Vegetables Without Vitamins - How to deal with low quality foods produced by local farms

[Guest guest]

Hmmm...I think I'm running into a bit of a conundrum here upon finding out

that some of the local organic produce is really low quality as measured

with my refractometer. Here's the situation. I just started using my

refractometer a few days ago to test produce and milk in order to find out

the highest quality sources of these foods. As chapter leaders our main job

is to help our communities locate high quality foods, right? So, I figure

I'll do just that with my handy dandy refractometer. The problem is, so far,

in the limited testing I've done I've found most things I've tested to be

poor quality or *below* poor quality :-( Only a couple of things have come

out as " average " quality.

I've been told this is pretty typical, and that high brix/high quality

produce is hard to find. (Sheesh, what have we done to our soil????) So

*locating* high brix food is the first problem. I'll do a lot more testing

in the near future to try and find some local farms that produce high

quality produce. But my main problem is figuring out how to deal with the

situation when a farm's produce continually tests as poor quality. We want

to support local farms as much as possible, but if they're producing poor

quality products, I think we consumers should know where we can get BETTER

quality food - our family's health depends on it.

So the dilemma is, how to discuss the brix results with the farmers that are

producing poor quality products. One of the main purposes of the

refractometer is to HELP farmers improve the the quality of their products.

But it can also bruise egos and even hurt sales when they and their

customers know the quality of the product is low.

I was thinking of just releasing to our local chapter members the produce

that tests as " high " or " average " quality, but not sharing the " poor "

quality readings with anyone but the farmers themselves and let them decide

if they want to do anything about it. What do you all think about that? Any

other suggestions?

BTW, we've been talking about declining soil fertility on the brix talk

list. " Declining " is putting it mildly actually. It seems to me that we live

in a completely different world than WAP's groups when it comes to soil

fertility and the subsequent nutritional quality (or lack thereof) of the

food we have available to us today, even from local organic farms.

On this topic, here's an interesting article on this subject that Alberto

posted to the BrixTalk list:

Vegetables Without Vitamins

http://apperbed.notlong.com

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

http://www.westonaprice.org

----------------------------

“The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times.” --

Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

<http://www.thincs.org>

----------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

ya know, one way to do this would be to simply teach the farmers about

brix, and let them make the discovery themselves...you could host a series

of workshops, and perhaps start with your local X agency (for us it would

be NOFA and the grassfarmers' association.) brix is a tool like any other -

teach them about the tool " hey, isn't this neat, we can test our very own

stuff! " and then let them loose with it.

i will say, yeah. it's really hard. our soils are wrecked and repairing it

is a thankless job. like price, we teach we teach we teach - we teach

ourselves about this stuff, but then we teach our customers too. it's such

a small margin we live on as it is - our customers need to be educated with

this stuff just the same...

i could go on and on...but i won't unless someone wants me to.

At 05:47 PM 6/15/2004, you wrote:

>Hmmm...I think I'm running into a bit of a conundrum here upon finding out

>that some of the local organic produce is really low quality as measured

>with my refractometer. Here's the situation. I just started using my

>refractometer a few days ago to test produce and milk in order to find out

>the highest quality sources of these foods. As chapter leaders our main job

>is to help our communities locate high quality foods, right? So, I figure

>I'll do just that with my handy dandy refractometer. The problem is, so far,

>in the limited testing I've done I've found most things I've tested to be

>poor quality or *below* poor quality :-( Only a couple of things have come

>out as " average " quality.

>

>I've been told this is pretty typical, and that high brix/high quality

>produce is hard to find. (Sheesh, what have we done to our soil????) So

>*locating* high brix food is the first problem. I'll do a lot more testing

>in the near future to try and find some local farms that produce high

>quality produce. But my main problem is figuring out how to deal with the

>situation when a farm's produce continually tests as poor quality. We want

>to support local farms as much as possible, but if they're producing poor

>quality products, I think we consumers should know where we can get BETTER

>quality food - our family's health depends on it.

>

>So the dilemma is, how to discuss the brix results with the farmers that are

>producing poor quality products. One of the main purposes of the

>refractometer is to HELP farmers improve the the quality of their products.

>But it can also bruise egos and even hurt sales when they and their

>customers know the quality of the product is low.

>

>I was thinking of just releasing to our local chapter members the produce

>that tests as " high " or " average " quality, but not sharing the " poor "

>quality readings with anyone but the farmers themselves and let them decide

>if they want to do anything about it. What do you all think about that? Any

>other suggestions?

>

>BTW, we've been talking about declining soil fertility on the brix talk

>list. " Declining " is putting it mildly actually. It seems to me that we live

>in a completely different world than WAP's groups when it comes to soil

>fertility and the subsequent nutritional quality (or lack thereof) of the

>food we have available to us today, even from local organic farms.

>

>On this topic, here's an interesting article on this subject that Alberto

>posted to the BrixTalk list:

>

>Vegetables Without Vitamins

>http://apperbed.notlong.com

>

>

>

>Suze Fisher

>Lapdog Design, Inc.

>Web Design & Development

>http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

>Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

>http://www.westonaprice.org

>

>----------------------------

> " The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

>heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times. " --

>Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

>University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

>

>The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

><http://www.thincs.org>

>----------------------------

>

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