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Food for Thought Friday: to shuck, or not to shuck peas?!
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Hello friend!
When I shop at the farmers market (or grocery store), I have a strategy for buying fresh foods that helps me avoid food waste: I aim for a balanced combination of fruits + veggies that stay fresh for varying lengths of time, and then I aim to eat the foods that go bad most quickly first, and the foods that last longer later.
Practicing this requires some basic knowledge of how long different fruits and veggies last (gonna make an on-demand class about this very soon), AND - there’s an overarching principle that applies. This principle helps me broadly with ALL fresh, whole foods, and I'm excited to tell you about it because I think it will help you too! But before I get to it, four quick important things:
- I did my first podcast interview! Listen here! It’s 58 mins, so if you’re in a rush - skip to 35:06 where I do a live “intuitive cooking lesson” - my favorite part. If you listen in full, you’ll hear: my thoughts on the Alison Roman drama, my awkward intro where the first thing I say about myself is my age (LOL, NERVOUS), and why I never cook boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- Today is Juneteenth - a celebration of the emancipation of enslaved Americans. If you’re like me and didn’t know about this holiday until this year, I recommend listening to The Daily today, which I thought presented the context/meaning of Juneteenth throughout history really well.
- I had been actively avoiding the news + social media recently because it just felt too overwhelming - then I listened to this On Being episode and it was EXACTLY what I needed to help me remember that we must bear witness (and stay in the fight). Seriously listen to this if you are feeling overwhelmed - it is somehow a soothing balm AND big dose of honest reality at the same time.
- As promised two weeks ago, I published my anti-racist plans (a work in progress) on my website; read them here (linked on my about page).
And now back to this principle, which I will introduce with a story about peas!
About a month ago I bought some shelled peas from one of the stands at my farmers market. I was excited to see that they had this pre-shucked option, and I happily paid a little more for it. But then I waited too long to eat them and they started going bad… I ended up spending a good 30 mins picking out the mushy ones 😢 womp, womp. After that lesson learned, two Sundays ago I decided to buy a triple-pack of whole english peas (not shucked). I stored them in a vejibag. I knew that because they were closer to their “whole state” of how they grow (in the shell) - they would last much longer than the shucked peas. ALSO - this meant I could shuck them in stages - so I felt confident buying a larger amount without worrying about them going bad so quickly. Sure enough, it was almost a full two weeks until I got to my peas (this week). I shucked them in stages over the course of a few days. They were perfect and tasty as ever. And not a single pea was wasted.
Here's what I made with my final round of peas earlier today from whole pea pods purchased on June 7. This is: peas cooked in bacon fat with two pieces of bacon, topped with some tahini lime dressing I needed to eat and some fresh mint! It was totally random and really good!
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The story of the peas perfectly illustrates one of my overarching intuitive cooking principles:
Whole foods IN or CLOSEST TO their “whole state" last longer, keep better, and often retain better flavor and texture.
By “whole foods,” I mean: whole fruits and veggies, meats, fish, whole spices, nuts, seeds, grains, etc. You can think of them as foods that don’t usually have a nutrition label because there's only one ingredient - the food! By "whole state" I mean: the state you would find them growing in/"alive" in nature.
This principle is the foundation for all my veggie storage tips and tricks! With most of my tricks, I am generally 1) keeping plants whole and 2) using water to create an environment closer to the plant's "alive" state. (BTW I am now using my vejibags for any and every veg I can fit in there - cucumbers, radishes, EVERYTHING seems to stay fresher in the vejibag.)
This principle might seem kind of abstract - but it’s actually a super simple concept - and really just a basic human observation of our fellow living things: plants and animals that we happen to eat! I apply this principle to any foods that I can in a variety of ways, and it helps me:
- keep my foods lasting longer
- decide how far ahead I can prep things
- make my food taste better
There are no hard and fast rules related to this. It's a "principle" that’s simply about paying attention (which, when practiced over time will become intuition)! There’s no set number of days that any food will last - it depends on a lot of factors: how fresh it was when you bought it, how well it was stored before it got to you, how well YOU store it, how it was grown, etc. Sometimes you'll just end up buying non-flavorful plants or foods, or ones that go bad more quickly; because foods are (or were) living things, they are unpredictable by nature!
Let’s go through two more examples to further illustrate this point for today:
1. a whole head of lettuce versus a container of mixed greens
If you watch my Instagram stories/highlights (see lettuce storage), you’ll know that I prefer buying whole heads of lettuce versus bags or packs. The reason: a whole head of lettuce is much closer to its whole, natural state (lettuce is grown in a head that grows in the ground - they pull it up and pick off the outer leaves, cut off the roots, and sell it!), whereas a bag of lettuce has been cut into separate leaves. Stored properly and purchased fresh at the farmers market, I’ve had heads of lettuce last 2 weeks + in the fridge! I also think whole heads of lettuce often have more flavor than mixed greens from the grocery store. I recently bought a pack of baby arugula from the grocery store and actually noticed that it had barely any flavor, especially when compared to the lettuce I'm used to buying at the farmers market.
2. whole fish vs. filleted fish AND storing fish in salted water
I always debate getting more than one piece of fish from the fish guy because a) fish goes bad fast, and b) if I’m spending all that $ on it, I want my fish to be maximally fresh + delicious! So if I’m buying two or more pieces - sometimes I’ll get one fillet, and one (small) fish whole. (I cooked whole sardines for the first time last week... They definitely tasted fresher than the canned ones but it was... sardiney in my kitchen afterwards. 🤣)
If whole fish sounds too scary (I am just a beginner in the whole-fish arena too!), here’s an easier example of this principle and a fun fish tip: My dad taught me to soak and/or store fish fillets in salted water in the fridge. This mimics the “natural” state of the fish (assuming it’s a saltwater fish). You could also think of this as a gentler way to “brine” the more delicate fish fillet, the way you might salt or “brine” meat overnight. Since fish live in water/saltwater, it makes intuitive sense that this might keep them fresher! I’ve never done a side-by-side test, so this isn’t necessarily “proven” (some info here) - but it’s always resulted in delicious fish for me - which is all I care about!
There are many more examples I could discuss (whole spices vs ground; whole chicken vs. boneless skinless) - but I’ll save those for another time.
In the meantime, I hope you consider this principle and maybe even begin to intuitively come up with your own creative ways to store and save food and reduce waste! If you discover anything, I’d love to hear about it!
Happy weekend!
Love,
Jess
PS. I just switched my email service so if this looks a little different, that's why! Still figuring out a few of the technical details. If you see any issues, please do let me know.
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In case you missed out, here are a few past issues to check out:
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Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from "chore" to "whippin it up!" through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Once a month, I share a recipe that's really worth making, and I only share those with my email subscribers.
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