A healthy harvest

Instead of browsing the aisles of the produce section, more and more people are turning to their local farmers market or their own garden for fruits and vegetables. Across the country, fresh markets and home gardens are growing by leaps and bounds as people look for a way to reduce their carbon footprint and improve both the taste and the nutritional value of their food.

A June 2013 Garden Center magazine survey of 785 gardeners found that 76 percent were buying supplies for growing edibles, with 66 percent of gardeners saying that the produce from their garden allows them to eat healthier. The results also showed that 36 percent spend less on food thanks to their homegrown produce.

More variety
As people spend more time in the kitchen (and at the market), they’re delving into new varieties as well as old ones. From heirloom tomatoes to spicy peppers to out-of-the-ordinary herbs, many gardeners are taking to the dirt to stock their pantries and refrigerators with items they just can’t find anywhere else.

“People are wanting to try different things,” Carrie Engel, retail greenhouse manager at Valley View Farms in Maryland, said last year. “If they have success with one, they’ll come back for others. Other times, they want the biggest, or the one that comes from Russia or Germany. Often it’s whatever they got at the fresh market.”

Often the demand for different varieties depends on the local cuisine. Hatch chills are a big in hit in New Mexico, while in North Carolina, the hottest of peppers is gaining ground.

“We’re seeing an increase in the really, really hot peppers being more popular. Ghost peppers and scorpion peppers are two really hot varieties,” Susan Reavis of Reems Creek Nursery in North Carolina told Garden Center magazine this year. By June, the garden center had run out of ghost peppers which have a Scoville rating of 855,000 to over 1 million units.

More ways to grow
And gardeners aren’t just planting in the garden; they’re incorporating them into all of their outdoor spaces. Edible container combinations are both pretty and functional so they’re a big hit for the patio, and landscapes in both the front and back yards are getting tastier. The June 2013 Garden Center magazine survey found that 57 percent of gardeners have planted fruits or vegetables in their landscape in the past three years.

Growing produce is also extremely popular with younger and newer gardeners who often don’t have much space. Vertical gardening, window boxes and containers, especially combination containers, are popping up in urban and suburban homes and taking advantage of all of the new cultivars designed for containers from blueberries to zucchini to even citrus trees.

Carrie Engel, retail greenhouse manager at Valley View Farms in Maryland, said that citrus trees were a big hit in 2012, particularly lemons and limes. “We bring in a fruit tree grower or wholesaler to talk to customers and employees,” she said. “Attendance goes up every year.”

More organic options
While many are growing their own for better nutrition, fewer pesticides or to save a little money, many are still heading to the store. But even grocery store shoppers are looking for organic and locally grown foods.

Organic fruit and vegetable sales represented more than 11 percent of all produce sales in 2010, according to the Organic Trade Association’s 2011 Organic Industry Survey. And according to The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics & Emerging Trends 2011, organic sales have risen $4 billion from 2009 to 2010 with the US leading the world organic market.

Whether it’s at home or at the store, US consumers are looking for a better, healthier way to get their daily doses of fruits and vegetables, and it’s a trend that looks like it’s here to stay.

Top photo: HOEN’S: MICHELLE SIMAKIS  /  Bok Choy photo by MIKE BURDEN, CAFNR;