your box of local food will be priced and organized a little differently.

By the way, Seasonal Roots has a small annual membership fee, and that membership fee will be waived for 2 years for all Dominion Harvest members.

Your credit card will be charged on Monday morning.

Delivery

If you live in Northern Virginia, Wednesday will be your delivery day. If you live anywhere from Richmond to Virginia Beach, Thursday will be your delivery day. If you’re unsure about your delivery day, drop us an email.

On your delivery day, your box of local food will be delivered to your doorstep — hand-delivered by a neighborhood Market Manager who lives near you. She or he will send you an email reminder the night before that will give you a delivery window of just a couple hours so you’ll know more exactly when to expect it. Your Market Manager is there to help, so feel free to send an email if you ever have any questions or concerns.

On delivery day, you’ll also receive a “Field Notes” email from Sam, your Farmer Connector – he’ll update you on the harvest. Sometimes Mother Nature has plans for our crops that we can’t foresee. If something foils the harvest of a basket item, we’ll substitute the closest item we can find – for example, yellow squash instead of zucchini. If it’s an Extra item that you ordered, we’ll credit it to your account.

By the way, we check and double check each item before it reaches you, but if something falls through the cracks, like a bruised apple or a missing item, we want to know! It’s easy to report an issue — visit our FAQs and scroll down to “Quality Control” for instructions.

With your first order, you’ll receive a free cooler bag to hold your cold items. Each week after that, you’ll leave out the cooler bag or a larger cooler of your own, along with an ice pack if you have one. We won’t be leaving any of those frozen bottles, so you don’t have to deal with them any more.

Next to your cooler, please leave out your empty Seasonal Roots delivery box from the week before to help us reduce our carbon footprint. Your Market Manager will whisk it away so we can reuse it again next week, saving energy and trees!

Last but not least: Enjoy!

Once you receive your order, all you have to do is enjoy it! If you ever find yourself with more fresh local produce than you can eat right away, here’s how you can preserve the nutrients and flavor until you’re ready to use it.

To get to know us better, please visit our Web site where we’ve got FAQs, the story of how we got started, and more. We also hope you’ll join us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter!

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, pastured eggs, grassfed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.

2 easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint

September 19, 2017/in Blog, Blog Archive /by Veggie Fairy

Eat local and recycle the box!

– By the Veggie Fairy Team

The first thing you can do: Eat local food. The second thing: Reuse your Seasonal Roots delivery box. Now let’s get into the details.

Eat local food

So first things first: You’re already eating local food from Seasonal Roots. Here’s why that reduces your carbon footprint. Local food doesn’t travel as far as most food you find in the grocery store.

Compared to the global industrial food complex, food from local farmers and artisans uses less fuel and produces less CO2 – 17 times less! So local food belches fewer greenhouse gasses and fights global warming.

Supporting local farmers also saves nearby farms from getting paved over and developed. That’s especially helpful when you’re saving small family farms, because they farm differently from factory farms.

Factory farms plant miles and miles of monocrops. That’s unnatural, and it forces them to fight nature with more pesticides and artificial fertilizers.

Our family farmers use sustainable methods that work with nature. Sustainable methods create healthy ecosystems that are good for the soil, water, and air – a rich patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, and ponds. That kind of greenspace actually takes carbon out of the atmosphere. Plus it’s the perfect habitat for wildlife.

Recycle your box for reuse

As for the second thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint, it’s so easy! Just help us reuse our boxes. On delivery day, leave your empty Seasonal Roots delivery box from the week before next to your cooler. Your neighborhood market manager will whisk it away so we can use it again next week.

As you can see from the photo, veggie fairies like Margo L who deliver your local food really love it when you leave out last week’s box so we can all save energy and trees!

ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ online farmers market has connected Virginia families with local family farmers who use sustainable, humane practices. Our veggie fairies – mostly moms who believe in living better through scrumptious, healthy eating, being kind to animals, protecting the environment, and spreading joy – home-deliver freshly harvested produce, pastured eggs, grassfed dairy and meat, plus artisan fare. We empower our members to eat better and live better with more nutritious, flavorful food that’s good for us and good for the planet. More info at seasonalroots.com.