Hello Harvest Equals Hello Health

A common question on the forefront of nutrition: “is it that important to eat organic produce?”  If you had asked me this question 10 years ago I would have given you a very different answer than today.  The answer is YES!  Organic produce contains no pesticides which can impact your health while providing a higher nutrient value in your food and life.

Besides consideration of organic, it is equally important to purchase local since the distance it takes for the product to go from the farm to your home makes a difference in nutrients, how many hands the produce has gone through, etc.

With these 2 things in mind I started researching companies that provide sustainably-farmed local organic agricultural products.  I was tired of going to Whole Paycheck and seeing organic apples from New Zealand or other remote countries.  I go to the Farmer’s market regularly but sometimes it would just be nice and convenient if that produce showed up on my doorstep.

Well…the time has come.  A few weeks ago I received a call from Ben Darin.  Ben and his sister started a company called Hello Harvest.  After graduating from College, Ben taught English in Africa to people with AIDS.  During his time in Africa he became interested in healthy eating and fresh local produce.  When he returned to the US he started this great company and found 5 farmers close to his business in Santa Barbara who supplied organic produce.

He drives to Los Angeles on Wednesdays and drops off a substantial box of produce on your doorstep.  Last week I received a box filled with delicious strawberries, cherries, plums, oranges, baby string beans, cauliflower, carrots, lettuce and other tasty foods with a small spray of flowers on top. 

The box contained a good variety, the taste and longevity great and I did not have to travel at all.  And the price was unbeatable - $35 for a box that feeds at least 2 people for a week or longer.  I’m still eating things from my box over a week ago.  Different sizes are available depending on your needs, along with a preference or reoccurrence to fit your needs.

I highly encourage you to try this service to save yourself time and money…besides saving your health and life.  What can beat health, convenience and ease?

Food Choices - The Five Essential Elements to Consider

Have you ever considered a private Chef?  If you are lacking in time and have the resources it can be a wonderful marriage.  Below is a piece written by private Chef Jane Pagan.  It gives a clear picture of how we choose our food and what is important to us.  Enjoy this guest blog.

By June Pagan, Private Chef

1.         Flavor:  Everybody wants their food to taste good and be satisfying.  This is the TRUE first consideration for food selection, because when we don’t enjoy the food we consume, we eventually will look elsewhere until we are able to find food choices that are satisfying.  During hard times like these, food satisfaction becomes even more essential, as it is one of the most basic elements of our existence.

2.         Health Value:  This actually encompasses several areas that need to be considered, depending up the specific circumstances of each individual.  Many of us are concerned about keeping our weight down, as excessive weight can lead to an array of medical problems.  For others, of equal concern are specific elements of food choice.  For example some of us must restrict salt intake, in order to maintain a healthy blood pressure level. Others must restrict sugar intake because of concern related to possible development of diabetes.  Then there are those among us who have specific food allergies, such as being allergic to nuts, being lactose-intolerant, etc. 

3.         Cost:  Food cost is a reality that must be taken into consideration by most of us.  Only the extremely wealthy can ignore cost factors entirely.  For the rest of us, it is a matter of degree.  Since we are what we eat, most of us try to obtain the very best foods that we can, within the realm of what is financially possible.  It is no secret that the cheaper food choices out there are more prone to being compromised by over-processing (you know this is an issue when most of the ingredients read like a chemistry lesson as opposed to actual foods).

4.         Respecting Mother Nature by Obtaining Produce that is In Season:  This is an element of food choice that many of us tend to overlook, because of the globalization changes that have taken place.  For example, we can now find grapes year-round, even in the middle of winter!  How is this possible?  That’s an easy one – we bring them up from Chile, where it is like our summers even in the middle of February!  What’s the problem with this?  Well, we cannot be sure that other countries observe the same pesticide restrictions that are in place here in the United States.  On the other hand, there are boutique-like farms around the world that strictly adhere to natural farming methods, operating sustainable farms (crop-rotation techniques, no use of pesticides, etc.).  This means that the prudent chef must examine each source of produce on a case-by-case basis.  There are no hard-and-fast rules with regard to consideration of selecting domestic versus imported of produce.  Many of our farms in the United States may not be using DDT to protect their crops from insect invasion – but instead they use GMO techniques which are equally dangerous, and threaten to remove the nutritional value from our foods, as well as any flavor that might have been there.  Those strawberries look delightful on the produce shelf at our local supermarket – AND they are farmed right here in California.  Not so fast!  Those strawberries may not have DDT on them, but they most certainly WILL have other pesticides that pose health risks, not to mention that they are very likely to have been developed using dangerous GMO techniques.  Not surprisingly, I often discover that those beautiful strawberries have no flavor, even though they are so pretty in their luscious red coats.

5.         Sustainability:  Last but certainly not least, we need to consider sustainability.  This means trying to purchase the majority of our produce from local purveyors, and making sure that those purveyors source their produce from farms that employ sustainable methods – such as crop rotation, responsible use of modern science (think “pluot” or nectarine).  However, we cannot always adhere to purchasing our produce from local sources.  There are a variety reasons for this.  For example, during the cold season a few years back, we lost our entire crop of local oranges.  So if a person wanted to enjoy a glass of fresh orange juice, they had to hope that the orange crop in Florida did not suffer the same fate.  There are also farms in other countries that do use a sustainable approach, with the only drawback being that food is not from a local supplier.  For example, the best vanilla beans available are from the Yucatan peninsula of our neighbor to the south (Mexico).  Those beans are even better than the famous beans from Tahiti, which are no longer even available in the United States.

For more information on June see her website at www.junepagan.com

And now my 2 cents worth:

So the five things to consider when you choose your food – flavor, health value, cost, having products in season and sustainability.  Could not have said it better myself!