Organic Strawberries
There are a few weeks every year when a special version of organic strawberries is available. They’re called Harry’s Berries and our family loves them. Sometimes not necessarily sweeter than other organic varieties, they’re flavor seems more powerful and unique.
They’re also more expensive, yet I think it’s money well spent and I’ll explain why.
First of all, they’re more enjoyable, but more than this, they’re more nutritious despite being low calories. Eating just berries many not make anyone feel too full, yet when I combined them with about 1 oz (20-30 grams), of raw walnuts, I wasn’t hungry for a few hours.
I always suspected that properly grown foods are more nutritious, thus we can eat smaller amounts and still extract the vitamins and phytonutrients from them. After repeating this enjoyable experiment twice with similar results, I looked up research articles to verify my hypothesis and found many of them.
Organically grown produce contains 20-40 percent more nutrients, none of the toxic pesticides residues, not to mention that synthetic fertilizers cannot be used. Of course, there are constant arguments back and forth if this is relevant or not and if eating enough servings of conventionally grown produce provides the same nutrition.
If non-organic produce tastes better, we may be inclined to eat more servings, but sometimes the taste is disappointing. Tomatoes may look awesome but they’re tasteless. A beautiful looking apple may have a watery taste.
Many people may not afford to pay the price for organic strawberries. But we eat less if we fill satisfied, therefore we can buy less. We also don’t need to eat as often or consume big portions of other foods.
My son recently returned from college and asked an interesting question: Why do I eat fewer meals while home? The short answer to his question was the meals he ate home were more properly balanced and more nutritious. This includes both macronutrients (proteins, healthy fats and carbohydrates), as well as micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and plant polyphenols).
As he loves fruits, the timing of his short vacation week was perfect; he was lucky to get his fair share of Harry’s Berries. I wish those tasty berries be available more often, and maybe in California (where the farm is located), there are. On the East Coast are hard to find except for a few weeks. Something to look forward to every year.
The reason why these berries can only be available for limited time every year probably has to do with this farms being smaller, as well as with organic farming practices. The same is true for other well-known organic strawberries brands and other berries as well. Sometimes you can’t find any organic variety for weeks at a time. With conventional farming, produce is available year-round in the supermarkets.
Any tasty or even not so tasty non-organic berries are way better snacks than the processed and ultra processed ones, which we’re so accustomed to get off the shelves. We feel hungry shortly afterwards and keep going back for more.
