Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 816. It's FLX Morning Thursday. It's our monthly nutrition and healthy eating segment. Candace Regalswither from Seneca County Cooperative Extension, SenecaCountyCCE.org. Good morning. Morning, Ted. How are you? Good. It's always good to talk nutrition and healthy eating, and just because the cold weather is here doesn't mean we still can't have locally grown things. Tell us about some of the cold, hardy crops for this time of year.
Candace Riegel: Yeah, so even though most, I think, majority of people, I think, with this time of year getting into like late November, they think that local produce is pretty much done. But luckily, our area, and for these crops as well, there's actually some that can sustain a few hard frosts, light frosts, hard frosts, maybe one or two, and handle this cold weather, even into the snow sometimes, but we like to think of those as the cold, hardy crops that we call them. And that's like your carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, a lot of like root crops. But that's broccoli, cabbage, kale, a lot of your like hardier leafy greens can handle it, kind of like spinach. And they tend to actually get a little bit sweeter with one or two frosts. So we actually kind of increase that sugar content, makes a little bit sweeter for us, and that's a benefit for us, of course.
That's called like winter sweetening, they kind of refer to it as, and that's when the cold temperatures that are perfect for this time of the year, fall, kind of trigger a process in the plant that converts some of that starch that's naturally there into sugars, increasing the sugar content and then making it taste sweeter for us. For the plant, it's a little bit different. It's kind of like a defense against freezing, kind of almost like an antifreeze, right? Allowing them to survive a little bit longer into the colder temperatures. And of course, that's a benefit for us, right? We want to have more local produce as long as we can into the fall and not have to try to, you know, get the vegetables that are trucked in from other states and stuff like that, right? So yeah, there could be some really great vegetables, like these cold hardy crops that are on farm stands still, or if you have a garden, there's still some that are kind of just tucked away out there that you can still benefit from.
Paul Szmal: That's the first, I didn't, had never heard of that sweetening process before in the winter. That's pretty neat. And then of course, Cooperative Extension has been doing a lot of food preservation classes. We can preserve our tomatoes and things and can them and have good stuff all winter.
Candace Riegel: Yeah, so I mean, you can still do all that preservation that's usually at that like right end of summer, really just the start of fall. You want to catch them when they're still in good shape, but it's luckily to have the cold hardy crops in addition to that as well, right? And the ones that can store well too, like your winter squashes and some of those cabbages that can kind of carry you through winter, like potatoes and carrots. Carrots are one of those ones that can actually kind of hide out in your garden, even under a little bit of snow and still do well. So yeah, we're lucky to be able to preserve what we can throughout the summer, but still benefit from those cold hardy fall crops that we like.
Paul Szmal: Now, I had never thought of this, but you talk about winter coming and hibernation, of course, so we don't hibernate like the bears do. But in a way, we kind of do. Explain that to us, what you mean by that and how our habits change with the increasing darkness and cold.
Candace Riegel: Yeah, so at least for myself, and I'm pretty sure for a lot of people as well, I've heard this before. But like you have that natural rhythm, like in the winter, you feel kind of like hunkering down and slowing down, kind of staying in more, eating more comfort foods, kind of like stuff that just makes you feel good, warms the body kind of thing. And there's obviously kind of like a reason behind that, a biological reason. You have to think about some of the vegetables that are out there in summer, right? That's like melons and cucumbers and peas and like light lettuces. That's like lighter stuff that's cooling and kind of like a lot of water content. And then we think of, so the biological reason, we think of like the vegetables that are like more fall time or winter crops. Those are like the heavier starchy vegetables. That's like potatoes, sweet potatoes, your winter squashes, right? But you have to think about, so in the biological reason that I'm mentioning is like we're craving more food and carbs. So we once relied on those heartier foods with plenty of fats and carbs to kind of keep us warm and sustained through the winter while food might have been scarce, right? When there's not as much food growing and available.
But although we have now, nowadays, abundant supply of food in our stores, right? Our bodies kind of still operate on that kind of program or system. So you have to think about those benefits of the starchy vegetables like those sweet potatoes and potatoes and even the carrots and turnips, right? There are certain things that they can give us and are perfect for our body in that sense that are perfect for this time of the year. Like starchy vegetables are packed with those complex carbs, which break down slower in your system, provide a kind of like steady, sustained energy, a long-term energy rather than the sugars in some of the processed foods, right? They give you like that short kick, right? And then fiber, a lot of these vegetables, even vegetables in summer, but a lot of these fall vegetables are really good sources of fiber, which maintain healthy digestion or good prebiotic for your gut bacteria. Of course, like any vegetable and fruit, right? They're rich in nutrients and vitamins and minerals that are great for supporting immunity and other processes in your body.
So especially for say like our squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, there are a lot of our orange colored vegetables, right? That means they're loaded in beta carotene, which converts to your vitamin A, which is crucial for our immune system and our immune function in our body, which is all good around like that fall and winter time when we're in cold season, right? But my favorite and what I tend to think about is the Chinese medicine perspective when they think about starchy vegetables are kind of considered like warming foods, right? Like we call them the comfort foods, but they're kind of like warming foods for your body when you think about it in a sense, when we make a lot of soups and stews and like roasts and stuff. But they're thought to help generate like heat in your body, make you more comfortable and help you like keep warm through the cold and winter months, which that's my favorite to think about. I think about them as like warming foods, right? Those comfort foods.
Paul Szmal: Another thing that we see this time of year is all kinds of different winter squash varieties, starting with our pumpkin crop, but there's a whole bunch more than that.
Candace Riegel: Yeah, so I mean, October and November is like that time of year, right? But you see like the big variety. And I think we actually have this on our website page for our November What's Up with Food and Nutrition has like all the different varieties. But think like sugar pumpkins, right? Those are your pie pumpkins. You can also slice those up and eat it on salads, roast them, pumpkin puree and to make muffins and all different kinds of stuff. Pumpkin pies coming up for Thanksgiving, right? But there is a large variety of winter squashes and November is perfect. There's butternuts, honey nuts, delicatas, spaghetti squash, hubbards, kabochas. There's just a whole long list that are eaten multiple different ways, whether you're roasting, pureeing, making soups, all different kinds of stuff.
Paul Szmal: All right. Perfect time of year. I was going to say, help us navigate through the holidays. Now, I know the one thing that you don't want to try to do is just deny yourself everything.
Candace Riegel: Yeah. So even though I was just talking about like all those vegetables that are like, you know, the comfort starchy like potatoes and squash. I still want you to consider and try everybody to include all different kinds of fruits and veggies, right? You still want to get a variety to get like the rainbow of colors that give you all the different nutrients and minerals. But if you're thinking about your holidays, just try to do some simple things. Like we'd like to say when you start your day, I know it's like kind of get can get hectic and chaotic, right? When we're all run in different places or you're making food for the day. But try to just start your day with a little healthy breakfast, maybe some little healthy snacks throughout the day. Make sure you get those fruits and vegetables right on your plate. Try not to just go for the desserts or the pies. Right. Include those. I always want to make it a point. You can include those. Include all the five food groups. Try to make sure you're getting a little bit of everything. And then if you're making a recipe or your family is, try to tweak those recipes just to be a little bit more nutritious or less sweet. Try to use maybe honey or maple syrup instead of sugar. And then we like to talk about on here, Ted, I know we have before, but some recipes where you can sneak in a vegetable. Like if you're making a brownie, make them a beet brownie. If you're making the mac and cheese that you're bringing, try to sneak in some butternut squash and the kids will never even know. But also, our main point, right? We said it in the beginning. Enjoy all your favorites, even those pies, but just in moderation and try to make sure you get some of those fruits and veggies first.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I've had the beet brownies and I've actually had the butternut squash mac and cheese as well, and they're both great. Coming up, there are two baking workshops in December, a 4-H baking series. Tell us about those.
Candace Riegel: Yeah, so they've had, well, they just had one last night as well, and then they had one previously in November. They're making different things like cookies and then some pies. I think into December, they're going to be doing a mix of baking and also making like some baking mixes that you can gift to people for Christmas. But there will be two different days. The dates are on our website, and you can go on and register if you're a 4-H member or want to be a 4-H member. And yeah, they're fun. They're just a couple hours where kids can get together and do some kind of fun baking things. And then the annual... Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, no, that's what I was going to mention. Oh, okay. Yeah, I was going to say the annual dinner meeting is December 2nd. It's open to any Seneca County resident over 18. If you want to learn more about what your cooperative extension is doing, go to the website, again, SenecaCountyCCE.org to sign up. Candace, thanks for the great information as always, and I look forward to more nutritious eating to come in the new year.
Candace Riegel: Yeah, and happy holidays. Hope you enjoy all the good food.
