Why our Shelves are often bare of vegetable on a Sunday:
Customers who are used to full supermarket shelves often comment on the fact that our vegetable stocks are very low on Sundays. Well, there’s a simple reason for that. We don’t harvest on Sundays.
You might ask why we don’t simply harvest extra on Saturday. After all, spinach as an example, is popular, and it will sell on Sunday just the same as any other day, right?
Let me explain why.
Spinach, like many leafy greens, is rich in vitamin C—a crucial nutrient that supports your immune system, helps your body absorb iron, and promotes healthy skin. But as soon as spinach is harvested, its vitamin C content begins to degrade. Studies show that spinach can lose all of its vitamin C within just seven days. Here’s how quickly the loss adds up:
- Day 1 (Harvest Day): Spinach is at its nutritional peak, retaining all its vitamin C.
- Day 2: Around 20% of the vitamin C is already lost.
- Day 3: (Typically the earliest day at which Spinach will arrive at a supermarket) Up to 50% of the vitamin C is gone.
- Day 7: (Typical the age of supermarket spinach) Almost all the vitamin C has degraded, leaving you with little more than fibre and flavour.
Note: Supermarket spinach often still looks fresh after 7 days because it’s treated with refrigeration, controlled atmospheres, and moisture retention methods to preserve appearance, even though its nutritional value has significantly declined.
We don’t treat our spinach with anything but love so, if we were to harvest extra extra spinach on Saturday to sell on Sunday, by the time you buy it, it would already have lost a portion of its nutritional value. And while it still looks and taste good, it wouldn’t be quite the nutrient-packed superfood we that we want to sell you, so we are happier to se the shelves empty than know we are selling anything less than the very best.
Our Fresh Promise
At Bare Acre Farm, we take steps to ensure freshness and quality. The spinach you buy on Thursday is harvested on Thursday. The spinach you buy on Friday is harvested on Friday, in fact all of our leafy salad crops are harvested daily, and that includes the salad vegetables we harvest for veg box deliveries.
We harvest this way because we want to ensure that you and your family enjoy vegetables at their absolute best—packed with nutrients, flavour, and vitality with no loss of vitamins.
Sunday is the only day when we may have spinach harvested the day before, and even then, it’s fresher than most supermarket produce that’s been sitting in storage for days.
It’s Not Just Spinach
Spinach isn’t the only vegetable that rapidly loses its vitamin C after harvest. Other crops that experience significant nutrient loss include:
- Broccoli: Loses up to 50% of its vitamin C within two days of harvest.
- Green beans: Can lose as much as 80% of their vitamin C in just one week.
- Fresh Peas: Start losing vitamin C immediately and can lose almost all within 3-5 days.
- Frozen Vegetables: Contain very little vitimin C at all.
This is why buying fresh and local is so important—not just for flavour, but for your health. At Bare Acre Farm, our aim is to bring you produce at its nutritional peak. We don’t cut corners, because we want to sell the best and the freshest.
So, the next time you see our shelves looking a little bare on a Sunday, know it’s not because we are idle, its because we prioritise freshness over convenience.