Cully Farmers Market

 

The next best thing to having a garden of your own, is buying fresh produce from the Farmers Market. The Portland area has an abundance of Farmers Market. Buying from the Farmers Market pretty much guarantees that your buying fresh, local, and organically grown produce. Since, I now call Portland home again, I've decided to make it my mission to visit all the neighborhood markets.

My first trip was to Cully Farmers Market located in NE Portland. It's a small but lively market.  I found a stand (Mt.View Fruit Stand) with the SWEETEST cherries and BEST apricots I've ever eaten. Here's a few photos of the beauty I encountered...

Repost: Fresh and far away

 

 

We are so far removed from our food and its sources. A lot of our food, so-called food is made from a slew of hard to pronounce ingredients, in far away factories, packaged, and then shipped to the grocery store.

Animals no longer graze their natural habitat. Instead, they are confined and slaughtered in giant factories, known as feedlots. It’s very rare to have seen or known the animal that we prepare and eat. Most of us would prefer not to see Emily the cow get electrocuted and then have her throat slit. We cringe at the thought. We don’t even want to be bothered with the skin or bones anymore. Hence, skinless, boneless chicken breast. Think about it…If you had to hunt, kill, and clean the animal…How much meat would you eat?

Fruits and vegetables are grown in massive fields and sprayed with gross amounts of pesticides. We’ve never touched the soil, or pulled up the roots. Some of our fruits and vegetables travel thousands of miles before they make it to the grocery store. That’s how we can enjoy strawberries in the dead of the winter. Such an oddity, we all know strawberries are the taste of summer. Or do we?

We are so very disconnected from our food. As we evolve, we try to do things more efficiently, but along the way we’ve created quite a mess with our industrialized food system. It’s all convenient. It’s all nicely packaged. It’s all wrong.

I’m just one gal on a mission to create a healthier lifestyle for myself.  Along the way, I’ve done a lot of reading, viewing of films, and realize that a healthy lifestyle begins with the food that I eat. I want to share what I learned with others. I hope I don’t come off as a pretentious, know-it-all. I'm not. I really just want to help you make better informed decisions.

Originally posted April 16, 2012.

Eat Your Colors

I love the produce section in all its splendor. All the rich, vibrant colors: Greens, oranges, reds, yellows, purples, on and on. Not only are fruits and vegetables a beautiful sight, but those colors actually play a role in our overall health. There are a number of reasons to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

1. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with good stuff, phtyonutrients and antioxidants. Phytyonutrients are important because they may prevent illness, disease, and keep your body working properly. Antioxidants are vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that protect and repair cells from damage caused by free radicals. A diet rich in antioxidants can help you fight off colds, flu, and other infections.

The more and more research and reading I've done, the more convinced I am that a plant based diet is the way to go. I still haven't cut meat completely out of my diet and honestly probably won't, but I've decreased the amount of meat I eat and I make sure the meat I'm buying is good quality, lean cuts, and of course, over the last year I've upped the fruits and vegetables considerably. I'm proud to say, due to my high fruit and vegetable intake this was the first winter that I did not get a cold, or the flu.

2. Fruits and vegetables are low in calories (See a great visual below) and provide satiety. Depending on how you prepare your fruits and vegetables you can fill up on them guilt free. Raw with no additives is always the best.

3. Fruits and vegetables are a natural source of fiber. Fiber aids in a healthy digestive tract.  A high-fiber diet may also help reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

So, there you have it, three good reasons why you should eat your colors.  At the very basic level, just think about it -- fruits and vegetables are of the earth, they're nature's goods -- eat up!

My suggestions on how to sneak in more fruits and vegetables:

-Serve fruit/vegetables at breakfast. Add fruit to your breakfast cereal or yogurt. Add vegetables to omelets.

  

- Make a salad into a meal. Add a few ounces of chicken, turkey, fish, or beans a top

spinach leaves or romaine lettuce. Easy on the salad dressing it can add calories

quickly.

- Drink your fruits/vegetables. Add berries or a banana along with kale to yogurt and juice to make a smoothie. 


- Don't over think this...Just return to the basics: Oranges, apples, bananas, carrots, celery, cucumbers, etc.