A sane food system

Do you ever think about how insane it is for us to ask people on the other side of the country (or another country) to grow our most perishable food?  

There are some incredible produce farmers in California and Canada that are shipping their products into the Midwest. The longer we've been at this, though, the more we've grown to appreciate that they have a superhuman challenge we don't have (thanks to you). Their produce needs to be good for a week or two before it makes it onto our grocery shelves–often to sit uneaten even longer.

When you choose food produced nearby, you’re making it so much easier for farmers. We local growers have the huge advantage of being able to get produce to you within a few days of harvest, at most (aside from storage crops–which still benefit from not having to travel).

The fact is, upon harvest, produce starts degrading. To give you an idea, a study from UC Davis showed that "vitamin C losses in vegetables stored at [39.2°F] for 7 days range from 15% for green peas to 77% for green beans." Now we’re not only dealing with nutrient dilution from the growing practices, but we’re compounding it with degradation from long storage. This system is insane.

At SFF, we're just scratching the surface on harvesting fresh veggies year-round. Part of why winter growing is so important to us to perfect is the scientific fact that fresh veggies are worlds above their processed or stale counterparts. (Recall Heather's story & her biometric screens.)

We don’t want to imagine being the ones out West trying to meet the demands of the world’s largest cities. Thanks for making it easier for us to farm well!