Kitchen Garden Forum

Now here is an article that you should all read:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... tion-loss/

It is not that long, but the argument is a terrifying one: modern fruit and vegetable varieties are grown for looks and yield, and because of that have depleted nutrients in the soil. So, each new variety, which may look better, won't be as good for you.

Look at this quote from the article: Yet another study concluded that one would have to eat eight oranges today to derive the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one.

Allotments, where a lot of older varities tend to be grown, and the soil lovingly tended, may be the last bastion of decent fruit and veg.

Discuss.

The link leads us to a reply to a question, the answer is a statement of the obvious if goodness is not put back into the soil.

It makes itself seem more proven by quoting someone from University of Texas.

Next week something else wont be as good for us as it used to be

There's a lot of twaddle coming from supposed American studies. I can imagine a few students at Uni who don't know the first thing about gardening or growing food, basing their findings on stuff from super markets and mass production, then making sweeping statements that supposedly prove their point. I'm sure there are many people who grow their own food who aren't considered in their statistics.

They are probably of the same mentality as the person who wrote a recipe I read recently. The ingredients listed a packet of carrots, a bag of chopped greens and a pack of sliced mushrooms!!!!!!!

Everything that has been picked a long time, or peeled, chopped and stored in the light in a plastic bag will be lacking in vitamins, and we all know that you have to feed the soil well and keep it rich in worms, microbes and generally well balanced to produce good crops.

PLUMPUDDING wrote:There's a lot of twaddle coming from supposed American studies. I can imagine a few students at Uni who don't know the first thing about gardening or growing food, basing their findings on stuff from super markets and mass production, then making sweeping statements that supposedly prove their point. I'm sure there are many people who grow their own food who aren't considered in their statistics.

They are probably of the same mentality as the person who wrote a recipe I read recently. The ingredients listed a packet of carrots, a bag of chopped greens and a pack of sliced mushrooms!!!!!!!

Everything that has been picked a long time, or peeled, chopped and stored in the light in a plastic bag will be lacking in vitamins, and we all know that you have to feed the soil well and keep it rich in worms, microbes and generally well balanced to produce good crops.

As a nutrition graduate I think I'm best to just bite mt tongue and say nothing here I was never a standard student, never j7st "found" what I was told to

That does't surprise me at all, but I wonder if the same research was done in the UK would the results be the same? Our farming practices are not on the same scale for a start as we just do not have the massive fields of single crops like they do in the States where the same crop is grown season after season. I know they would throw down fertilisers, but resting the land & rotation like our farmers practice would probably improve the soil more.

I think I kind of agree with the part of some new varieties growing so fast they don't get the opportunity to take up as many nutrients. However our nutritionists give us our daily recommendations based on the fruit & vegetables we have available today so does it really matter?

Westi

not sure id take a lot of notice of a study wittering on about the vitamin A content of oranges.


though these studies are comparing data from the fifties and nineties , youd get as big a variation comparing fresh collected from the garden and week old supermarket purchases without information on the source of the products tested the resulting data is pretty meaningless.

I still feel that anything not selling well, is renamed and put on the market again.

Shallot Man wrote:I still feel that anything not selling well, is renamed and put on the market again.

Would have thought that had a high degree of possibility.

Look through any seed catalogue and how many varieties of tomato or carrot are there, pages of them. Choices by the wheelbarrow load, do we really need that amount of choice.

Mrs S and I went to a potato fair last weekend, over 100 varieties to choose from, personally I found it totally confusing and more difficult to make up our mind.
We bought two varieties and then travelled 15 miles from where the potato day was being held to our usual nursery and bought varieties that we know well from them.

Conclusion, Mrs S wont be bothering with potato days again unless its right on the doorstep

Thinking about the new varieties aspect, we all know how our growers were ignoring flavour for produce that grew fast, withstood transportation, and was a uniform shape. At least they are bringing flavour back into the equation in the case of tomatoes, I've not noticed anything else - perhaps British grown strawberries. Have you noticed how the strawberries we get from abroad in winter are more like turnips in texture and don't taste of much either.

At least as gardeners we can grow our own favourite fruit and veg varieties, but I must say I'm not usually terribly impressed with whatever "new" varieties are being plugged, but I do still occasionally try them.