BRIX

Luscious red strawberries sitting at a farm stand in Towson on Thursday. Asked for a taste. Man said, “Ask the manager?!” What was that about? So, we asked the manager. “Ok to try one,” he said. How was it? Bland as can be. Tossed it on my Brix meter and found a level of 7. This is one notch above poor. Why’d it look so good, then? Guess looks can be deceiving. Needless to say, we did not buy the strawberries.

Walked the rest of the market with a friend. She wanted to see how a Brix meter works. Found some average raspberries, Brix=10. We couldn’t figure why the produce would be so middling right in the middle of the summer. Was it all the rain? Was it the quality of the soil? Need to talk some more with the growers, but also don’t want to pressure anybody when other customers are waiting.

My friend is a nutritionist. She’s thinking of adding a class on Brix and better nutrition for her clients. She needs some new comparison numbers for kale and wheat grass and other things people are juicing. Do you have any Brix comparisons that are not on the Reams chart to share? Please post a comment if you do! Would be good to share the results.

15! That’s the great BRIX level of garden peas found at the farmers’ market at Whole Foods in Mt. Washington, MD last Wednesday. You’ll find them there next week, too, at the Pond View Farm stand. Ask for Leo and Sandi Hartlaub. There was lots going on at this market, including a chef cook-off, so didn’t get a chance to ask what the Hartlaub’s do to get such outstanding results. That will have to wait for the next visit.

For me, BRIX is an even better measure for veggies than for fruit. I confess – I am an urbanite and use BRIX as my training wheels. Since I tend to cook veggies like peas, I am not so familiar with their flavor when they are raw. Maybe some day, but for now a 15 = buy them fast!

On a quest for the best strawberry, I took my BRIX meter to my local farmers’ market. What’s a BRIX meter? It’s a device that measures sugars and other nutrients in a few drops of juice. It looks like a little telescope. When you look through the eyepiece, it tells you the quality of your food on a scale of 0 to 32.

I had no idea how the farmers would respond to my request to test their strawberries. So, I promised to buy the ones with the highest BRIX! The samples were already there for tasting.  I just wanted folks to know what I was doing. After all, it might look a little weird to bite a strawberry in half then rub a little juice onto the BRIX meter, which is exactly what I did!

This week, the “BRIX BLUE RIBBON” award goes to Three Springs Fruit Farm! Three Springs has stands at farmers’ markets in MD, PA, and VA. Their berries had the highest score of the day with a solid 10. Better than the 6 logged by another farm stand. A 10 is average for strawberries, but high enough that the fruit was sweet and palatable. I am guessing that as summer progresses, the numbers will rise. Ben Wenk of Three Springs tells me he achieves better berries through the quality of his soil and by testing three varieties to see which grow better. I should have told him that at NaturalCheck, we love testing, too.

Join the quest for the best produce! Email us at Testing@NaturalCheck.com or comment here with the best BRIX you can find. Haven’t tried a BRIX meter yet? No problem. NaturalCheck has two varieties for you to choose from.

Wouldn’t it be great to know where to find the best produce? A few volunteers in the same town could post results online for thousands to share. What do you think?