If you’re selling vegetables to customers or offering them in meals you serve, you are going to want the freshest vegetables you can find. Fresh vegetables offer the best taste and nutritional value, and both of these traits will start to go down shortly after they have been harvested. But how do you know if a vegetable is fresh? Find out how you can determine if your vegetables are fresh.
Give Your Vegetables a Sight Inspection
Sometimes, all that’s required of you is to take a quick look at your produce items to determine how fresh they are. What you want is a bright and even color. There should be no mold or dark spots found. You may notice bruises and dents in your produce that were caused while being transported to your building, which can be causes for concern as well.
If you see wilting leaves on your vegetables or notice that they have wrinkled skin, it means they are likely old. You should also view your stem ends. If the vegetables you have are freshly picked, they should have almost no browning when harvested.
Smell Test
A quick smell of your vegetables can say a lot about their freshness. They will usually release various chemicals that can be detected with smell. Typically, fresh vegetables will have a fresh aroma to them. There are some veggies, however, such as cabbage, that will smell a little more pungent if they are fresh, so keep that in mind. The smell of cabbage becomes more powerful with age. What’s more is that smell can help you figure out if you have any mold or spoilage.
Perform a Touch Test For Your Vegetables
The last test your produce should undergo is a touch assessment. Getting a hold of your vegetables will let you know what firmness and texture they have. Signs of freshness via touch will vary with each vegetable.
For sweet potatoes, you should get a solid feel from them. Head lettuce and tomatoes will feel more springy when fresh. Zucchini and peppers should offer you a firm feeling.
Two things you should never feel, regardless of which vegetable you’re testing, are mushiness and sliminess. Those are problematic signs for pretty much any vegetable, and that means you should probably get rid of whatever vegetables have that feel to them.
Baywater Farms Has The Right Produce For You
Baywater Farms is a family-owned and operated farm servicing Baltimore, Washington D.C., Maryland, Delaware beaches, and the Eastern Shore. We are capable of meeting the demands of your produce distributor, restaurant produce supplier, CSA produce supplier, or wholesale produce supplier while maintaining the integrity and character of a small farm. When you work with Baywater Farms, you work with an experienced, ethical, and local farm dedicated to providing the highest-quality heirloom produce.