Learn How Farmers Produce Ingredients for Your Favorite Thanksgiving Meals
Every few years, a new study or news segment comes out showing how today’s children are so out of touch with their food thatthey cannot recognize even the simplest fruits and vegetables. As adults, we’re (hopefully) much better at identifying different types of food, but what about how they look before they get to the grocery store? Even if you regularly shop at farmers’ markets and are used to seeing dirt on your carrots, there are a few steps to take.
In an effort to fix that – and highlight the important and often overlooked work of agricultural workers – United Farm Workers of America has been doing behind-the-scenes research all week on the ingredients used in some of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Here’s how to keep track of them, as well as which fruits and vegetables were the most popular.
How to know where fruits and vegetables come from
On Sunday, November 22nd, United Farm Workers tweeted a call for requests: “Tell us about your favorite Thanksgiving dish and we’ll share some of what we know about ingredient handling.” And after people were invited to participate, the dishes began to arrive quickly and quickly.
In response, UFW sent photos and videos with brief explanations giving some details about the growing and harvesting process. For example, Brussels sprouts grow on a very sturdy woody stem, and there are not one but two ways to harvest cranberries.
Here are some of the highlighted fruits and vegetables:
Cranberry
Potato
Brussels sprouts
green bean
Carrot
Apples (with additional reference to Dolly Parton)
On a day where so many people spend a lot of time preparing food – and usually not much time eating – a Thanksgiving meal will take you at least a few minutes to learn more about where our food comes from will make you especially grateful to the farm workers.