快猫短视频

NEARLY every trip back to the city after visiting my maternal grandparents in rural Arkansas included a stop at a roadside farmstand where we would buy seasonal vegetables like string beans, peas or deep-green, leafy collard greens. Preparing the vegetables for cooking was one of my first lessons in plant anatomy, as my mom and grandma taught me to meticulously remove the tough from the green leaves.

We bought the juiciest fruits: huge strawberries and fist-sized peaches and plums. My mom was sure these fruits and vegetables, fresh from the field and ripened on the plant, had more vitamins and flavour than those at our city store. Some of my favourites were , so rich in flavour that I ate them whole, like apples.

I learned that farmers鈥� markets were a place to celebrate plants of the season and the individuals who cultivated them. I gleaned so much knowledge about which plants grew when, and how to identify plant-ripened fruits. I have reflected frequently on the wealth and breadth of the growers鈥� knowledge as I have studied plants in my own research.

But do local growers鈥� wares really taste better? It is clear that fruits and vegetables after being picked and stored. Cut from the mother plant prematurely, fruits and vegetables that have been harvested early have a shorter time in which to accumulate and store sugars and nutrients than those that are left to fully ripen on the plant. When harvested early like this, they will also to support themselves during the longer storage time.

It can be common for commercial fruits to be and then treated with ethylene gas to induce ripening after storage. By contrast, plants naturally produce ethylene during the course of maturation to ripen their fruit. Since ethylene initiates ripening while these on-the-plant fruits are still accumulating nutrients and sugars, their differ from those ripened in storage.

My mom was right: due to having increased time to access nutrients from the mother plant and reduced time between harvest and consumption, plant-ripened fruits and vegetables can indeed have higher nutrient contents than those harvested, transported and ripened separately.

鈥淟ocal farmers often grow more diverse plants than larger farms, which grow in bulk for large-scale sales鈥�

Over the years, my son and I have enjoyed visiting local markets in search of our seasonal favourites 鈥� richly flavoured tomatoes that can differ from grower to grower, sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) that we first encountered at a market and local Michigan cherries that taste like no others. I remember buying Brussels sprouts intact on the stalk and receiving instructions from the grower on roasting them whole. While I thought the stalk was inedible, the grower informed me that it was nutrient-rich, and could be served up once softened.

Farmers鈥� markets have grown in popularity with people invested in the , which is focused on increasing consumer knowledge about plants and the sustainability of agricultural food production, as well as supporting local growers. Recently, local food movements have also been linked to positive environmental change through reducing the climate-associated costs of long-distance food distribution.

The have bolstered interest in the . These spaces were critical both for consumers seeking alternatives to disrupted supply chains and farmers needing outlets to sell produce, including those fruit and vegetables no longer needed for closed restaurants.

Farmers鈥� markets are so much more than just marketplaces. The plant grower communities that form their foundations are a storehouse of information about local plant biodiversity. Diverse plant populations are often , and local farmers tend to grow more diverse plants than larger farms, which increase their profit margins by growing a more limited range of crops in bulk for large-scale sales.

Farmers鈥� markets also serve as through activities such as sharing seeds and plant propagules. It is increasingly common to see markets advertise sharing (heirloom tomato seeds are a favourite) or plant cuttings with customers and merchants.

The next time you walk through a farmers鈥� market, make sure to try something new, in addition to finding your regular favourites. Last autumn, I sampled tropical-tasting Michigan fruit for the first time, and wondered what had taken me so long. While you wander between stalls, spare some time to take in knowledge about the plants and growers around you 鈥� their continued existence depends on it.