Eating Healthy in the Keys

Eating Healthy in the Keys

By Diane Johnson

To celebrate Healthy Living Month, we are highlighting where you can find fresh local organic produce. Each and everyday, we make choices about where to shop and what to eat. How do we decide which fruits and vegetables to buy? Try using the lens of sustainability: eating in a way that is viable for the planet and ourselves.

Our options for buying produce include grocery stores, health food stores, roadside stands, community gardens and buying clubs. If you look carefully at the fruits and vegetables in the produce section of your local grocery store, the country of origin is identified on the sticker or packaging. When we shop at the grocery store, we are used to seeing a tremendous variety of produce available all year-round, regardless of the season. Therefore, much of our produce travels thousands of miles from where it’s grown to our local grocery store. Keep in mind that those long supply chains equate to a significant carbon footprint and higher prices from an environmental and economic perspective.

Living in the Keys, we are 100 miles away from the mainland, but South Florida has a long growing season and produces a wealth of fruits and vegetables. Grocery stores that source from local resources get fresher food and help sustain the South Florida economy. Pesticides are used liberally both inside and outside the U.S. to increase yields. Fruits and vegetables may also be treated with chemicals to keep them looking fresh. If our restaurants and grocery stores purchase produce from large commercial distributors thousands of miles away who use pesticides, we are ingesting chemicals when we eat those fruits and vegetables. Strawberries, celery, peaches, apples and blueberries contain some of the highest levels of residual pesticides found in produce. ¹

If we shop at those food outlets that have fresh organic produce from the Keys and South Florida, we will be supporting our local economy and eating healthy all at the same time. To find these businesses, we conducted some research and talked with local distributors.

Drum roll please….

Annie’s Buying Club: organic fruits and vegetables http://www.anniesbuyingclub.com

Bee Heaven Farm in Homestead: organic local produce http://beeheavenfarm.com

Fausto’s, Key West: Albert’s Organics is their source for in-season produce

Good Food Conspiracy, Big Pine

Help Yourself on Eaton St, Key West

Key West Community Garden: http://keysglee.com/our-programs/key-west-community-garden/

Key West Green Market at Bayview Park on Thursdays: local produce

Onlywood Restaurant on Duval: grows herbs in their courtyard

Publix: organic produce

Sugar Apple: in-season local organic fruits and vegetables

Winn Dixie: organic produce

In addition to eating local organic produce, join us and pledge to go Meatless every Monday for Healthy Living Month! Make an impact on your health and the planet! Challenge a friend to pledge. Invite friends to dinner!

As promised we have some additions to the restaurants featuring local fish: Fat Boy Burrito, Martin’s and Café Marquesa.

If you provide local and/or organic produce at your grocery store or restaurant and are not listed here, please contact Diane Johnson at: [email protected]

 

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