Seasonal and Simple

Yesterday I had the opportunity to the Connecting Young Nebraskans Summit. This was my first "unconferenced" conference. If you have never been to an unconference, it means that the attendees are in charge of determining the schedule in an open mic night type setting. They gave us a theme, for instance "community", and then you were able to present a topic of something that you would like to learn more about and invite other attendees to join you.

Any chance there is an opportunity to get behind a microphone,  I'll be there. I presented a question that had perplexed me in a webinar the previous day.

We all know that vegetables are good for us. Right? I feel like if I were to ask my 6 year old, she would already know this concept. All this being said we are eating fewer vegetables then ever before and there is slow and steady decline produce consumption. My question was why?

Some common themes came about on why people aren't eating more vegetables that included: they have to be cooked, accessibility, and ways to prepare them.

That is when it hit me, there is an app for that! Seasonal and Simple. 

 

The seasonal and simple app is managed by both Missouri and Nebraska extension and is a great tool that uses your location to inform you on the location of local farmers markets, produce that is in season, nutrition information, as well as recipes!

I like to take the app into the grocery store with me to the grocery store to have a better idea of how I'm going to use the produce that I am looking to buy. I also like to use it when I have leftover vegetables in my fridge and want a new way to prepare them.

To download the app for yourself, simply go to the app store and search "seasonal and simple".  Here is a quick run down of how the app looks and works.

This is the first page of the app. From here you can decide how you want to use it whether that be produce, recipes, locating a farmers market while traveling, or looking to see what's in season currently.

I chose the "In Season" tab and I am brought here. You can see this is the list of produce that is in season during the month of November.

From there, I chose to look further into acorn squash because I have one at home and am looking for a new way to prepare it because I'm sick of just roasted squash.

After reading the nutrition facts, I can scroll down to find a list of recipes using acorn squash. Many times the recipes also contain the nutrition facts.

I know whats going to be served on the side of our grilled chicken tonight.

There you have it an app that makes seasonal produce simple!