Field Guide to Produce

With fruits and vegetables becoming a much bigger player in your daily eating activities, it's only natural that you're going to start thinking about them a little more. You'll likely find yourself noticing a whole bunch of curious varieties that you never even knew existed.

As you wander the produce department at your local grocery store, new things will catch your eye, like dragon fruit, papayas, mangos, lychees, passionfruit, jicama, casaba melons, and tomatillos to name a few.

Once you get a handle on these new names and interesting appearances, your next thoughts will presumably be: Where does this come from?  What does it taste like? What do I do with it?  How do I store it?

If you don't feel totally comfortable with pestering the store's employees with questions about every item on the shelf, I have another solution for you.

I picked up this little book online a couple of years ago and it's a gem.

The book is called, "Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market", written by Aliza Green.

It's perfectly suited for taking with you on your grocery outings. It's very compact -- measuring about 4.5 inches by 6 inches -- yet it's absolutely packed with content.

Inside are more than 200 fruits and vegetables, each one broken down with detailed information, including:

• General description
• When it's in season
• How to pick a good/ripe one
• How to store it
• Preparation
• Serving suggestions
• Good flavor affinities

The book is split into two halves (the first is fruit and the second is vegetables), and each is organized alphabetically. It's so well laid out that even if you don't know the name of what you're looking for, you can still find it just by browsing through the color photographs.

If you want a great little book to help you navigate the world of fruits and vegetables, this is definitely the one to get. I've found it to be a wealth of information.

The book is fairly easy to track down online, but I've done the diligence and have the direct links here for you already:

Amazon (USA):

Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market

Chapters-Indigo (Canada):

Field Guide To Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market

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Mike Dillman is a self-taught raw-vegan who began his journey nearly five years ago. Having worked his way through all the challenges firsthand, he wants to save you from making the same mistakes yourself. You can visit Mike's blog at Real-World-Raw.com to learn how easy it can be to make a raw-vegan diet fit your busy lifestyle. FREE eBook – "The 7 Biggest Raw Mistakes" Mike's FREE eBook lays out the major missteps beginning raw foodists make that undermine their success and tells you how you can avoid them. To get Mike’s FREE eBook click here!