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2 things to never store together

EAT BETTER LIVE BETTER NEWSLETTER / Mar 29-30, 2017

Tips, hacks, recipes, stories, and the weekly special help you eat better live better!

They make a great pair… cooked. But they should be stored separately. One likes to be dry and cool, and the other tends to release moisture. One is also sensitive to ethylene gas, which is given off by ripening fruits. Find out which 2 items in your crisper are the ones you should never store together…

Continue reading below or view this issue as a PDF with clickable links.

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You won’t believe how much nutritional value is lost

First in a 3-part series on storing fresh local produce
– By Kristin Henderson, chief veggie conversationalist:

(Part 2: 4 easy ways to max out your produce’s nutritional value)
(Part 3: Do this to save fresh local produce for a year!)

The fruits and vegetables your grandmother grew up eating were much richer in vitamins and minerals than the varieties most of us get today. 1950’s broccoli, for example, had 130 mg of calcium, but only 48 mg today, based on USDA data.

When it comes to the loss of so much nutritional value, soil depletion is Public Enemy #1, according to Scientific American. The modern corporate food industry uses highly intensive agricultural methods that strip nutrients from the soil, and they strip it over and over again: “Sadly, each successive generation of fast-growing, pest-resistant carrot is truly less good for you than the one before.”

Public Enemy #2: Big Corporate Agriculture has been focused on developing produce that can travel from California or even New Zealand for days or weeks and still arrive at the supermarket looking good – as if shelf life and good looks are all that matter. In the process of selecting for looks and shelf life, Big Ag sacrificed yet more nutrients and flavor.

Public Enemy #3: The very act of transporting, packing, and storing produce over long distances for long periods of time makes the problem worse. Most of the produce in grocery stores is at least a week old. But just look at the graphic of what happens to the vitamin C in broccoli in that amount of time. Even when it’s refrigerated, after 3 days a steady drop in nutritional value begins — it’s even worse for tender produce like spinach and green beans. It drops even more when produce is handled roughly by machines, or when things like broccoli, carrots, and celery are pre-cut for those ready-to-eat salad bags.

Seasonal Roots is working to change all that by partnering with small local farmers who use sustainable farming practices to keep their soil nutrient-rich. Then, after they harvest the produce grown in that rich soil, it doesn’t have to travel far. So, working fast, our veggie fairies gently hand-pack your produce and deliver it to you within 48 hours. We know that as soon as it’s picked, the clock starts ticking.

Plus there are things YOU can do to make sure get you more nutritional bang for your produce buck. Next week we’ll lay out some of the ways you can stop the lost-nutrients clock… or at least slow it down!

This kind of local farmer helps the future

EAT BETTER LIVE BETTER NEWSLETTER / Mar 22-23, 2017

Tips, hacks, recipes, stories, and the weekly special help you eat better live better!

Seasonal Roots makes it possible for you to have an impact on the future – simply through the food you eat today. We partner with farmers who use sustainable practices because they’re thinking about the future, too. This kind of local farmer helps the future of our families, our communities, and our planet. Exhibit A is Van Dessel Farm, which got its start when…

Continue reading below or view this issue as a PDF with clickable links.

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Cooking with kids – PS

PS: CLEAN UP & CELEBRATE!

The wrap up of our 4-part series on cooking with kids
By Jamila T, chief area manager & veggie fairy godmother:

(TIP 1: Start with projects)
(TIP 2: Let them do hard things)
(TIP 3: Set kitchen ground rules)
(TIP 4: Use common sense)

Involve the kids in clean up and celebrate the accomplishment! Good kitchen habits extend beyond preparing food. When you’re cooking with kids, clean up is important too! Enlist your children’s help in washing pots and wiping counters. Quick clean-up will make you more inclined to do another kitchen project in the future.

Lastly… celebrate! You made it. Gobble up a muffin with a big glob of strawberry jam and pat your kid on the back. Don’t forget to pat yourself on the back because you taught your child something today…. and you survived the lesson!

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
Encourage the kids to show off what they learned!

THIS WEEK’S RECIPE

SAUSAGE STRATA

Ingredients:
1 lb sausage or ham
6 slices of bread, cubed
2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
6 eggs
2 c milk
1 t salt
1 t ground dry mustard
optional: chopped broccoli or other veggies

Directions (Watch the video!):
1. Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain and set aside.
2. Lightly grease a 7×11-inch baking dish. In the dish, layer bread cubes, sausage, and cheddar cheese.
3. In a bowl, beat together eggs, milk, salt, and mustard. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cube mixture.
4. Cover the filled baking dish and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
5. Remove the dish from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking and uncover it. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Bake 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
7. Optional: Top with mushrooms and onions — we’ve got a yummy how-to in this week’s newsletter!

Success?
Celebrate some more by posting a picture on our Facebook page!

Regional vs local

EAT BETTER LIVE BETTER NEWSLETTER / Mar 15-16, 2017

Tips, hacks, recipes, stories, and the weekly special help you eat better live better!

Can you tell what’s local and what’s regional in that picture? Local food and regional food both have good things to offer! But what makes food local, regional, or neither? Sometimes it’s obvious: If an apple comes from New Zealand, it’s not local, at least not here in Virginia. But what if it comes from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or even Florida? There’s no official definition for ‘local food’ or ‘regional food’. Seasonal Roots considers food ‘local’ if…

Continue reading below or view this “Regional vs Local” issue as a PDF with clickable links.

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Cooking with kids – Tip #4

USE COMMON SENSE

Fourth in a 4-part series on cooking with kids
By Jamila T, chief area manager & veggie fairy godmother:

(TIP 1: Start with projects)
(TIP 2: Let them do hard things)
(TIP 3: Set kitchen ground rules)
(PS: Clean up & celebrate!)

Common sense is key when you’re cooking with kids. While it’s important to give children challenging, meaningful tasks, it’s equally important to make sure those tasks are appropriate for their ability. Appropriate tasks build confidence and character, and will ultimately be a rewarding experience for everyone. Not to mention, your little ones will actually help you… not just “help” you.

So… cooking with a three-year-old? Leave the chef knife in the butcher block and opt for one with a small blade. Better yet, select a recipe that calls for tearing rather than cutting!

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
Tearing and baking. If you have tiny helpers, let them try their hand at tearing kale leaves from the stems. Older kids? Put them on oven duty!

THIS WEEK’S RECIPE

KALE CHIPS

Ingredients:
kale
olive oil
salt
optional seasonings: roasted sesame seeds, finely grated Parmesan, paprika, chili powder, flax seeds, nutritional yeast, brown sugar, taco seasoning, lemon or lime zest

Directions (watch the video!):
1. Tear kale from stems.
2. Wash and dry torn kale.
3. In a large bowl, toss kale with oil and salt.
4. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet and sprinkle on seasonings if desired.
5. Bake 20 minutes at 300 degrees F.

Success?
Celebrate by posting a picture on our Facebook page!

Want to try another recipe project? It’s in the PS post, and here’s what you’ll need:
Add sweet potatoes, Bella Vita sourdough bread, Trickling Springs Creamery whole milk, Saddle Ridge Farm eggs, and maple breakfast sausage to your basket when the Seasonal Roots online farmers market menu opens on Friday.

Shopping How-to

Shopping your home-delivered farmers market is quick & easy

By the Veggie Fairy Team:

Here’s a step-by-step shopping how-to that will help you place the order you want (or skip a week):

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1. Choose a basket size

When your online farmers market is open, the first thing you see is the Market Page. Go to the top and choose a basket size. Each basket comes prefilled with seasonal produce – 5 choices in the Easy Basket, 8 choices in the Family Basket, 11 choices in the Veggie Lover Basket.

2. Customize

Next, make any changes you want by swapping items or filling a customized basket from scratch. You do it like this:

  • SWAP: After you choose the best basket for you, check out what’s in it. Let’s say you don’t want green tomatoes. Click on the “Swap Item” button below the tomatoes and you’ll see all the other available items.

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  • START FROM SCRATCH: But say you want even more choices. In that case, just fill your basket from scratch. Scroll down to the “Fancy a change?” line, and at the end of that line, click on “Customize it here.”

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  • CLICK (+) OR (-): That takes you to the full range of everything our farmers have ready for harvest. Click the plus sign (+) below the items you want until all the photo slots in the upper left are filled. Again, that’s 5 choices for the Easy Basket, 8 for the Family Basket, and 11 for the Veggie Lover Basket.
  • UPDATE ORDER: Once all the choices are filled, the “Update Order” button will appear in the upper right. Click on it and you’re done! (Unless you want to order Extras – read the rest of this post for more on that.)
  • MAKE CHANGES ALL WEEKEND: You can keep changing your mind and adding and subtracting from your basket all weekend.

3. Premium items

Milk, eggs, bread, butter or cheese, meat, and more are available as Premium basket items that you can swap in for an additional charge. Or you can buy them as Extras — the choice is yours. When you swap or customize, it’s easy to spot each Premium item by the $-sign on its picture.

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The additional charge is also clearly marked. When you’re all done ordering and check your order details, if you ordered any premium items, the additional charges are listed there, too. So you always know how much you’re paying.

4. More info on items & farmers

Need more info about an item? Click on the tiny round photo of it under its name. Want to know who grew it or made it? Click on the other tiny logo/people pic.

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5. Choose “Extras”

Once you’re done filling your Easy, Family, or Veggie Lover basket, you can also add Extras – just scroll down the Market Page. There are a number of category tabs in the Extras section, including Bakery, Produce, Dairy, Artisan Goods, Gluten Free, Meats, and Prepared Foods. To see what’s available in each category, click on its tab.

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  • TO ADD AN EXTRA ITEM: Click on the plus sign (+) below the item. As you add new items, a purple counter appears on the tab to help you keep track.
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    • TO ADD MORE OR LESS OF THAT ITEM: To add more, keep clicking the +. If the + doesn’t light up, that means there’s only enough of that item for you to order one. If you change your mind and want to remove an item, click the minus sign (-) below that item.

    6. Enter a promo code

    When you’re all done filling your basket and adding Extras, scroll further down the Market Page. If you have a promo code, a.k.a. veggie fairy code, enter it and click “Apply”.

    7. Save and review!

    Then scroll down again to the very bottom of the Market Page and click the big green “Save And Review My Order” button. YOU MUST CLICK “SAVE AND REVIEW” TO PLACE YOUR ORDER. If you don’t, your carefully filled basket will go POOF and your veggie fairies will never know it existed. Instead, they’ll deliver the original pre-filled basket, which will leave you disappointed, and that will make your fairies very sad. And there’s nothing sadder than a sad veggie fairy.

    • FYI – YOU’LL GET A CONFIRMATION EMAIL: When you save your order, you will receive a confirmation email. If you receive a confirmation, we got your order. If you don’t receive a confirmation, we didn’t get your order.

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    8. Want to change your order?

    So let’s say you click “Save And Review My Order”… and then you change your mind. That’s okay! You can still make as many changes as you want until 11:59pm when the clock strikes midnight on Sunday night. To make changes, scroll down to the bottom of the Summary Page and CLICK ON THE PURPLE “EDIT MY ORDER” BUTTON. That will re-open your order, taking you back to the Market Page.

    9. Always click “Save And Review”!

    Just remember: Each time you re-open your order, always click the “Save And Review My Order” button AGAIN at the bottom of the Market Page. Otherwise your basket reverts back to the previous saved order.

    • FYI – YOU’LL GET ANOTHER CONFIRMATION EMAIL: Every time you click “Save and Review”, you’ll receive another confirmation email. If you don’t receive another email, that means your latest order change wasn’t entered. So be sure to click “Save and Review” every time you change your order.

    10. Skip a week

    Then again, maybe you don’t want to place any order at all. You can skip or pause your deliveries at any time.

    • WHEN THE MARKET IS CLOSED: Sign in and hover over the purple gear icon in the upper right corner. In the drop down menu, click on “Delivery Preferences” and follow the directions. Be sure to click the “Save” button at the bottom!
    • WHEN THE MARKET IS OPEN: Go to the very bottom of the Market Page. Underneath the “Save And Review My Order”, there’s a red “Skip This Week” button. Click it.

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    • YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT SKIPPING, TOO: On the You Skipped This Week Page, just click the green “On second thought, I’d like to place an order” button to re-open your order and go back to the Market Page.
    • YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND MORE THAN ONCE: But if, on third thought, you decide you really do need to skip this week after all, YOU MUST CLICK “Skip This Week” AGAIN.
    • FYI – YOU’LL GET YET ANOTHER CONFIRMATION EMAIL: Every time you click “Skip This Week” or “Save And Review”, you’ll receive another confirmation email.

    11. The bottom line

    Basically, every time you open the Market Page, click either “Save And Review My Order” or “Skip This Week” to make sure you get what you want! ON MONDAY MORNING, YOU’LL RECEIVE A FINAL CONFIRMATION EMAIL THAT YOUR LAST CONFIRMED ORDER WENT THROUGH.

    ABOUT SEASONAL ROOTS

    Since 2011, Seasonal Roots’ home-delivered 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.

    Grass-fed Cooking Secrets

    EAT BETTER LIVE BETTER NEWSLETTER / Mar 8-9, 2017

    Tips, hacks, recipes, stories, and the weekly special help you eat better live better!

    Grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork, chicken, and eggs are packed with flavor, plus vitamins, Omega 3s, and healthier fats. But to get the most out of all that goodness, the Saddle Ridge Farm family offers this simple piece of advice: DON’T OVERCOOK! Pastured meat and eggs are a little more delicate and cook faster than conventionally raised meat and eggs. That’s because, when it comes to meat, grass-fed and pastured products contain more…

    Continue reading below or view grass-fed cooking secrets as a PDF with clickable links.

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    Cooking with kids – Tip #3

    SET KITCHEN GROUND RULES

    Third in a 4-part series on cooking with kids
    By Jamila T, chief area manager & veggie fairy godmother:

    (TIP 1: Start with projects)
    (TIP 2: Let them do hard things)
    (TIP 4: Use common sense)
    (PS: Clean up & celebrate!)

    Kids love to taste things and will often gobble ingredients without considering food safety. Before getting started on any cooking project when you’re cooking with kids, set some kitchen ground rules.

  • Discuss ways to keep themselves safe around hot elements and sharp tools.
  • Also request that they ask before tasting ingredients.
  • Designate a bowl that is specifically for samples and drop something in there from time to time. A “tasting bowl” gives kids an opportunity to explore without worry.
  • THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
    Dicing! Watch this video and learn to dice like a pro!

    THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
    ROOT VEGETABLE CANDY
    Use a variety of Seasonal Roots root veggies for a local, fresh, kid-pleasing dish!

    Ingredients:
    4-6 c root vegetables such as celery root, parsnips, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
    olive oil for drizzling
    salt and pepper to taste
    Tasty Tip: Not beet fans? Use golden beets which blend beautifully with carrots and sweet potatoes.

    Directions:
    1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
    2. Throw diced vegetables on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss with your hands, then arrange in a flat layer on the baking sheet.
    3. Roast 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are golden brown.
    4. Allow to cool to room temperature and eat as a snack, or serve them as a side dish with pork chops, roasted chicken, etc.

    Success?
    Celebrate by posting a picture on our Facebook page!

    Eat Better Live Better / Mar 1-2

    Tips & Hacks guide you on picking the right chef’s knife in this issue. Plus recipes and the weekly special to help you eat better live better! Check it out below or view as a PDF with clickable links.

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