All about vegetables
It is said that we feast with our eyes, before we taste the bounty which lies before us.
Certainly how else should one describe the colourful array and radiance of the fresh vegetables Fresh Fruits offers your customers.
Vegetables are the staple of our life, no matter which cuisine we prefer.
They are nutritionally dense and provide many a health and dietary benefit.
But, it is not for well-being alone though that we seek out these wonderful buds, tubers, leaves and shoots.
We are seduced by the treasury of fragrance, flavour and appearance of these essentials for life, which Green Fresh Farms supplies at premium quality.
“rich depth of flavour to savoury dishes”
Fundamental to so many cuisines, onions and garlic are veritable powerhouses of flavour.
Both are pungent when chopped and add a rich depth of flavour to savoury dishes and produce mouth-watering pickles and chutneys.
White and brown onions are widely available, as are shallots – for a milder, sweeter taste.
Onions have long been venerated – indeed, they were particularly important in Ancient Egypt where their concentric rings were said to symbolize eternal life.
Garlic too, has an equally long history – and is full of health benefits as well as flavour boosts.
It is not called “the stinking rose” for no reason – as it releases its wonderfully distinctive aroma when handled.
Varieties fall within the categories of “hard necked” “soft necked” or “wet”.
“versatile, colourful and appealing”
Few dishes are as versatile, colourful and appealing as a thoughtfully composed salad.
Bursting with summer freshness – its tender greens are the ideal receptacle for additional flavourings and dressings.
Every chef has his own favourite salad ingredients and each consumer has an array to choose from.
Lettuces are available in all hues and textures – fancy and frilly lollo rosso, or robust and flavourful spinach.
There is a variety for every taste – romaine, little gem, iceberg or lamb’s lettuce.
Each has its distinct nuance of flavour and texture.
Will it be served with cucumbers, salad onions and beansprouts to add crunch and interest?
The choice is endless.
“adds fibre and carbohydrates
… to every menu”
Potatoes are a starchy tuber and a ubiquitous part of the world’s food crop.
Whether your customers prefer a ‘fluffy’ Maris Piper or King Edward; a ‘firm-to-the-bite’ Charlotte; or a smooth tasting Desiree – a variety exists to please every consumer.
Is there a more versatile vegetable?
The potato adds starch, fibre, carbohydrates and its own blend of tastes and textures to every menu.
Furthermore, consumption of white potatoes is linked with positive increases in potassium (a shortfall vitamin) which is a key nutrient in helping to control blood pressure.
Watermelon
fruit or vegetable?
The watermelon tastes wonderfully sweet and juicy – just like fruit. But did you know that as a squash, it is closely related to zucchini and cucumber and is therefore actually a vegetable?
Watermelons, botanically Citrullus lanatus, belong to the pumpkin family (Cucurbitaceae).
So they come from the same family as pumpkin, zucchini or cucumber. You assign them to vegetables purely intuitively.
What is interesting in this context is the Persian term for watermelon as an oversized cucumber.
In fact, watermelons are 90 percent water. In terms of taste, their sweetness is more subtle than that of cantaloupes. In the botanical sense, all melons are vegetables, more precisely fruit vegetables.
But it is precisely the scientific assignment that causes confusion. Because botanically, the fruits of the pumpkin family are berries.
And berries are colloquially associated with fruit, such as currants or blueberries. In terms of use, too, there is a lot to be said for seeing the melon as a fruit.
In terms of taste and its use in desserts, watermelons would be classified as fruit.
And even when buying, you would hardly look for the refreshing fruit in the vegetable department. But botanically, the pumpkin plant is a fruit vegetable.
And the herbaceous plant with the long tendrils also clearly belongs to the vegetable in terms of its growth and annual culture.
As characteristic representatives of subtropical regions, watermelons need warmth and are very demanding in cultivation.
In African cuisine, people not only appreciate the pulp, but also eat the oil and protein-rich seeds of the melon.
In the Orient and in China, the seeds are roasted and are a popular delicacy there.
In India, the ground seeds are used to bake bread. In some countries, special varieties of watermelon are cultivated for their oil-rich seeds.
The watermelon is an annual plant.
According to the definition of food, one speaks of fruit when a plant bears fruit for several years in a row – in the case of pome fruit, such as apple and pear trees, or stone fruit such as plum and cherry trees, even for many years.
And in horticulture, too, the definition applies that fruit refers to the fruits of woody plants, i.e. trees and shrubs.
Fruits of herbaceous plants are vegetables. Since watermelons with their long tendrils are clearly among the herbaceous plants, they are vegetables.
In the garden, watermelons are not as easy to cultivate as the related zucchini or pumpkins.
Watermelons only thrive in sheltered cultivation under glass with sufficient heat. This is because of their origin.
The wild forms of the watermelon originally come from South Africa.
In the Kalahari Desert of Namibia, for example, the bitter, small-fruited and densely hairy archetypes grow.
The watermelon was already an important fruit in ancient Egypt 4,000 years ago and reached China and India early on. Dessert watermelons as we know them today were grown in Central Asia.
They found their way back to the West via the Arabs. There are fewer cultivated forms of watermelons than of sugar melons.
Nevertheless, in addition to the most well-known green-skinned fruits with red flesh, there are varieties with yellow, green or white flesh.
Fresh vegetables are available seasonally:
January – June: onions, green pepper, eggplant, greens, lettuce, peas and carrots.
July- August: beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash and corn.