Why Farm Fresh, Local Produce Tastes Better
Or why grocery store produce doesn’t taste good.
When I started Cedar Crate Farm back in 2015 I had one distinct problem that I wanted to solve for people. The problem is that grocery store produce doesn’t taste good. I knew that because I had grown up eating produce fresh from my mom’s large garden. I knew what fresh produce was supposed to taste like. I knew that the grocery store was selling an inferior product. I knew that I could grow better tasting produce and share it with this community in south central Minnesota.
Why Grocery Store Produce Doesn’t Taste Good
The reasons for that are many but we’ll go over a few of the key reasons briefly here. The first reason that grocery store produce doesn’t taste good is that the produce varieties that grocery stores carry are varieties selected for their ability to withstand shipping and shelf life. This is almost always at the expense of flavor.
Take our incredibly delicious and incredibly popular Sungold cherry tomato. It’s known for it’s incredible sweet flavor that’s almost like candy. It’s also known for it’s propensity to crack during shipping. Because of it’s propensity to crack you’ll never find it in any grocery store but you will find it in your CSA shares, our online farm store, and our farmers market stand.
The second reason grocery store produce doesn’t taste good is because it isn’t fresh. Most produce in most grocery stores (even some food co-ops!!) isn’t local. It isn’t even grown in the Midwest and in some cases isn’t even grown in this country. If you think about the steps the produce takes it could be a week or more since that produce was harvested and when it ends up on your table. Here’s what it might look like:
Produce is harvested and spends time on the farms harvest, wash & pack line. 1-2 days.
Produce is shipped to a distribution center. 1-2 days.
Produce is shipped again to the grocery store. 1-2 days.
Produce is in the grocery stores receiving area/walk-in cooler. 1-2 days.
Produce sits on the grocery store shelf until it spoils or you buy it. 1 - ??? days.
Best case scenario is the produce is 5 days old when you purchase it from the grocery store but probably a lot longer. No wonder it doesn’t taste good!!
Our farm solves this problem by growing the best tasting varieties of produce we can find! Further, we always harvest, wash & pack your produce the day before we deliver ensuring you always have the freshest, best tasting produce possible!