Your Health Today June 2013 - St. Anthony's Medical Center

healthyhabits
Brighten Your Table With
Vintage
Veggies
Where to find
HEIRLOOM
produce
Heirloom vegetables are available in
local grocery stores such as Schnucks
and Dierbergs, local farmers markets
and farm stands, and at St. Anthony’s
Medical Center. Each Wednesday this
summer from noon to 5 p.m., DanJo
Farms of Moberly, Mo., will host a
produce stand in the hospital parking
lot. Owners Dan and Joanne Nelson
focus on chemical-free and heirloom
vegetable growing practices.
Healthy diets need plenty of veggies, but
repeated appearances on the menu can
weaken the appeal of these antioxidant
superstars.
To jazz up your meals with zippy new colors and
flavors, try heirloom vegetables – Cherokee
Purple, Amish Deer Tongue, Golden Bantam
and Kentucky Wonder Pole, to name a few.
Heirlooms are vintage plant varieties that have
been preserved and passed down for generations.
They include many vegetable varieties, although
tomatoes, beans, fingerling potatoes and
cucumbers are currently the most popular.
“Heirlooms are unique in color, appearance, taste
and texture,” said Elizabeth Patton, dietitian and
certified diabetes educator with St. Anthony’s
Outpatient Diabetes and Nutrition Education.
“Unlike their hybrid counterparts, heirloom
seeds are always open-pollinated—bred through
uncontrolled, natural methods such as the wind,
insects or birds. This allows for traits such as
natural disease resistance, insect resistance,
weather tolerance and diversity.”
Try a Red Zebra tomato, Purple Beauty pepper or
Cosmic Purple carrot today!
“Heirlooms
are unique
in color,
appearance,
taste and
texture.”
Elizabeth Patton,
dietitian and
certified diabetes
educator with
St. Anthony’s
Outpatient Diabetes
and Nutrition
Education
12 | YOUR HEALTH TODAY | JUNE 2013