In our Nutrition Modules we talk a lot about ways to incorporate higher quality foods. Foods that will give you more bang for your buck, foods that will support you in burpee rep 30 versus leaving you with your hands on your knees after 10 reps. One of the easiest ways to find these kinds of nutrient dense foods is by getting to know your neighborhood farmer and shopping locally.
Until recently, getting to know your local farmer seemed hard. Where do I find them? How do I buy from them without having to go uproot my own carrots and pick worms out of ears of corn?Eating from the land has become less common because grocery stores are just so darn clean, and convenient, and predictable, and cheap… etc, etc. But in many cases it is really hard to know where your food came from, how it got there, when it got there, the methods used to keep it “fresh” or ripen it, or even what is in season.
Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson is a great book that gives you an insight into what kind of path your food might be traveling on to get to you and the potential nutrients lost in the process. There are also a ton of great tips in the book about how to find the best produce. Here are a few.
But… back to finding the local goods. Shopping from local vendors will get you as close to the source as possible which often means less resources needed to get that food to your plate and it is often fresher. Here are a couple of guides from the Colorado Department of Agriculture about Colorado produce, how to shop for it, what to look for in quality, and when it is in season.
With these lists and a little bit of hunting in the grocery store, the farmer’s market, or online you can find some of the tastiest foods Colorado has to offer.
Winter Farmer’s Markets in Denver
