Ugly Fruit is Especially Nutritious

April 28, 2016May 2, 2016 / elizapples / Leave a comment

And this spin off from Jill Neimark’s NPR piece just happened, this time in Food&Wine!

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By James Oliver Cury Posted April 27, 2016

Bruised and scabbed apples have more antioxidants and sugars because they’ve fought off natural stressors.

Grocery shoppers don’t generally make a beeline to the scabbed and blemished apples. But maybe they should. New research shows that trauma to the fruit—stresses from fighting heat, bugs, and fungus—forces apples to produce antioxidants such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, anthocyanins and carotenoids. And these compounds have all kinds of nutritional value.

Click here to read more! Continue reading →

Nature’s Secret: We May Have Totally Underestimated Scarred Fruit

April 27, 2016May 2, 2016 / elizapples / Leave a comment

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A spin-off article from yesterday’s NPR article on eating ugly fruit, this time on weather.com! I’m so psyched this is getting attention. It’s only the beginning!!

Let’s face it: ugly fruit gets a bad rap. It’s often left behind at grocery stores and sold at steep discounts at farmers markets. More often than not, it gets tossed on top of an ever-growing pile of wasted produce.

But it turns out, these ugly fruits are fine to eat – and they may even be more nutritious.

Beneath An Ugly Outside, Marred Fruit May Pack More Nutrition

April 26, 2016May 2, 2016 / elizapples / 1 Comment

NPR wrote an article about #eatuglyapples AND IT ALL STARTED WITH THIS BLOG!

Unsightly scars on the outside of fruit might reflect higher nutrition within.

April 26, 20163:13 PM ET

JILL NEIMARK

Unsightly scars on the outside of fruit might reflect higher nutrition within.

Daniela White Images/Getty Images

When orchardist Eliza Greenman walks through a field of apple trees and gazes upon a pocked array of blemished and buckled fruits — scarred from fighting fungus, heat and pests — she feels a little thrill of joy. “I’m absolutely infatuated with the idea of stress in an orchard,” says Greenman, who custom grafts and grows pesticide-free hard cider apples in Hamilton, Va. These forlorn, scabbed apples, says Greenman, may actually be sweeter.