The photo to the right was taken in a super market in Lima Peru. It turned out kind of blurry because I was nervous taking it, "who's the gringo taking pictures of the supermarket?" But this shows these marvelous fruits that are common and make the best shakes are so common there, yet I've never seen on in the US and didn't know of their existence until I came across them randomly at a juice shop. 

“ho un contratto di smaltimento con un azienda di trasformazione alimentare loro producono zucchine melanzane patate , pasta e altri ortaggi e producono surgelati , io mi occupo di smaltire i loro scarti di lavorazione se guardi fuori ce un truk bianco loro sono capaci di mangiare un camion di quelli al ciorno.”

“I have a disposal contract with a company in food processing for their produce waste from zucchini ,eggplant, potatoes, pasta and other vegetables and frozen produce. I take care to dispose of their waste products out there [in the forest where his pigs are at].” He then pointed to a white truck outside and said his pigs are able to eat an entire truckload of waste.

I ran into a girl in Rome, Sanja, who is a vegetarian not necessarily for animal rights, or because she didn’t like meat, but for the reason that it takes several pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Her argument is that by not eating meat the same land that was used to grow grain for the animals can be used to produce food for humans. 1lb of meat or 3-5lbs of raw food for humans? Now looking at the fact that Americans throw away up to 33% of their food, and Europe isn’t far behind, Michele is providing a great service by reusing wasted food to create meat, and not using land that is needed for growing crops. Wasteful habits, Sanja, farmers, and meat lovers could all be satisfied by this model.

Michele is one of many farmers in Italy working with the government on bringing the black pig back from the edge of extinction.

“questa razza di suino fino a 6 anni fa era quasi estinta, poi e stato intrapreso un percorso di recupero anche grazie allo stato italiano, ora ci sono piu o meno 10000 capi il salame di questo suino e molto richiesto, figurati che non riusciamo a soddisfare tutti gli ordini

“this breed of pigs was almost extinct six years ago, and is now embarked on a path to recovery thanks to the Italian state. There are now more or less 10000 heads of this pig and with the great demand we cannot meet all orders.”

Peach season is among us. To get the most out of peach season I’ve compiled information as to what best do with peaches, how to take care of them, and some interesting facts. Thus the peach handbook.

How you can preserve peaches to enjoy them throughout the year.

I’ve ran into people that can, freeze, and make jam out of peaches. By far most people just freeze them, the distant second is making jam (my favorite), and some people can them.

To freeze peaches
In my opinion freezing peaches is the easiest way to save them for later. And science has shown that reezing produce preserves the nutrition of the fruit, which is one of the largest benefits of buying fresh.

The best way to freeze peaches is to slice them, place them on cookie sheets where the slices aren’t touching each other and freeze them. Once they are frozen place them into a freezer bag and return them to the freezer until your taste buds call. This way the peach slices do not freeze together, and you can open the back and easily get the desired amount of peaches.

This option works great for those that enjoy morning shakes. The peaches are so sweet they can be used as the sweetener, and since they are frozen you don’t need to use ice.

To make Jam

There are many different methods to create jam, and it seems most families have their own method passed down from previous generations. These peaches are very sweet and I know many people that cut down on the sugar as a result.

I'll leave it up to you to find a desired recipe that meets your needs. 

To can them
Canning peaches is fairly easy. I would write a tutorial, but there are many videos online that show much it much better than I could describe it. But I've found this to be a very good website http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-peaches.html.


How to get fresh peaches to last longer
Did you know you don’t want to refrigerate peaches? Did you know peaches can last for a couple of weeks, a lot longer then the typical few days?

Most of the time I find people place their peaches in the fridge but the fridge slowly takes the taste out of the peach and makes them ripen the wrong way. If you really love the peach taste, and big juicy peaches, go ahead and keep them on the counter like you do with bananas.

If you want your peaches to last for a long time, even up to a couple of weeks you can easily do that by keeping a close eye and taking the wet peaches away from the bunch. The skins of peaches will usually keep the peaches from going bad, but all it takes is one juicy peach to puncture and the escaped peach juice will make any peach that it touches to go bad within a day. And even though the fridge will remove the best of the taste, if you keep the ripe ones in the fridge they will last even longer.

Interesting facts

There are three kinds of peaches, cling-stone, semi-cling stone, and free-stone peaches. Cling-stone, and semi-cling stone peaches taste very good, but they aren’t what people generally think of a good summer peach. That award goes to free-stone peaches which will be around for the rest of the summer.

When I say stone it refers to the seed in the peach. If the fruit (meat) of the peach doesn’t come off the stone, then it is said to be cling-stone. Those are the first to ripen, they are generally small and don’t store well.

After the cling stone peaches come the semi-cling stone peaches. They are typically a bit larger, but the meat can still stick to the stone. If you live in Amarillo, or Lubbock these are the peaches you received in June.

Free-stone peaches are the best peaches, largest in size, in my opinion the best tasting, and since the meat easily comes off of the stone they are perfect for canning, freezing, and preserving. They are the last to ripen, but go from late June to late September.

A couple random facts about peaches. They are in the same biological family as roses.
Italy is the second largest producer of peaches...does that mean we should call them Peachi? 
The first peach orchard in the US was in the 16th century in Florida.

What to expect this season
Peaches are the crown jewel of the summer, and the reason why Your Freshest Food is around. We begin with Fredericksburg peaches in June and July and once they are out of season  we begin bringing peaches from Palisade, Colorado until the end of summer. These peaches are larger than Texas peaches, and can reach the size of small melons…no exaggeration. 

Beginning in August we will be offering certified organic peaches far below market price, which is good for everyone. And as always we’ll bring whatever the farmers have, not just peaches.

Stay tuned for a peachy summer.

Being certified organic is a benchmark: if a grower has that certification you know exactly what it means, or you could google it.

Having a LEED certified building is another benchmark: if a building has that certification you know how much energy it uses, and what kind of technology it utilizes.

But there isn’t a sustainability certification, at least a popular one. When a grower, or a store says they are “sustainable,” what does that mean? Some farmers tie it to growing organic, and stores to their LEED certified building. But does that mean it’s sustainable?

It is common knowledge that the world’s environment faces several challenges in the 21st century: over-extended water basins, alarming rates of extinction, groundwater, surface water, and air pollution, invasive species and food uncertainty to name a few. These problems are signs of unsustainability. Is it fair to say that any company that contributes to less of these then contributing to them is sustainable?

Not only would that mean most farms are unsustainable, but that most organic farms typically aren’t sustainable because they contribute to an over-extension of water resources, plowing over what otherwise could be natural land for native animals and plants, and depending on their equipment, air pollution. Meanwhile they only contribute to solving food uncertainty.

It would also assume that a large hypothetical building that solves a problem completely, say a building that stood on stilts to preserve the native land under it who’s function was cleaning the air and eradicating invasive plant spores and seeds present in the air. But say it installed the pollutants into the water making it useless. Based on the “it solves more problems then it contributes to” argument would mean this would be sustainable because it solved 3 minor problems, but it doesn’t account that it took one problem and made it into a crisis.

So what is sustainable? 

Vanderbilt University says: meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs .

The EPA says: Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.

The UN Sustainability conference says: Sustainability calls for a decent standard of living for everyone today without compromising the needs of future generations.

So apparently not even experts can agree 100%. But it looks as though everyone agrees it’s a scale instead of a state. Instead of saying “it’s sustainable,”, it could be said “it’s more sustainable then…”

An organic farm is typically more sustainable then a conventional farm, and a permaculture farm is typically more sustainable then an organic farm. All three aren’t sustainable because each has it’s own set of drawbacks, but as they move up the scale they have fewer drawbacks.

Wind energy is more sustainable then coal, and solar is more sustainable then oil. But neither is “sustainable" because wind energy kills billions of birds, and the manufacturing of solar panels is very polluting.

Your Freshest Food buys from farms that are more sustainable then typical farms in that they spray less, use water resources responsibly and are small farms creating a diverse environment of farms and food. 

So next time someone, or something states that it is sustainable, pause and ask yourself what they mean by that, and if it truly is “more sustainable,” then the alternative. 

and often times wouldn’t buy it or eat it. Often times they were knowledgable of the rumors of the state of the farms in their area, which food came from Italy, which came from Africa/Asia, and of course, they are Italians and love their food.

Most people understand why the food systems in Italy and the US are very different; however, I would like to draw a couple of comparisons between the two countries and what the local populations expect from their food. Here in America many people don’t have an idea of where their food comes from, and this isn’t a coincidence. Many of the large food producers don’t want people to know for whatever reason. For Americans, the question isn’t which hill did the food come from, but in which month the produce picked, and in which country. Quality is what the Italians buy, and quantity is what Americans buy. Our 2 food systems have evolved completely different from each other, and the end product couldn’t be more striking or startling. Our food system feeds hundreds of millions of people and livestock; the Italians system feeds millions of people and less livestock.

One way that they keep their food local, and wholesome is that when they can, they grow their own food. They are not faced with the same daunting problems that China’s food industry is facing (enormous pollution problems that make it difficult to grow wholesome food), but like the Chinese, when they have the chance they grow their own food.

I recently returned from a trip to China and Italy that was partly for business, and partly a planned family vacation, but throughout the entirety of the trip I observed the farm-to-fork methods in both countries, and I'll share some of my observations here.

We will begin in China.
 
The food safety situation, along with the pollution problem in major Chinese cities has been well publicized. I went to Beijing, the center of the pollution coverage and I was anxious to see what I would find there, would everyone be wearing masks, or minimizing their times outdoors? What do the Chinese eat if they are concerned about food safety? Are they even aware of their situation?

What I found amazed me, thousands of urban gardens along the highways. On the train towards the hotel from the airport when I was first seeing these urban farms (photo above) I wondered to myself is this common? Are they planted by people who wouldn’t otherwise have food? Is it public land? I came to find out that they are very common in each part of Beijing, and anyone that can grow their own food usually does whether in their house, or in an empty field near their house.

There are beautiful farmer’s markets, and several roadside vendors that offer their fruits and veggies, but from what I saw, many Chinese avoid them due to the uncertainty and lack of transparency in the environment that the produce was grown in, what pesticides they were treated with, what they came into contact with, along with many other concerns.

Most of these questions weren’t answered to the full extent that I’d like; however, I found that the Chinese are more aware of their situation then foreigners are. When they can afford it they are willing to pay several times more in price for imported food, assuming imported means trustworthy. They are very curious to where their food comes from.

Most of the land in China is unsuitable for agriculture, and almost all of the water is not fit for human consumption. Once again, the Chinese are more aware of this then we are. They have to live with it, when their food is tainted they are the ones that are sick, or die. Just like us, they are looking for a way out. Throughout my trip I met several entrepreneurs that are looking at solving this situation and the market is very receptive.

There is an increase in the amount of rooftop gardens, along with urban farms, there is substantial research and investment going into greenhouses, and other alternative types of growth methods. There are new apps that allow them to scan the barcode of the food they are looking at, and it will show them where it was grown and how it was transported (I believe we have similar apps in the US).

Quite frankly the situation is very sad! Post-Revolution China was built mostly on the back of small farmers. Although many have relocated to large cities they still have several small farms, and a wonderful food system of local production, options in vendor and product and fresh, but this food system is being ruined by the few and far in-between farmers that cut corners and aren’t honest. It is also being hurt by factors outside of the farmers control such as the quality of water that they irrigate with, the acid rain that falls on their fields, or even the polluted land they have to work with. 

Even with these food concerns, I couldn’t help eating at roadside stands. One of my favorite things to do in foreign countries, so far without a bad experience 

These are my small general observations in a foreign place, and in a very complex system. Please take them as such. 

Next will be a little bit about Italy, where I have relatives who are farmers.

Although thousands of roads go from Urban America to Rural America the wall between the two couldn’t be larger. We speak the same language, but do we? We are all American, but what does that mean to the different Americas? We may shop at the same stores, but we don’t shop for the same things.

This wall is always apparent when I contact farmers asking them to become suppliers for Your Freshest Food. In Urban America you walk in with your money and tell them what you want, in Rural America your money means very little until you have developed a relationship. In Urban America business deals are as good as the contract they are written into, in Rural America there is very seldom anything written.

I was raised in Urban America, and the disconnect always surprises me when I cross this wall into Rural America. I call several farmers, talk to my current suppliers, and  talk to my customers to see who would be a good farmer for the in season crops. Everyone has their names, their connections and their neighbors, but still the relationship trumps the connection.

Because of this I always have difficulty establishing the relationship with the farmers, I am usually an out-of-state person calling them randomly and asking about their farm; essentially one of their children. As an urban dweller I have had to change how I communicate, my patience level, and my mannerisms; it has been a very long, and ongoing process, a process I didn’t foresee when I went into business.

Each year when I call farmers I always have to remind myself, these people are in their farms everyday. They know better than anyone you cannot speed mother nature, you can’t control anything about the weather. They know they are the victim, or the beneficiary. The only thing that tell them their fate is time, and all they can do is wait, and work. Most urbanites cannot comprehend this, nor could they live by it, but seeing this self-discipline always teaches me, and reminds me that urbanites have a lot to learn away from the internet.

Throughout the last few weeks I’ve noticed that Fresh makes the list of abused word that I have created (it has joined awesome, great and good). Why? Because most food, and stores claim that they are fresh. The month old onions at large grocery stores are labeled as “fresh,” the week old berries that are molding are titled “fresh, and the tomatoes that are still hard are labeled “fresh” as well. When you return home you use the same word to describe the tomatoes that just came out of your garden. It seems to have become such a generic word as “awesome,” when describing anything that at one point was fresh, or still is fresh: the wheat in your cereal was once fresh, so does that make your cereal fresh? What if it was shipped very quickly after it was manufactured? It’s fresh cereal, isn’t it?

So the question for Your Freshest Food is what does fresh mean to us? Does it mean it get it to you as quick as we can? No. Does it mean that we ripen it up in storage and after it’s ready we get it to you as quickly as possible as typical grocery stores do? No that’s not what it means to us either.

What Fresh means to Your Freshest Food is that we get the produce straight from the farm, shortly after he picked the produce, and then we rush it to you, or the seller, who is in an agreement to sell it within a few hours. We ensure that it takes, feels, and smells fresh. We ensure that it resembles its natural state as much as possible (no wax, artificial colorings etc), we ensure that it was sustainably grown, because we believe fresh means it came from a wholesome piece of land that can grow fresh food.

But there is one more step we take. We believe fresh is about the experience as well. Everyone thinks that food tastes better at a restaurant, or that Gelato tastes better in Italy, and Tacos better in Mexico. Why is that? Because fresh also includes the experience. The same goes for eating peaches off of the tree in a peach orchard, or picking and eating a cherry tomato. We do our best to bring you this experience to you while you are in the city. This hasn’t been done before so we are always working on innovating ways to bring you tastes of the farm to you in the city. 

Next time you see something claim fresh, ask yourself, is it really fresh?

Starving, not only him, but his family. They are hunting as a family and he sees a large animal. He draws his bow and arrow and pulls the arrow back while stands tall, but he blacks out and falls to the ground due to his hungry state.

There is much to thank, and many people who deserve awards, that this scenario is no longer the situation we have to endure to find a good meal; however, this picture is what many people pictures “hunter and gathers” to have endured.

Picture this, you are out in nature, the air is a mix of a smell of fresh summer air and the peach tree you are picking from. All you hear is the music of nature, and all you feel are your hands on this natural tree and on this ripe peach you have just found. At that point you have a vision where you are in a rush, a rush that feels similar to the feeling of running away from death.

In this vision, you are running up and down these narrow corridors. The air smells rancid, and people are throwing food at you, food that you aren’t supposed to taste, although you are hungry and you sneak a bite, only to discover the taste matches that of smell of the air. There isn’t any nature around you, just clutter, and noise pollution, and people who will always remain strangers. In this vision, you remain in this state for close to an hour.

That is probably what the modern supermarket would look like to that food forager who is picking the peaches.

The reason I walk through these scenarios is to show the disconnect we have between where we were as a species thousands of years ago, and where we are now. We have gone from one extreme to the other. We have gone from this relaxed person picking the peaches, and the hunting man who is on the verge of starvation to these supermarkets that only have facade to offer. Why hasn’t anyone bridged this middle ground?

At Your Freshest Food’s stands this summer we hope to close this gap a little bit by creating a natural experience with relaxing music, food you can touch and taste, and an aroma in the air other than that of the city. We also will have pictures of the farms where we buy the produce. We hope you will enjoy it.