Arizona Leafy Greens Month
Duda Farm Fresh Foods - Yuma, Arizona
Arizona Leafy Greens Month
Harvest season is starting in Arizona and so is “Arizona Leafy Greens Month!” From November through March, 82 percent of the country’s leafy greens are grown by farms in Arizona. I am so excited about Arizona Leafy Greens Month because it acknowledges all the hard work that goes into growing, harvesting and shipping leafy greens!
To celebrate, Arizona LGMA is hosting a weekly GIVEAWAY contest every Monday on their Facebook page! Participants will be entered to win prize packages with up to $150 of local prizes. The apron is adorable and I’m personally excited about the salad safety kit they included as a prize.
Back in January I visited Duda Farms in Yuma, Arizona which you may know as Dandy Fresh Produce. They are one of many growers that transition to Arizona to grow crops. I met with the farmers there and they took me from field to field so that I could take photos of each vegetable. Out of the 6 vegetables that they grow, 4 of them are leafy greens. They told me that every year, farms will transition their vegetable production from California to Arizona. When the season changes from summer to fall, farms will move their teams to Arizona and this means that the farmers move too. Each crop grows best during certain seasons, so rather than halting production, the farms move to follow the season! With more than 4,000 hours of sunshine, good soil conditions and well-managed water resources, Arizona is the perfect environment for farms to safely grow leafy greens.
There are 15 vegetables considered a leafy green and the Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (Arizona LGMA) was established to ensure that they are all safe for us to eat. Each of the vegetables below are considered a leafy green:
Radicchio
Endive
Escarole
Red Leaf Lettuce
Romaine
Arugula
Spring Mix
Cabbage
Butter Lettuce
Iceberg Lettuce
Green Leaf Lettuce
Baby Leaf Lettuce
Spinach
Kale
Chard
I eat quite a few of those leafy greens myself and am so thankful that the Arizona LGMA has established food handling protocols. Arizona LGMA has standards in place to prevent any type of contamination from impacting leafy greens grown in Arizona by enforcing safe food handling procedures and requiring food safety training courses to all of its members. Everyone takes it seriously and when I go out to the fields, the farmers hand me a hair net and tell me not to touch the lettuce.
Next time you are in the grocery store, take a look at the best by date on your lettuce bag or price tags of romaine lettuce in the grocery store. These labels identify the region grown and the approximate harvest date. From now until March, my guess is that the tag will say grown in Arizona!
Alexandra Rae is an agriculture expert and marketer sharing food and farm stories from the ground up through photography. Her passion is to connect consumer and farmer through her blog and social media. Learn more…
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