Hello all and Happy Friday!
Next week’s bins will feature two of my favorite greens: spinach and kale. I love these so much because they are delicious, nutritious and can be eaten in pretty much every type of meal or alone! It doesn’t get better than that!
Gaining in popularity, kale is an amazing vegetable being recognized for its exceptional nutrient richness, health benefits, and delicious flavor. Kale, also known as borecole, is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. A leafy green, kale is available in curly, ornamental, or dinosaur varieties. It belongs to the Brassica family that includes cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, collards, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K — and sulphur-containing phytonutrients.
Known in the nutrition world as a “power” food, spinach is also packed to the brim with essential nutrients. Spinach is great in any number of meals, including as an addition to soups, salads, sandwiches, casseroles and even sautéed with fresh garlic. But remember: spinach cooks down to about one-third its uncooked size, so don’t be afraid to pile your pan full of raw leaves until you get your desired cooked amount.
Spinach is rich in a number of essential nutrients, including calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, vitamin C and vitamin A. Each of these nutrients plays a crucial role in our bodies health, from maintaining bone structure, preventing neural tube defects, assisting in red blood cell production, regulating our heartbeat, fighting free radicals and nourishing good eyesight.
Along with these delicious greens, new items this week include fingerling potatoes and Crimini mushrooms. So stock up!
Also…
As we begin our 13th year of New Roots Organics, I want to include a note regarding the produce we carefully pack and deliver to our valued customers!
January in the Northwest is typically a pretty dormant time for growing fruits and vegetables, which is why we rely more heavily on California this time of year to bring the freshest, tastiest, organic produce we can find for our bins! Rest assured, we are still conscientious of choosing locally grown produce first of anything and everything that is available. All of our apples, pears, onions, & potatoes are always NW grown, and we will continue to include other storage root vegetables such as beets, & parsnips from the NW as long as they are available.
Supporting local farmers does not have to mean boycotting everything that is not grown in our state. We believe it’s important to eat a healthy balanced diet throughout the year, which includes organic produce. The very local farmers I know still enjoy citrus in the winter and a fresh spinach salad for example, even when it’s not grown in our state. Many of the farms we buy from in California (and Mexico) are small family owned farms who deserve our support as well!
We are completely open about where our produce comes from so you can make informed decisions about what you want and don’t want. Our system is designed to make it easy to edit your order all year round as you see fit!
