Fruit Facts Farm to Consumer

Fruit fresh from the farm is a natural source of sugar. It can be a snack, an ingredient in a main dish or a dessert. It can be served raw, cooked, blended, dried, frozen or canned.

Orange juice is one of many fruits that can even be drank for breakfast. Real orange juice provides valuable nutrients including vitamin C, potassium and thiamin. Additionally it is a good source of folate which is needed for a healthy immune system to make new cells. Some believe production of healthy cells is key in cancer prevention. Potassium is goo for heart health.

Grapefruit juice adds zing to salads or drinks with soda water. It also is a nutrient rich source of vitamin C that can help with weight management, skin maintenance and strengthen immune system.

There are at least two dozen types of avocado. Maturity is from February to December depending on the variety.

Banana trees are decorative as well as useful and very popular in warm weather gardens for landscaping. They spread by suckers to grow new trees and need to be protected from cold weather.

Pineapple grows to five feet high. Some varieties are tender and best for eating fresh. The smooth cayenne variety from Hawaii is the most common for canning.

Before ripening peaches, plums and nectarine fruits are extremely temperature sensitive. Temperatures under 50F degrees will shorten the lifespan of the fruit by 75%.

Fruits can be used not only fresh and frozen but also dried as snacks, such as apple or banana chips. They can also be used for desserts of many kinds.

Dwarf fruit trees are a good way to use functional landscaping as well as decorative. A variety of fruits can be grown even in small areas. Also berries of various types can be grown in landscaping from blueberries in containers to blackberries along fence lines.

Modern varieties of fruit trees and shrubs extend the season with some varieties maturing early, some intermediate and some late maturing. By planting all three of these types it means a much longer harvest season. Different varieties of some types of fruits may be more cold or heat tolerant, also insuring a wider range of growing areas.

Fruit is a favorite food item for millions of customers for meals, accents, desserts and snacks. A minimum of pesticides and herbicides are used for orchard maintenance to prevent fungus and other pests from infecting the trees which results in a total loss for the orchard.

Be it fresh, frozen or preserved learning more about the fruits you eat is good. The use of social media means it's increasingly easy to talk to growers directly and learn about your food supply.