How to Keep Eating Whole Produce During the Winter

Gosh, aren’t the spring, summer, and fall seasons absolutely filled with beautiful, fresh fruits and veggies? The easily accessible local produce that is chalk full of nutrients and tastes completely incredible is seriously the bomb!

Eating fruits and vegetables loads your body and brain up with antioxidants. These are naturally occurring components that balance inflammation, fill you with energy, improve your brain function, boost your immunity, and make you feel like a superhero without a cape.

Up, up, and away!

Then, there's the winter… Oh, sad winter. Cold, blistering weather that leaves your skin all goose-bumply and starving for sunlight. It’s practically like living in...well, winter!

Okay, so we’re exaggerating for effect. Winter can be beautiful too, and there are a lot of good things about it. One thing that winter does not have over the other seasons though is the availability of fresh produce. It stinks trying to get a hold of the fresh stuff during these cold months. Unless you’re in a beautiful coastal area like California or Florida, in which case we congratulate you!

As for the rest of us lesser humans, it’s tricky to get whole fruits and veggies during the winter.  We put together a list of tips so you can continue eating healthy, delicious produce all winter long!

Read on to keep filling your body and brain with those whole, powerful vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients they need! 

Buy Local Winter Produce

Did you know that local family farmers in a lot of areas still have produce you can buy during the winter time? Even in colder areas? These include things like potatoes, squash, carrots, microgreens, garlic, and more. This is because these vegetables last, staying good for months at a time.

But where can you find this produce? Head online and look for farmer’s co-ops in your area, CSAs in your area, or simply search “local fruits and vegetables near me”. You’ll be amazed at what you find! 

Grow Your Own Microgreens

Microgreens are little sprouts that you can grow from the comfort of your own home. These include broccoli, kale, sunflower, pea, radish, and other sprouts.

They are so easy to throw into a smoothie, on a salad, or to garnish over a soup. And guess what? On average, studies show that microgreens are 4-6 times more nutritious than their full grown counterparts.

But just how complicated is it to grow these little babies? Well, it’s actually not! Simply purchase a microgreens kit and a grow light (or you can purchase them both together). You’ll want to ensure the grow light that you purchase is a full spectrum LED grow light, so that it is as close to real sunlight as possible (though nothing can beat the sun of course, duh!). 

Simply germinate the seeds for a couple days. Then, lay the seeds out in a batch of soil in a growing tray, water them twice per day, and make sure they get plenty of light (around 12-14 hours per day). Give the seeds about one week of sprouting and they will be ready to harvest! It’s that easy!

Pretty cool, huh? 

Grow Your Own Produce Indoors with a Grow Light

With the proper light exposure, you can grow other plants indoors as well. Simply ensure they are planted in healthy soil, and they get the right amount of light and water. There are plenty of indoor garden kits available today, as well as instructional videos to show you how to care for your indoor garden.

Again, this isn’t as great as getting produce grown in the sun, but it is still a great way of getting much needed vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in your body during the winter. 

The Easiest Way to Get Whole Produce Year-Round

What if you didn’t have to worry about shopping, growing, or spoiling produce AND you could have nutritionally dense fruits and veggies all winter long? What if those fruits and veggies only took 30 seconds or less to prepare, and you could drink them in the form of a delicious, instant smoothie?

Well guess what? You can totally do all of those things right now! That’s what Ruvi is. It’s freeze dried fruits and veggies in powdered form. You simply pour a packet into a shaker bottle with water, shake it, and drink it. Just like that, you’ve fit 4 servings of 8-10 different whole fruits and veggies into your day.

Best part is, there are no additives of any kind, and it is even more nutritious than most produce you’d find at the grocery store. This is because we pick it when it’s fully ripe and the freeze drying process preserves nutrients and taste, without the use of any chemicals, preservatives, or high heat.

Add some more color to your life with Ruvi. 

Do Your Own Canning

Another cool way of getting fruits and veggies in during the winter months is to do your own canning.

This is different from buying canned fruit and vegetables at the grocery store, as those have often lost many nutrients due to high heat and processing. Home water bath canning can preserve more nutrients than conventional canning, and it makes for a very positive activity that the whole family can enjoy!

If you’d like to do your own canning, all you need is:

Water bath canning can be used for high acid foods such as fruit, tomatoes, jams, and pickles.

Store Root and Tuber Vegetables

You can keep eating fresh vegetables for much of the winter if you store them right. These include root and tuber vegetables, such as:

Be sure to store these vegetables in a cool, dark, dry place if you want them to keep long term.

Remember to keep the onions and potatoes separate from each other, as they give off chemical hormones that cause one another to spoil faster.

Do not expose these vegetables to light if you are trying to preserve them, as it will cause them to go bad much faster. 

Freeze Your Fruits & Veggies

Freezing is an extremely easy way to continue having whole fruits and veggies throughout the winter. The best thing to do is to buy fruits and veggies from your local farmer’s market (or grow your own), and then chop up and freeze them shortly afterward.

Buying local produce supports your community, it is often far more nutritious than produce found at the grocery store, and it is almost always non-GMO. All good things!

Here at Ruvi, we work with farmers who take pride in their produce, and it is always non-GMO.

We believe great nutrition is the key that unlocks the door to a life of vibrancy. When you make positive changes in your diet, your energy increases and you have more capacity to make positive changes in other areas of your life. Ruvi gives you 4 servings of nutritionally-dense fruits & veggies in 30 seconds or less - just pour, shake, drink. That quickly, you're filled with the building blocks of good nutrition and living a life of color!