"Eco" Apples! Newsletter #47! 🍎🧄🐶💕

Thanks for opening my newsletter!

1. Food Science factoids and what's new?
2. When to see me? (hint: this weekend!)
3. Deals!
(At the farmers' market, mention you received this newsletter for 10% off!)

What are "Eco" Apples?

(Photo: My new "Eco" apples from Rhinebeck, New York)

A primary objective of my business is "to support local agriculture." (you might say, these are "first principles", which is becoming an overused term, or "prime directive" if you're a Star Trek nerd.) Anyway, my goal is to use ingredients from the Northeast, where I'm located. So, I specifically developed products that use produce that grows in the Northeast (eg, apples, pears, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant, garlic, and zucchini.) Frequently, when purchasing through a produce distributor, my produce comes from farms in New York State, New Jersey, but then, from farther away states, such as North Carolina, Florida, and Washington State. However, sometimes, produce comes from Chile, Mexico, Argentina, or Peru. However, considering my organization's tiny size and purchasing power, I'd love to help support small farms with business or trade, especially since it can be difficult to reach consumers. I know being "too small" can be difficult, too. Thankfully, I'm too small too! So it's a great fit.

As I get more connected with the local growing community, I hope to meet more small farms and growers who can work with me. This will happen "organically" (pun intended.)

This bring me to this newsletter's topic. I learned a new term: "Eco Farming", which I'm sharing with you.

I guess some very small farms are growing in an organic manner, such as without chemical pesticides, but are not "certified organic" due to the certification fees, since these farms/orchards are so small. However, growers, for simplicity, might still be calling their produce, "organic." I don't know this for sure, but for small farmers, the fixed cost of getting certified likely doesn't make economic sense (and it's a 3-year process (at a minimum) for the land to become "certified organic")
 
For example, QAI is a major certifier of organic: https://www.qai-inc.com/) Their clients include Costco, so not exactly a "small potatoes." There might be smaller certifiers out there, but QAI is one of the most reputable.

Small farms and orchards, by not using pesticides, help the bees, insects, bird population, and ecosystem in general; contributing to human health in the region. (and a direct benefit: we avoid ever eating pesticides!)

These past few weeks, I started receiving and dehydrating honeycrisp eco apples from Rhinebeck, New York. These are perhaps the best tasting apples I've ever had. It's almost a shame to dehydrate them, since they are so good raw, but they were going to go bad without a home, and they dehydrate very nicely: the skins are thin, which makes the slices slightly easier to chew.

I hope you found this interesting! Hopefully, I'll see you this weekend, and we can do some taste testing!

-David F, the food scientist

 

 Come to the farmers market for free samples!