June and July are months of strawberries in Ontario and we are extremely happy to announce that at JARCO we only use berries from local farms for our strawberry desserts during this period. There are many benefits to using local ingredients and all of them are focused on one important benefit: it is much healthier!

 

Here are some of the benefits that come with using locally grown ingredients:

• 🍓  They are ripe and taste so much better!
• 🍓  Strawberries are fresher and have more vitamins.
• 🍓  JARCO desserts look much prettier with local strawberries.

Let’s elaborate a little on each of the points above. For one, the fruits and berries that are delivered to Ontario from other countries (i.e. US, Mexico etc.) are usually picked unripe. Because they can be stored longer and are easier to handle in terms of transportation, they are more firm and don’t get damaged or smashed as easily. With local fruits and berries, there is no need to ship them far, we pick them ourselves at local Ontario farms in Waterloo region. This way, we can get them ripe and cook the best tasting desserts the whole summer long!

What about freshness and vitamins? Well, the longer strawberries stay at the sun and the redder they get, the more vitamins they accumulate. Ripe berries contain more vitamins than unripe ones. Also, they get picked the same day we at JARCO prepare the desserts, so there is no way to get fresher ingredients!

Finally, our philosophy at JARCO is to make the healthiest possible desserts and we do not add anything artificial. So the colour of our desserts might vary depending on the ripeness of berries. And for the last few weeks, while we are using local strawberries, our desserts look incredibly pretty. The colour is so rich and it is all natural!