Benefits Of Live Microgreens Versus Pre-Cut?
Have you ever purchased some "fresh" produce at the super market? If you have, you have probably been in this situation before. Let's say you purchase some organic romaine and some other perishable items like pre-packaged basil. These items are usually cut and brought in from near or far away, depending on the season. When these items are in season, you are likely getting the more local varieties of these foods. When certain types of produce goes out of season, usually it can still be found but the quality is usually worse and the price is usually higher!
Why is this? It is because seasons change. The weather either goes from cold to hot or vis-versa depending on the part of the world you are in. And what does this mean for produce, you might ask? This means that at times of the year, you are getting very high quality produce that is locally sourced. The other part of the year you are eating produce that has been shipped from far away.
When a fruit or vegetable goes out of season in your area, it is still in season in another part of the world. Have you heard the expression, "it's five 'o clock somewhere"? Well, when the weather shifts like this as it does every year, stores prepare for this by purchasing all of their "out of season" goods from across the nation and depending on the type of produce, some are purchased from across the world.
What does this mean for food quality? After produce is cut, it begins the process of perishing (dying). During this process, produce tends to lose nutrition the more it sits unused. Some producers are able to combat this by flash freezing their produce so the nutritional lose is minimized. However, not all scale farming has this ability as it is time sensitive and cost prohibitive. A majority of farmers will pick or cut their produce long before it is ripe so that the ripening process can occur on the way to the store you may buy it from.
At Michael's Microgreens we keep our plants alive and give them to you this way, so that you are able to get the very most out of every bite. Flavor, color, and taste are all preserved when keeping the plant alive. We do cut our microgreens before we put them on our salad or other types of food, but at this point the microgreens will have only started to perish five minutes or so before our first bite. So we know that the nutritional lose is negligible. Microgreens last fresh in your fridge cut for around 3-7 days or so. Microgreens that are kept in our clamshell containers last on average 7-14 days, providing the plant is given enough light and moisture. Buy some live microgreens today! #microgreens #microgreenharvest #livevscut #localproduce