Food Rules #25: Eat your Colors

Yes, the saying comes from an "old wives' tale" but it's just good science, too, as Pollan points out. A range of colors reflects many different antioxidants and we want those in our diet.

Think of the color scheme a farmer's market provides: green leafy vegetables, crimson radishes, deep blue berries, golden beets, green/yellow/red/orange/purple/black tomatoes. Oh, I can't wait for summer! I've vowed to cook and eat more vegetables this year, once the season comes around. One of our staff, Jeff (who's helped us the past 2 years at our Farmer's Market stand), gave me a great idea that I plan to use this year: buy a variety of berries, lay on a sheet pan covered in parchment or waxed paper & put the pan into the freezer. Once all the berries have been frozen, put into ziplock bags or airtight containers and keep in the freezer, taking out as needed. Freezing them first before bagging them ensures you don't get a big globby mess of berries when you go to retrieve them later.

I've made a couple of batches of tomato sauce this winter, too, in the slow cooker. I used canned & jarred Italian and local tomatoes from Tomato Mountain Farm, but I'm only considering it a test run and this summer I plan to use my slow cooker to make several large batches of tomato sauce and freeze it so we have it thru the wintertime. I LOVE all the colors and varieties of tomatoes in season. Last year, one of our regular customers brought me a basket of tomatoes grown in her "yarden" and I swear I only ate tomato and mayo sandwiches sprinkled with sea salt for 3 days. I think they were the best tomatoes I'd had all last season!

Our shops are a drop off site for a couple of vegetable CSAs and it's so cool to look into the boxes that come each week and see a range of veggies. I've learned the names of several heirloom varieties I hadn't heard of before. The taste is quite extraordinary as well.

Maybe I should set another goal for this summer: to eat thru the color of the rainbow every week in vegetables! Sounds like a delicious challenge.