How To Choose Fresh Produce

At Garden Valley Farmers Market, we offer nothing but the best in our fresh produce grown by local farmers all across North Carolina. We offer produce ranging from freshly picked squash/zucchini to juicy, flavor-filled watermelons. But sometimes, knowing what’s ripe and ready to eat is hard to determine when you’re not use to picking them out.

And sure, we would LOVE nothing more than to help you pick out your produce for your yummy tomato sandwich, or that delicious frittata recipe we blogged about a few weeks ago. But, we also want you to know how to pick out your produce, just in case you’re in an area that does not have a Garden Valley Farmers Market.

Jenna Marie Visuals

Jenna Marie Visuals

Garden Valley only offers Grade A produce. So, how the grading scale works is this: the higher the grade, the better the quality of produce. The lower the grade, although usually cheaper, is not as good of quality. And we only want the best for our customers, so we only want to serve you Grade A produce. Because we know your families, and we only want them to have the best.

We also only serve seasonal produce!
Why?
1. It’s cheaper because it costs less to travel and distribute.
2. Seasonal produce tastes better and has more flavor.
3. Because seasonal means supporting our local farmers, and we’re ALL about that.

So now that we’ve covered what we offer and why, here are a few tips on

HOW TO CHOOSE FRESH PRODUCE

using our 10 most popular produce items. As a general rule: if it smells sweet, it’s time to eat.

Jenna Marie Visuals

Tomatoes: LIGHTLY squeeze, and if it feels firm but has a bit of give… it’s RIPE and ready for your delicious sandwich. If it’s hard, but doesn’t have any give… wait a day or two. If it’s mushy and your finger pokes a hole through the skin… please don’t eat it.

Jenna Marie Visuals

Berries: You want your berries to be rich in color, and plump in definition. If there are stains in the basket, that means they probably need to be eaten soon.

Watermelon: You want to choose a firm and heavy watermelon. Thump the side of it, and if it sounds hollow, then it’s ready for you to cut open and enjoy at your family cookout!

Avocados: Gently squeeze. If there is yield when gentle pressure is applied, but it’s not mushy, than it’s ready for your guacamole!

Apples: When choosing apples, make sure there are no soft spots, are firm, and have a deep coloring to them. And remember that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Cantaloupe: This is one of those produce items that you can generally judge by smell. If the stem smells sweet then it is ripe to eat. Other signs of a ripe cantaloupe would be a firm exterior with a underlying color of orange and white (green means it could ripen a few more days).

Corn: Make sure the husks have no holes or browning. Also consider asking the sales associate if you can pull the husk back to inspect the corn.

Jenna Marie Visuals

Cucumbers: If the color of the cucumber is medium to dark green and firm if squeezed, than you are good to take it home, cut it up, and pour vinegar over it for a delicious snack! Make sure there is no yellow or wrinkles in the skin of the cucumber.

Bell Peppers: You want your bell peppers to be heavy, firm, glossy and a taut skin. If there are wrinkles, that probably means that it should be eaten VERY soon, or not at all…

Mangos: Gently squeeze. If there is a slight give, with soft flesh inside, than it’s ready for that delicious tropical smoothie. Or by itself.

We, Garden Valley Farmers Market, only want to serve you the best produce provided by our local farmers. We hope you continue to stop by one of our five locations in North Carolina for your produce, because we’ll be here waiting and ready to help you choose your produce, and so much more!

Sincerely,
Your GVFM Team

Rosemary, Vegetable Medley Frittata

We, at Garden Valley Market, are SO glad that Spring is here, and one of the main reasons is because of delicious recipes made with FRESH and LOCAL vegetables. There are so many recipe options, but we can only choose one. This time we decided to make a vegetable medley frittata, including our vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh zucchini and onion, hand picked rosemary directly from a local garden, and some fresh local farm eggs provided by a local family here in Burlington, North Carolina.

When picking out your produce, it’s important to examine each piece and choose it according to your needs. Asking yourself the questions like:

When am I going to be using this zucchini?
How big of an onion am I needing?
How ripe of a tomato will I need for my recipe I’m making tomorrow?
Where is this grown?

Those are all questions that our staff at Garden Valley Farmers Market can help you with if you’re unsure. And that’s why shopping local can be so much better than going to other stores. Why? Because we only buy from farmers who grow grade 1 produce. We also only provide field grown produce, and absolutely no hot house. We stand behind our product and want nothing but the best produce for you, especially when you’re making yummy recipes, like a Frittata, for your family.

WHAT IS A FRITTATA?
Basically it’s an omelet, but it’s cooked faster than an omelet, and usually served at room temperature.
Frittatas are also great because they don’t take a ton of time to prepare, and they can usually serve a large group (unless you have a family that likes to EAT, then you might want to serve up two of these).

add eggs and spices to bowl

whisk rosemary, salt, and pepper together with eggs

chop up veggies

combine all of veggies into skillet and cook for about 7 minutes

add handful of kale into mixture and cook until wilt

pour egg mixture over vegetables and cook until edges start to set

cook in oven at 350 F for about 15 minutes, then on broil HIGH for about 2 minutes

let sit for 5 minutes, then serve

ROSEMARY, VEGETABLE MEDLEY FRITTATA
Servings 8-10 people
Total Time 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

+ 8 large eggs
+ salt and pepper to taste
+ olive oil (for the pan)
+ 1 small better boy tomato
+ 2 sprigs of rosemary
+ 1/2 medium sized red pepper
+ 1/2 medium sized zucchini
+ 1/2 small vidalia onion
+ handful of fresh kale
(optional- feta cheese for garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS

+ Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in center position.
+ In a bowl, combine the eggs, sale, pepper, and rosemary. Whisk well.
+ Heat olive oil in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat.
+ Add red bell pepper, onion, tomato, zucchini. Sauté until softened, about 7 minutes.
+ Add kale to vegetables and cook until it starts to wilt.
+ Distribute the vegetables evenly in skillet and pour egg mixture into skillet.
+ Cook until eggs are just beginning to set around edges, about 2-3 minutes.
+ Place skillet in center rack of oven. Bake frittata for about 15 minutes.
+ Turn broiler on HIGH for 2 minutes. Be careful to watch to prevent over-browning.
+ Remove from oven. Let frittata sit for 5 minutes before serving.
+ ENJOY!

*You can also garnish with a fresh sprig of rosemary and crumble some feta cheese for an added “wow factor” that your guests (and yourself) will LOVE.