Fruit & Veggies and living in a Cooold climate ;-)

[Aaaaaa]

I feel best including some carbs in my diet.  I live in Wisconsin, and from about October to May, nothing really grows here.  I'm even having trouble keeping my indoor herbs alive!! :-(

I do feel good eating berries, but the only organic ones I can afford are frozen.  Are frozen fruits/veggies as big of a deal as frozen animal foods?  I can get coconuts, to make coconut cream, but they are not organic.  I can get organic mangos and pineapples, which I also feel good eating, but obviously not locally.  I just don't know how beneficial fruits are that have to be picked probably not-ripe, and shipped thousands of miles...:-S
Really the only fruits available locally on a sort-of consistant basis are apples, but they don't make me feel as good as other fruits. 

What do you other cold-climate-living people do regarding fruits and veggies?

[cherimoya_kid]

I would recommend you try pears, or perhaps persimmons.  High-Brix, of course.

[Aaaaaa]

Oh, I didn't think of persimmons!  Is there a way of testing for brix without buying a meter? 

[balancing-act]

Persimmon season is over at this point. I'm in Massachusetts, and I order fruit online from here:
http://www.localharvest.org/store/fruits.jsp

Or specifically tropical fruit here:
http://www.localharvest.org/store/M26409

Recently I got ten pounds of sapodillas, an intensely delicious medium-sized winter tropical fruit that's commonly described as tasting like a pear dipped in brown sugar.

[Aaaaaa]

I've actually been thinking about ordering from Fresh Gardens!  Their avocados and fruit sound SO yummy. :-)
How long does a 10lb box of fruit last?  Are they varying degrees of ripeness?  My main worry is that they would all need to be eaten up in a short period of time...I will probably try this and see if I can order either once or twice a month for all my fruit and avocados.

[achillezzz]

I think sully is from wisconsin and he is picking wild berries hit him up

[Aaaaaa]

Awesome--berries in WI in December?!  I'll definitely send him a message!  Hopefully he is somewhere near me, thanks! :-)

[cherimoya_kid]

Oh, I didn't think of persimmons!  Is there a way of testing for brix without buying a meter? 

Not unless you have years of experience Brixing fruit, and can tell by taste.  Brix meters are fairly cheap, I have bought 2 off ebay for about $40 each.

[Aaaaaa]

Is this the right thing?  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brix-Meter-Refractometer-0-32-ATC-4-Fruit-Veggies-/280518754936?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4150388278#ht_1870wt_1270
I think it looks right!
So, would wild fruit/berries typically have a higher brix?

[Aaaaaa]

Oh, and do you just test the fruit after you've bought it, or do you go around in the grocery store surreptitiously poking fruits for a couple drops of juice LOL?

[balancing-act]

SileIndigo, I'm pretty loyal to Fresh Gardens; I've been ordering from them for years. Imo their avocados are the absolute best, though very expensive... like everything they have. But I've had an absolute blast sampling exotic (") sweet fruit from them, and many I still haven't tried (like jujube and monstera). Ten pounds... it all depends on how much fruit you're planning to eat. In the middle of the winter I (try to) eat less than in the summer, so it should last a bit- maybe two orders a month for me. Some fruit is more expensive than others. There were fifteen sapodillas in my ten pound box. The good thing is that pretty much all this stuff freezes really well, so if there's a danger of over-ripeness you can just freeze it. That's true of all sapotes. I froze most of a jackfruit that I grabbed right before the season ended a month ago, and I've since finished it piece by piece. You can read the farmers' descriptions; they're always accurate. Also, the guy has integrity; when an order's gotten messed up for whatever reason he's sent me stuff as a replacement. etc.
I'll tell you one thing- once you start eating tropical fruit there's no going back to apples and oranges and pears.
p.s. Fresh Gardens also has fresh hearts of palm, which I'm very curious about but haven't yet splurged for. I like to say that ordering all this expensive produce is my one big decadence in life.... other than that I live in a tiny apartment and drive a beat up old car... but I'm insistent on eating like royalty.
p.p.s. Cherimoya season is also starting in a few weeks or so. I've been talking to a different source- Will's Avocados in soCal- about ordering cherimoyas. They don't grow in Florida.

[cherimoya_kid]

Is this the right thing?  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brix-Meter-Refractometer-0-32-ATC-4-Fruit-Veggies-/280518754936?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4150388278#ht_1870wt_1270
I think it looks right!
So, would wild fruit/berries typically have a higher brix?

That's the right type of meter.

Wild fruits don't necessarily have higher Brix, although they often do.  It really depends on the soil and the growing conditions.  It also makes a difference that wild fruit is usually smaller, and smaller fruits, generally speaking, with exceptions, are usually higher Brix.

[cherimoya_kid]

Oh, and do you just test the fruit after you've bought it, or do you go around in the grocery store surreptitiously poking fruits for a couple drops of juice LOL?

I test after I buy, although Whole Foods sometimes posts their fruits' Brix readings.

When I've been buying from the same store for a while, I can usually tell which grower they're buying from (most stores use the same few growers), and therefore I already know the quality of the product.

[Aaaaaa]

That makes sense, cherimoya_kid, thanks! :-)
balancing_act ~ all of Fresh Gardens' fruit sounds DELICIOUS!  I like that they have coconuts--those are hard to find around here.
I am thinking of ordering some papayas...I've always wanted to try those.  I think I could swing a couple orders per month, if that is where most of my fruit is coming from.  Freezing is a good idea...I'm guessing freezing fruit isn't as bad as freezing meat, since most of it is water?
I agree that eating good food is most important!!  I have an old junker car too, cuz I'd much rather spend my money on food and art supplies LOL :-)
What do you think about Fresh Gardens being conventional growers?  I wonder how much/kinds of pesticides they use?  Or which fruits are the most/least sprayed?

[balancing-act]

Re: organic, I go by flavor, and their stuff always tastes awesome to me, so I don't worry about certification. A lot of small farms are low-spray but can't afford or don't feel they need certification.
Re: papayas, that's actually one that I don't get from Florida/Fresh Gardens, because I don't like their varieties as much. I order papayas obsessively over the summer from Hawaii- ten pounds of sunred papayas for $55 from Hawaii: http://www.papayas.net/order.php
They're always timely, and the papayas are outrageous, even though they're also not certified organic. To each his/her own, but I'm a papaya connoisseur, and I think most of the ones in Whole Foods are crap, but these are the real deal.

[balancing-act]

P.S. Papayas are one thing I don't think you can freeze, btw.

And regarding pesticides I bet you could write to Fresh Gardens and get a response about that. I can't find their email right now, though... I think you can contact them through Local Harvest.

[Aaaaaa]

Oh, thanks for posting that papaya company!  If I decide to get papayas, I'll go with them then :-)  I've never had one, so I guess I wouldn't know the good from the bad, but I'll take your word for it!
I did email Fresh Gardens asking about how organically they operate, and how much/what they spray on their crops, but they just replied that they are "conventional" growers, and didn't really elaborate on anything.  But they do get great reviews, and since they are a smaller family owned place, I'm sure they take better care of their plants than a huge national company would.
Now, to work out the food budget to include yummy tropical fruit...:-)

[cherimoya_kid]

Brix is more important than organic versus non-organic.  Fertilizer isn't really  a big issue, and there are some varieties of fruits, like avocado, that get very little pesticides.

[Aaaaaa]

Good to know!
What do you think about this one--is it OK?  Its less expensive...http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-32-Brix-Wort-SG-Refractometer-Sugar-Wine-Beer-Fruit-/270748521700?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f09de94e4#ht_4333wt_1037

[balancing-act]

Good luck with that budget!
One thing to consider is water content. Papayas are very light. Not as light as, say melons, which are like 90% water, but still quite light. Mangos are somewhat denser, and things like sapotes and jackfruit are much denser. The ultimate dense fruit is dates.
Personally, I mostly go for lighter, more watery fruit in the summer and denser in the winter... but that's just me.  Right now I've got sapodillas, slow-ripening persimmons, and durian.

Most tropical fruit has a few-month season, but papaya is a year-round phenomenon. Papaya is hands-down my favorite high-water-content fruit-- divine. I've found since eating a lot of fruit that my body rejects drinking water. The water naturally occurring in fruit seems more ideal than water from the tap (even good well water). And hydration is one of the big keys to feeling good; imo that's part of why eating fruit is important, and I eat more fruit than veggies.
Waiting until fruit is *truly ripe* is really, really ideal. It should melt in your melt. It can be eaten a couple days before true ripeness, but if you practice the virtue of patience you're rewarded in both how it tastes and how it makes you feel. Most folks don't wait until fruit is truly ripe, and thus they don't understand the full wonder of fruit.

[cherimoya_kid]

Good to know!
What do you think about this one--is it OK?  Its less expensive...http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-32-Brix-Wort-SG-Refractometer-Sugar-Wine-Beer-Fruit-/270748521700?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f09de94e4#ht_4333wt_1037

I haven't used that brand, but it looks good to me.

[Aaaaaa]

Thanks to both of you guys!
I am learning a lot here :-)

[PaleoPhil]

A local supermarket sells cherimoyas, about 3 - 6 or so at a time for $4.99 each here in cold Vermont (though it wasn't cold often this winter). Rather pricey, though they are delicious. The cashier couldn't believe how expensive they were and thought it must have been a pricing error. LOL

[balancing-act]

That's actually cheap for cherimoyas. They can be 9 or 10 bucks each. I went through a few boxes in the past month and a half.