feeding claire

In the winter months fruit has been hard to come by. Oh, I can buy fruit at both my local supermarket and at the Italian Market: pears, apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, but also peaches, nectarines, and even strawberries. I’m always surprised to see these fruits but I’m not surprised to see where these fruits come from – mostly Chile, although the strawberries are usually from California (and often look like very weary travelers, sad and wilted). I am fortunate in that my supermarket is pretty good at letting me know where my fruit has come from; but, that can be a blessing and a curse: do I want to eat peaches that have traveled all the way from Chile (about 5000 miles)? I certainly don’t want to eat those sorry looking strawberries and they’ve only traveled from California (about 3000 miles).

In an effort to feed Claire fresh foods, I’ve been conscious of where and what I buy. Fruit, at this time of year, has been a struggle. What do I do? I could buy the produce that has a busier passport than me or I could stick with the jarred baby food. Both options are less than ideal. Where do the baby food companies get their produce? I highly doubt that they have processing plants right at the source. So most likely, they’re shipping fruit from all over the world, then processing it, and then shipping it back all over the world in convenient little jars or plastic packs. Either way, neither option is fresh and both have left quite a footprint. What’s a mom to do?

I bought peaches from Chile. They were super expensive: just under $2/lb. I bought 3 or 4 and didn’t have to wait very long before they were ripe. And even then they were less than stellar peaches – certainly no Summer Jersey peach. But I made them into food cubes anyway, they’ve come so far already – I wouldn’t want them to have traveled in vain. However, they only yielded about 4 servings which made them very, very expensive. The only thing going for these world-weary peaches is that I have a general idea of what happened to them from whole food to baby food.

But I am not sure it’s worth it. I know, I know. There are so many reasons why giving Claire minimally processed foods is better for her to understand and love food. Jarred fruit is a mystery. It just appears in a perfect package that offers variety, is convenient, and is inexpensive. I know that, also, I should be buying locally (or at least continentally); but, at this time of year, that’s just not feasible when I need to give Claire a balanced diet.

And so (with a little – but not too much – guilt), I have been buying most of Claire’s fruit in plastic packs, with the general exception of apples, pears, and bananas (yes, I know these have a long journey, too). With not many options at the moment, I used cost and convenience to influence my decision. As summer approaches and Claire eats more and more finger foods, she’ll be introduced to real, local, whole fruits.