eating more

I recently got asked the question, "How do I eat more fruit and veggies, I don't think I'm eating enough?"  That's a good question.  And one that's faced by a lot of people.  Especially parents who are trying to encourage their children to eat a healthier diet.

One of the best ways I have found to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables is to have them on hand and convenient.  This means they are not in your fridge just rotting in the bottom of your crisper drawer.  I frequently encourage people to cut them up, prepare and make containers.  Set them out on the shelf in your fridge and it's a grab-and-go snack.  They can either be sorted by type of food or you can make "snack packs" with an assortment.  Either way if you're in the mood to munch and you open the fridge door to see a convient snack right there you may find yourself eating more healthy choices.

Another way is to add veggies to other foods.  You would not believe what gets added to my homemade spaghetti sauce.  Add shredded veggies to a lasagna.  Double the veggies in your omelette or frittata.  What about soups?  Loaded with pureed veggies, especially if it's a creamy style soup base is an easy way to boost your veggie intake without trying very hard.  The trick is to make sure that you put in things that will not overwhelm your soup.  Sharper tasting foods such as cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc) or onions may not appeal to some.  Mucilaginous textured foods such as okra may not appeal to others.  Experiment and be mindful of what you are adding in.

Choose seasonal fruits and vegetables.  I can't stress this enough.  A tomato in season and from a farmer's market (if possible) tastes like the most delicious, amazing thing.  A tomato in the middle of winter with a waxy coating tastes like cardboard.  When foods are in season, and hopefully local, they are picked close to ripeness.  Otherwise they may be picked early, stored, and then force ripened with ethylene gas.  This forced ripening does not allow the flavor to come through, it just makes it look ripe.  If you're eating unappealing, non-tasty fruits and vegetables it does not encourage you to want to eat more.  As a side benefit, you really appreciate things when you can only have them in season.

Make different choices when you eat out.  There are tasty ways to add more veggies to your diet when you are eating out which allow you to still enjoy your dining experience but avoid getting bogged down by the simple carbs and other unhealthy choices.

Skip the juice and eat the fruit.  Did you know that it takes an average of 4 oranges to make 8 ounces of orange juice?  That's a lot of sugar and those extra calories add up pretty quickly.  It would be pretty difficult to eat four oranges in one sitting.  However each orange you eat comes with a significant amount of fiber which helps to slow down the glycemic effect.  The same is true for other juices.  Switch your juice to water (add a few slices of fruit for flavor if you like) and eat the fruit instead.

Keep a food journal.  An 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper folded into quarters gives you 8 spots to write down what you eat each day.  If you're looking to increase things like water consumption (always a good idea) and fruits and veggies set a goal for yourself and then keep track of it.  By looking back over the week you'll be able to see if you're meeting your goal and where you can make changes to increase your consumption a little at a time.

Small changes add up over time.  By making one or two adjustments you may soon find yourself eating more healthy fruits and veggies.

news review...or...it's on my mind monday

in the news | photo: mconnors

I'm always looking up information about food, health, and what's in the news.  Just as an experiment this is a posting of what's I'm reading right now, some of which may or may not turn into a blog post, but all of which is of interest to me.  I'd be curious to know if any of this is of interest to you.  In no particular order (other than this is what's open across my browsing window) here's what's on my mind:

The little county that could get CA to rethink methyl iodide - I've written about this before.  Essentially CA agreed to let agricultural companies use a known carcinogen (so effective that it is used in laboratories to reliably cause cancer) on strawberry crops.  In spite of massive protests CA went ahead and approved it anyway.  Turns out the fight is still on.  This gives me hope that this awful carcinogenic chemical will be banned.  Until then I have essentially fought back the only way I know how.  I purchase no strawberries from California at all, even the organic ones.

Public Park Helps Feed 200,000 People Every Month -  I love this.  What a great solution to help feed those who are hungry and also make effective use of public lands.  This ties in to a video I shared on my Facebook Page about Suburban Homesteading/Urban Victory Gardening.  Looking at the info I see it's the same guy, John from Growing Your Greens.  I've subscribed to his YouTube channel and am looking forward to more good info.

Low Vitamin D Ups Diabetes Risk in Kids - One more reason to check your vitamin D levels.  I think sometimes people tune out the vitamin D message believing that they are getting enough from their milk.  Sadly that's often not enough, especially if you are drinking skim milk.  Vitamin D is important for so many different reasons and across different populations.  Are you over 65?  Check your vitamin D.  Is it wintertime and you live in a Northern latitude?  etcetera etcetera etcetera.  Check your vitamin D.  I'm not saying everyone needs to supplement, but it's easy to check and if you are low you probably do need to supplement.  Always get the 25 hydroxy test rather than the 1,25 dihydroxy - it's a better indicator of your vitamin D status.

Apple Juice Made In America?  Think Again - This one surprised me.  Because I know we have so many apple orchards in the US I just assumed that our apple juice was made here.  Turns out it's not.  Given that so many children drink it (and the recent fungicide contamination of orange juice) I'm even more convinced that getting our food from abroad is not necessarily a good idea.  I believe the best thing is to get to know your farmer, buy locally, and grow your own.  I'm blown away by the idea that apples which are grown in China can be juice and fossil fuels expended to bring a liquid product (very heavy) all the way around the world to us, and somehow it's cheaper.  There is something very very wrong with that equation.

Programmed To Be Fat? - This looks like a fascinating program and I am going to try to see if I can borrow a copy through my local library.  Given the increasing number of obesogens in our environment (I wrote an article some time back called Is Your Plastic Making You Fat?) and  the rising toxicity levels for newborns this is an issue that really needs to be looked at and worked on.   We are poisoning ourselves, our environment and destroying our future.

Goats being used, instead of pesticides in Eastham - I love this.  What a great way to solve a problem.  Instead of throwing chemicals at the issue of weeds, use goats.  The goats are happy, they get fed, the town gets less toxic chemicals in their environment, the residents have less exposure and, presumably, less potential for illness.

food and money

The USDA is predicting an increase in all foods for 2011; depending on the item it is expected to range from 2% for things like sugars and cereals to as high as 5.5% for dairy products.  If you are interested you can see the chart here.  Part of the increase is due to the higher costs for corn and soybeans.  Remember, it's a cycle, what we eat needs to eat.  I actually anticipate that the costs for meat will be much higher than currently predicted due to more people deciding to purchase meat and dairy that is organic to avoid the GMO contamination of corn and soy.  These are two of the most heavily GMO crops but our government doesn't identify that so the only way to avoid it is to purchase organic.

There are a number of ways that you can save money on your food bill in the upcoming year:

Plant a vegetable garden.  Using your space for edible gardening can be attractive and save you food dollar costs.  During both World Wars Victory Gardens were planted in every yard and public park all across the United States.  It's a concept that I think many people are rediscovering.

 Even if you buy a tomato plant at the garden center and plant it in a pot you will still get far more produce than if you purchase your tomatoes at the grocery store.  And believe me, they'll taste better.  We've just re-arranged our side yard and brought in a load of organic dirt, working on creating a better vegetable garden.  We've also put in herbs and a few fruits in the yard.  

Here are a couple of books that I think are great for backyard vegetable gardening

Mel Bartholomew is the authority on getting the most out of the smallest space. If you have any gardening space available, even just one square foot, you'd be amazed at what you can grow.

Rosalind Creasy shows you how to incorporate beauty and function in your garden by making your landscape edible.

If you live in an apartment or don't have access to a plot of ground you can consider container gardening.  Even one  reasonable size container can grow a lot of tomatoes and basil or peas and mint or...read the book.

And there seems to be an increase in folks growing food on rooftops and terraces.

If you shop at warehouse stores frequently the prices are good but the quantities are huge.  Don't buy more than you need, after all 50 pounds of potatoes is a lot, especially in a family like ours with just three people in the house.  Just because the price per pound is low, if you wind up throwing out rotten potatoes (or anything else) you've just lost money.  If you really want the item consider saving money by asking family, friends and/or neighbors if they want to share these items with you.  This way you'll both save money and there will be less waste.

And speaking of waste...

According to Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland, Americans, on average, throw away half of their food.  Half!  That's a mind-boggling concept.  Knowing, really knowing exactly what is in your pantry is a great start, learning how to be mindful of it is the next step.  Jonathan has a lot of great information on his blog to help you avoid food waste.  Don't want to read the book (although I highly recommend it)?  There's an app for that -- yup, a company called UniByte has created an app to help you better manage your food purchases so you will waste less.

If you do wind up with food waste, and some of it is inevitable such as potato peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, and the like, consider composting.  This is also environmentally friendly in that the food scraps become usable dirt instead of going to the landfill where they cannot be used to grow more food.  

A little off the beaten path but for those who have access, inclination, and a sharp eye there is always the idea of foraging.  According to my friend Merriweather it is important to remember a couple of key points:

1.  Know what you are foraging.  Many edibles have an inedible counterpart that looks almost the same.  He points out that these inedibles wind up in either the "kill your kid dead" or "keep you on the toilet sick" category so it's important to be very sure of your identifications.

2.  Forage responsibly using appropriate tools to cut and dig rather than ripping and shredding.  This allows the plants to continue to grow and is the best way to forage.

3.  Make sure you have permission. Here in Texas, and probably elsewhere, plant rustling is against the law.  Getting a huge fine for public trespassing or theft is not going to help your grocery bill any.

While Merriweather sadly does not yet have a published book there are some great foraging books out there:

     

     

     

And last, but certainly not least, another way to save money at the grocery store is to learn to make your own.  One of my favorites is making my own granola which definitely saves money over the store-bought versions.  You can make your own pudding, soups, muffins, snacks, spice mixes, beverages, pickles, jams and much much more.  Currently I am fermenting kimchi on my kitchen counter, starting another batch of kefir and have just finished making another batch of bean sprouts.  These require very little hands on time and save quite a few dollars while providing healthful foods for my family.  Making your own has a number of benefits:

1.  It will save you money

2.  You will avoid extra packaging and commercial waste

3.  You will avoid additives, preservatives and chemicals (which you don't need in your diet anyway)

4.  Often when you make your own you make smaller batches so you are less likely to waste it

So here's to a new year, a new grocery budget, and new possibilities for your health.

green tomato chutney

Green Tomatoes | Medved' | Wikimedia Commons

QuantumVegan just harvested about fifty pounds of tomatoes.  That's a LOT of tomatoes.

When we lived in Vermont that kind of a harvest was sure to mean we were getting green tomatoes.  The growing season is so short there tomatoes don't always have time to ripen.  So you come up with lots of good ways to use green tomatoes.  There's green tomato pie, green tomato salsa, the ubiquitous fried green tomatoes and more.

Luckily green tomatoes have lots of nutrition, as I posted before, including lycopene.  If you're getting close to the end of your growing season and you're looking at a large crop of green tomatoes, here's my favorite way to use them up; green tomato chutney.  It goes very well with cheese and crackers, it is excellent with cold roast meats, delicious as a side to a spicy vegetarian lentil dish, it's very versatile condiment to have in your pantry.

This recipe is based on one from Fancy Pantry which appears to be out of print.   find it to be a good book with lots of wonderful recipes and well worth having.  But in the meantime here's my version:

Green Tomato Chutney

4 pounds green tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
4 pounds green apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
2 C. yellow onions, minced
2 C. raisins
3 cloves garlic minced
3 C. evaporated cane juice crystals
1 1/2  C. raw apple cider vinegar
3 T. minced fresh ginger
2 T. mustard seed
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. red pepper flakes

In a large stock pot mix together tomatoes, apples, onions, raisins, garlic, cane juice crystals, salt, and vinegar.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.
Continue to boil for approximately 30 minutes continuing to stir frequently.  The fruits will begin to soften and meld together.
Add the spices.
Boil for another 10-15 minutes until you reach the consistency you want.
Ladle into hot sterile jars and seal according to directions.
Bath for 10 minutes remove and let cool.

This recipe needs to settle to allow all of the flavors to come together.  Let it sit in a cool dark space for at least a month before opening.

Makes about 6 pints.

strawberry contamination

Recently it has come to my attention that the State of California has approved methyl iodide for use as a pesticide on strawberry crops.


Methyl iodide is a potent carcinogen, it is used to induce cancer in lab animals because it is so effective.  Back in 2007 dozens of well respected scientists (many of them Nobel winning scientists) urged the EPA to ban this substance because it was such a dangerous chemical.


I find it disturbing and appalling that any organization, governmental or otherwise, would knowingly approve use of a substance virtually guaranteed to cause cancer in consumers.   I plan to watch this issue closely and, if methyl oxide is approved, will no longer be eating strawberries from California.  I will then be watching further to see if they approve it for other crops which I will then also no longer eat.  


The State is now seeking public comment on the issue before they implement it, you have until June 14th to let them know how you feel.  Please take a moment to stand up for your rights as consumers to non-carcinogenic foods.


Photo courtesy of Henning 48 | Wikimedia Commons

the turnips are coming, the turnips are coming

With the fall season fast approaching root crops are coming into season. Turnips are a great root vegetable and can be very versatile in the kitchen.

Turnips are a member of the brassica family which means they are related to cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts and others. Although there is an old fashioned tradition of cutting turnips into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, I think they are far to tasty to be put to this use; far better to eat them. One of the wonderful things about turnips is that you not only eat the root, but also the greens.

The root is a great source of fiber, calcium, potassium and is an excellent source of vitamin C. Turnip greens are high in fiber, folate, iron, vitamin C, and calcium. They are also an excellent source of manganese (an antioxidant which is important for bone health and digestion), vitamin K (important for bone health and coagulation of the blood), and Vitamin A (an antioxidant which contributes to eyesight, tissue and skin health and may help lower your risk for cancer). So all around they are an excellent choice to have in your Fall/Winter pantry. To take advantage of all of that nutritional goodness, turnips can be cooked in a variety of ways: sauteed, mashed, baked, boiled, the list goes on.

My very favorite cookbook for greens is “Greene on Greens” by the late Bert Greene who was a Food Columnist for The New York Daily News. In it he writes about the tonic power of turnip greens,” It must have had some therapeutic effect, for turnip foliage was brewed into potions, restoratives, and pick-me-ps from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century with vary report of it's good pharmacy. Even today in the deep South, a cup of turnip green “pot likker” is still reputed to be the best cure for hangover ever invented.” While I've never tried pot likker as a cure for hangover I do know that when I get turnips I like to use the greens to add extra flavor, texture and nutrition to whatever I am making.

As the weather gets cooler, soup becomes a weekly item on our family menu. Warm and comforting, it's an easy meal and a great way to use turnips and their greens together. This recipe is based on Bert Greene's Mixed Turnip Chowder. I simply substituted a leek for the onion, added turnip greens and a couple of cloves of garlic. If you can't get rutabagas you can increase the turnips and potatoes to make up for them.

Mixed Turnip Chowder

2 T. unsalted buttermilk
1 leek rinsed and finely chopped
1 large rib celery finely chopped
1 pound turnips peeled and diced
1 ½ pounds rutabagas peeled and diced
2 medium potatoes peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 quart vegetable broth
salt and pepper
1/8 t. mace (note: I don't use this)

Melt the butter, add the leek and garlic and cook a couple of minutes
Add the celery and cook a few minutes longer
Add the root vegetables and broth
bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer
Simmer about 20 minutes
Remove half of the vegetables and 1 C. broth
Add greens to the remaining soup in the pot
Blend the removed vegetables and broth until smooth
Return to the pot and add salt and pepper
Simmer another 5 minutes and then serve

Enjoy!

photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turnip_2622027.jpg

http://www.healthvitaminsguide.com/minerals/manganese.htm
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2704/2
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminK/
staying healthy with nutrition, Elson Haas – pp 95, 108-109
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Greene_(cookbook_author)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_o%27_Lantern
Greene on Greens, pp 185, 387

blueberry season is here...

...and there is nothing more wonderful than having fresh blueberries to eat.  Just by themselves they are a wonderful snack.  In a fruit salad they are delicious.  Baked into a myriad of treats such as muffins, cobblers and pies they are indescribably delicious.

Recently I went with some friends to a local pick-your-own place where there were over 5 miles of blueberry bushes.  The berries were plump, juicy and very flavorful.  With three adults and four kids the picking went fairly quickly and everyone came home with a quite a few berries.   Blueberries freeze quite well if you want to save some for later.  There's nothing quite like blueberry pancakes in the middle of winter from blueberries that you picked fresh during the summer.

Blueberries are native to North America and related to cranberries, another distinctive North American fruit.  They are high in antioxidants; anthocyanin which is beneficial for collagen especially as it relates to capillary and vascular support, and ellagic acid which is helpful in protecting against cancer.  Blueberries are also rich in vitamin C, manganese and are a good source of fiber.  Studies show them to be effective in helping to protect against Age Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD), colon cancer, and ovarian cancer.

One of my favorite ways to eat them is in pancakes, simply take your favorite pancake recipe and add blueberries to the batter after it has been put into the pan.  Another favorite is blueberry muffins.  A quick search of the internet will reveal plenty of recipes that call for fresh blueberries but here is my muffin recipe which is always a hit at our house.

Blueberry Muffins

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon (optional)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon. baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup oil

1 egg

1 cup Sucanat

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 - 1 1/2 C. blueberries (depending on how berry-y you like them)

Sift together dry ingredients 

In a separate bowl beat egg, add oil and Sucanat

Add vanilla and add-ins

Add dry ingredients and mix well

Spoon into two well greased loaf pans

Bake 375°F for 15 minutes

Enjoy!

If you live locally in the Houston area, here's a link to an article about the farm I visited to get my blueberries.

photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

gazpacho

Mydaughter and I were rummaging through the fridge trying to figure out what to make for lunch and realized that we had all of the ingredients to make gazpacho.  With the temperatures rising into the 90's this cool, flavorful soup was a great idea.  I love gazpacho because it is easy to make, refreshing and a wonderful way to get a huge serving of healthy veggies into your day.

My daughter learned to make it from a friend at college, she prefers it extra chunky, I prefer a smaller dice.  You can also lightly blend all of the ingredients together to make a smoother style soup.  Either way it is delicious.

Gazpacho

dice and place in a large bowl:

1 cucumber

2 large tomatoes

1 small vidalia onion

1 sweet bell pepper

2 stalks of celery

1 zucchini or yellow squash

add in

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1/4 C. red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

cover with:

tomato juice (we didn't measure - just poured until it covered the veggies)

place in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours

to serve:

ladle into a bowl

drizzle with olive oil

garnish with diced avocado and chopped cilantro

Enjoy!

photo courtesy of Paul Goyette, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dicey_gazpacho.jpg

organic gardening

It's beginning to take off.  First we started with the White House Organic Garden. 

Now we have the People's Garden.

It seems like the concept of organic gardening is "taking off." Believe me, this is a good thing. Organically grown food has no pesticide residue because pesticides aren't used. Organic farming methods produce lower levels of pollution and conserve soil and water resources. Organic fruits and vegetables have more nutrients because the soil isn't depleted by use of chemical fertilizers. In my book these are all compelling reasons why organic needs to become the norm rather than the exception.

In one of the classes that I teach I tell people about the benefits of buying organic. I understand that for a lot of people it's a difficult decision and one that involves your wallet. One resource that I encourage them (and you) to take advantage of is the Environmental Working Group's Shopping Guide to Pesticides which tells you which are the 12 biggest pesticide laden fruits and vegetables and which are least likely to be affected. This printable guide can help you make better decisions at the grocery store.

Of course big agribusiness isn't too thrilled about public organic gardening but then again I wouldn't expect them to be. I do, however, expect this trend to continue; it's better for all of us, for the environment and for future generations.

Be well.

national sweet potato month

February is National Sweet Potato Month.  And what a delicious choice for a featured food.  Sweet potatoes are versatile, nutritious and easy to add in to your diet.

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is sometimes confused with a yam which comes from a completely different plant family.  It's also only distantly related to traditional potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of beta-carotene and a good source of vitamin C, both of which are anti-inflammatory antioxidants.  They are also a good source of fiber with 3.14 g per serving (a single sweet potato averaging about 77 g).

Most people are used to thinking of sweet potatoes candied with marshmallow and brown sugar on the Thanksgiving table, or perhaps baked into a sweet potato pie or just baked and served with butter.  But there are a lot of different ways to serve them across many different cultures.  In Korea they are used to make dangmyeon, a cellophane noodle, while in Japan it's frequently used in tempura.  In Africa sweet potatoes are dried and then served with a peanut sauce in a dish called Amukeke.

As I've mentioned in a previous post we like to eat them in potato pancakes.  Another favorite i our house is sweet potato fries but we don't do that too often because we don't eat a lot of deep fried foods.  

Recently KatieR  had a great idea which calls for using a dehydrator to make sweet potato chips.  You cut the potato into the desired thickness, brush with a thin coating of olive oil, sprinkle with your favorite spices, such as curry powder, and dehydrate until done.    If you don't have a dehydrator you can use your oven set to it's lowest setting and bake until you reach the desired crispness.

I think the next time I go to the grocery store there will be a couple of extra sweet potatoes in my basket so we can give this a try.  If you try it too let me know what spices you used and how it turned out.

photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Zubro

kitchen questions

My friend Helene had a couple of questions for me:

1.  "My cookies require fresh ginger....the last root I bought turned out to be very fibrous.....little strings and after the cookies were made they look like they are full of cat hair. taste delicious...look unappealing....on the Food Channel I noticed them mincing ginger and there were no hairs at all...how can I tell if the ginger I am about to buy will be smooth?"

I too have frequently had a problem with fibrous shredded ginger.  But since all ginger is fibrous the answer lies not in finding one that has no fiber but in finding the right tool to shred your ginger.  I used to use a box grater but it wasn't great.  The best is a rasp-type file.  The story is that a woman who was frustrated by her inefficient lemon zester one day grabbed her husbands' microplane rasp and found that it did an excellent job.  

My local Sur la Table has one very reasonably priced at $10 but I'm sure you can find them at any upscale cookware store.

2.  "Potatoes and squash are on sale this week...I have 3 bags of potatoes, a cold basement, lots of boxes and newspaper....could you discuss cold storage for produce for those of us in NE climate?"

It's much easier to store foods for long harvest in colder climates.  The process is known as cold storage, or root cellaring.  According to my favorite source book Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables, "Second-crop potatoes are best for storing...they should be cured before storing to give them a chance to heal surface nicks and toughen their skins.  Spread them out in a protected place where the temperature is 60-75 degrees F.  They should not be exposed to rain, sun or wind during curing.  After a one-week to two-week curing period, potatoes are ready for storage...for winter keeping, put your potatoes ina  cold damp spot...[they] keep best at 36-40 degrees F with high humidity, around 90 percent."

Squash also need to be cured (except for acorn squashes) and recommended storage is warmer and drier than for potatoes, an unheated side room or attic can be ideal.

I highly recommend the Root Cellaring book as well as Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long. Both of these books have a lot of excellent information, presented in an easy-to-read-and-understand format. I believe that they are very good resource books for anyone interested in food storage.

If you have any questions about food, nutrition or holistic health just let me know...the answers may appear here on the blog.

photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nino_Barbieri

picking produce

I was having a conversation about picking produce with my Aunt today.  We talked about how difficult it is sometimes to get a good fruit or vegetable if you don't know what you are looking for.

Right now citrus is readily available and very inexpensive near me.  We're consuming a lot of it, including making lemonade or limeade.

One way to tell if you are getting a good, juicy piece of citrus is to look at the skin.  The smoother and less dimpled it is the juicier the fruit.  You also want to look for unblemished fruit although discolorations in skin color are not necessarily blemishes.  Oranges or lemons with green patches on the skin can still be ripe.  You also want a firm fruit, not squishy (although be kind to other purchasers and don't squeeze too hard).

For grapefruits you want a thin-skinned fruit.  Thicker skins will feel spongier and will yield less fruit.

For a delicious and easy dessert try the following:

broiled grapefruit

preheat your oven to broil

wash grapefruits and cut in half

put in a baking pan (I usually get four into an 8 x 8 pan)

sprinkle with sucanat

add a pinch of cinnamon if desired

broil for 3-5 minutes until sugar is melting into fruit

serve

And for the most delicious lemon/limeade try this:

juice of 4 limes (or 5 lemons)

mix with 1 C. evaporated cane juice crystals

stir well until crystals are dissolved

add 6 C. water

enjoy

This juice is wonderful, you know you've got a hit on your hands when your high school aged child and her friends ask for it rather than other beverage choices.

photo courtesy of freefoto.com