Food & Beverage

green and white asparagus
Fruits & Vegetables June 30, 2016

Asparagus – One of the World’s Most Healthful Foods

Fruits & Vegetables June 30, 2016
As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring fruit and veggies each week. This week and the final vegetable being featured is asparagus. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don't get enough fruits and veggies, so add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY Asparagus has been enjoyed all around the world for over a millennium. This spring/summer veggie was known to have been eaten by Ancient Egyptians as many as 20,000 years ago, and Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, employed an entire group of ships to transport huge shipments of it. Many people will tell you…

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Raw Organic Yellow Plumcots
Fruits & Vegetables June 29, 2016

Plums are not just for Pudding at Christmas

Fruits & Vegetables June 29, 2016
140+ varieties of this "drupe" fruit are sold in the US As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring fruit and veggies each week. This week and the final fruit being featured are plums. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don't get enough fruits and veggies, so add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY Plums are one of the first domesticated fruits in central Asia and Europe. Plums are not as old as the figs,dates, and olives of Mesopotamia but they do go back far. Plum remnants were found at Bronze Age sites in Switzerland, Hungary and…

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Variety of whole and half multi colored beets
Fruits & Vegetables June 28, 2016

All About Beets

Fruits & Vegetables June 28, 2016
As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring fruit and veggies each week. This week the vegetable is beets - red, golden, Chioggia. A whopping ninety percent of adults and children don't get enough fruits and veggies, so add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY The beet comes from the wild sea beet, native to the Mediterranean and parts of the European and North African Atlantic coast. Only the leaves of the sea beet were eaten. The scientific name for the beet is beetroot or table beet also the sugar beet and the mangelwurzel. The…

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blueberries
Fruits & Vegetables June 23, 2016

Blueberries – 100 Years of Deliciousness

Fruits & Vegetables June 23, 2016
Blueberry is one of the only foods that is truly naturally blue in color and it #1 in antioxidant health benefits As part of fruits and veggies month,  we are featuring fruit and veggies each week. This week the fruit is blueberries, my absolute favorite fruit out there. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don't get enough fruits and veggies, so add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY Blueberries are native to North America, even though they still do have botanical relatives around the world. For thousands of years blueberries have been harvested by Native…

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Fruits & Vegetables June 16, 2016

Great Grains – Corn to the Rescue

Fruits & Vegetables June 16, 2016
As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring fruit and veggies each week. This week the veggie is corn, a surprisingly sweet treat and packed with nutrients. A whopping ninety percent of adults and children don't get enough fruits and veggies, so add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY Corn, or maize, is a grass native to Central and South America. It was most likely first cultivated in Mexico dating back to 5500 BC. Cultivation of the grain then spread North to New Mexico and South to Peru. Eventually, corn became an important staple food…

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Fruits & Vegetables June 14, 2016

It’s Fruits & Veggies Month – Enjoy a Colorful, Crunchy, Healthful June

Fruits & Vegetables June 14, 2016

It’s June. We are off to a delicious beginning to the summer. And we are celebrating Fresh Fruits & Veggies! June is Fresh Fruits and Veggies Month! The Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program (FFVP) is an initiative brought on by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) created to directly combat childhood obesity. The program has been wildly successful across the country. Schoolchildren in the U.S. have been able to sample a variety of fruits and vegetables in their schools with the purpose of helping to educate and inform children and their families about eating healthy, the variety of fruits…

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Fresh zucchini
Fruits & Vegetables June 9, 2016

Zucchini – Vegetable of the Week

Fruits & Vegetables June 9, 2016
To celebrate June as National Fresh Fruit & Vegetables Month, Thrive!, alongside the USDA, is promoting fresh fruits and vegetables. Ninety percent of adults and children don’t include enough fruits or vegetables in their diet. We also need to get more fruits and vegetables into meeting menus outside of the standard crudité. The first vegetable we're going to highlight this month is Zucchini. HISTORY The origin of the zucchini is not entirely clear. It was not widely eaten in Europe before the twentieth century and some sources say it was developed from the squash. Squash have been cultivated in Central America for more than…

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Peaches at the market
Food Allergies Fruits & Vegetables Recipes Things We Love June 7, 2016

Peaches – Summer’s Sweet Bounty

Food Allergies Fruits & Vegetables Recipes Things We Love June 7, 2016
June is National Fresh Fruit & Vegetables Month. Thrive! is promoting fresh fruits and vegetables alongside the USDA to help focus attention on eating more fruits and veggies because 90% of adults and children don't include enough in their diet. The first fruit we are going to highlight this month is the fruit of my home state Georgia - the peach. HISTORY The Peach became first known in China where it got its start with the name “tao.” From China they spread to the rest of the world through the ancient silk route. The peach fruit belongs to the genus, Prunus;…

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