Bringing the farm to your table with Tropicana #TropFloridaOJ

One of my husband and I’s favorite type of restaurant to eat at is what they call a ‘Farm to Table’ restaurant. The idea behind the Farm to Table movement is that food is produced locally and delivered to local consumers. This is an idea that we try to incorporate into our daily diet, even when we eat at home. By growing our own food in our garden, shopping at farmer’s markets, and consciously checking labels at the grocery store, I try and ensure that our meals come from as close to home as possible.

It isn’t always easy to know where your food comes from. Here are a few tips to help you bring the farm to your own table!

• Start with buying foods made with as few ingredients as possible. A box of prepackaged, flavored rice is going to be harder to trace than a bag of potatoes!
• Buy in season whenever possible. Trying to find strawberries in December probably means they aren’t going to be grown nearby unless you live in Australia!
• Shop local farmer’s markets and find a local source of meat to ensure that your meat and produce were sustainably raised and didn’t travel overseas to reach your table.
• Read the labels of everything you buy…I love that my Tropicana orange juice specifically says on the label that it is made with 100% Florida oranges! Many juices are imported from other countries and if you don’t check the label, you won’t know! 

Tropicana Pure Premium is 100% Pure Florida Orange Juice. They are the single largest buyer of Florida fruit and purchase approximately 11.6 billion oranges from Florida each year. That is a lot of oranges! They have groves in 22 different Florida counties, primarily in central and southern Florida. Since there are so many microclimates and soil types in Florida, Tropicana can harvest their Valencia and Hamlin oranges throughout the entire growing season. Oranges have been grown in Florida since the 1560s which is approximately 147 years before any other U.S. state. I really wish we could grow our own oranges here in Georgia but we just aren’t quite warm enough for that! Since orange juice is one of those must have breakfast accompaniments, I am happy to have a source of US grown and made orange juice!

Right now, Tropicana is having a contest that they would love for you to enter! They are offering readers a chance to win 100 Florida prizes, including a one-year-supply of Tropicana (in the form of twelve 59 oz Tropicana Pure Premium containers) and a trip to Florida to visit an orange grove. Ninety-nine winners will get a one-year supply of orange juice and one winner will get a trip to a Florida orange grove! You can see full details and enter the contest when you Like Tropicana on Facebook!

The best way to bring the farm directly to your table is to know where your food is coming from. Choose foods with as few ingredients as possible and read the labels! If you can’t grow your own or buy from a local farmer, at least make sure that it comes from as close to home as possible. Grown in the USA worth taking the time to look for on the label!

Disclaimer:   I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Tropicana blogging program, to earn My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic, click here.