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A Practical Guide to Fresher Produce
The difference between limp lettuce and a crisp, crackling salad is rarely the farm — it's the forty-eight hours between the shelf and your plate. Here's how our buyers pick produce, and how you can keep it at its best.
Buy with your senses
Leafy greens should feel cool and spring back when bent. Root vegetables should be firm with no soft spots. And trust your nose: ripe stone fruit and melons smell sweet at the stem end. If it smells like nothing, it will taste like nothing.
Store like a grocer
Keep greens dry and breathing — a loose bag with a paper towel works better than an airtight box. Tomatoes stay on the counter, never in the fridge. Onions and potatoes want dark and apart from each other, since onions release gases that sprout potatoes.
Follow the seasons
Out-of-season produce travels further and rests longer. Our buyers' rule of thumb: berries in early summer, stone fruit in high summer, apples and squash into autumn, citrus and hardy greens through winter. Shop the season and freshness takes care of itself.
Want the short version? Order a Tallowfield harvest box and let our team do the picking — everything inside was in the ground days, not weeks, ago.