Nighttime Delivery

Our "Farm Fresh to You" delivery arrived sometime between 11 PM and 6 AM.  I was able to check the day before to see what was included.  We were shopping at Costco that day so I didn't want to buy things that were going to be in the delivery.  The jury is still out as to whether we will keep this service.  I liked getting all of these organic fruits and veggies for $15.00 (thru Groupon) but not sure I'd want to pay the full $31.00.  We'll get one more delivery (in a month) and then decide.  Here's a photo of what we received.  I moved it from the cardboard box to a basket for display purposes.

As you can see, there were 2.5 lbs of heirloom tomatoes, 1 lb of cherry tomatoes, 1 Eureka lemon, 4 nectarines, 1.5 lbs of flame seedless grapes, 1 lb plums, 1 cucumber, 1 bunch of beets and 2 heads leaf lettuce.  Jeff asked what is an heirloom tomato and here's an answer from google:  "An heirloom (called heritage in the UK) tomato is generally considered to be a variety that has been passed down, through several generations of a family because of it's valued characteristics.  Heirloom tomatoes lack a genetic mutation that gives tomatoes an appealing uniform red color while sacrificing the fruit's sweet taste.  Heirloom tomatoes can be found in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes."  So those orange, green and yellow tomatoes you see are not unripe, that's just their color.  Remember when I wrote about not refrigerating your tomatoes a while back?  We got those instruction from Farm Fresh to You as well.  They say not to refrigerate these gas releasers:  avocados, unripe bananas, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums and tomatoes.  Gas releasers you should refrigerate are:  apples, apricots, cantalopes, figs and honeydews.  In addition, you should not store any of the following fruits and vegetables near any gas releasers:  ripe bananas, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplants, leafy greens, peas, peppers, squashes, sweet potatoes and watermelon.  If you put spinach or my beloved kale in the same bin as peaches or apples, your greens will turn yellow and limp in just a couple of days.  That would make a good science experiment for kids!  

By the way, Costco has a new product called Sweet Kale Vegetable Salad Kit that we bought.  It has kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and chicory.  It comes with packages of dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds that you add and a poppyseed dressing to toss it all in. It contains 7 superfoods!  It is quite good so I finally found a way to eat some kale.

While I'm on the subject of organic, I heard something on Dr. Oz that really made an impression on me.  I usually don't buy organic if a fruit or vegetable has a skin you don't eat so, for example, I don't buy organic bananas.  At Costco, organic strawberries are twice as expensive as regular strawberries but I think I'm going to be buying organic from now on.  It was pointed out how a strawberry is like a sponge so even if you really wash them well, you may not be getting rid of all the pesticides.