A delicious yet healthy pancake recipe! And don’t forget the most important ingredient of all… The Humble Bee’s Specialty Honey by PICO. For this recipe, we chose to go for our unique citrus blossom honey.

INGREDIENTS
– 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
– 2 cups white whole wheat flour
– 2 teaspoons baking powder
– ½ teaspoon baking soda
– ½ teaspoon salt
– 2 eggs
– 1 ¼ cups milk (whole milk is best in this recipe)
– 2 tablespoons of The Humble Bee’s Citrus Blossom Honey
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS
– Melt the butter and set it aside
– Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
– Combine the eggs, milk, honey and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Add in the melted butter.
– Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until just incorporated.
– Heat your pan over medium heat and add sunflower oil.
– Scoop batter and add onto the heated pan. 

Each season provides an array of beautiful fresh produce, ensuring a year filled with a range of fruit and vegetables that give our body all the nutrition necessary to stay healthy. But why is it important for us to consume the freshest produce?

Produce that’s in-season is always fresh, ripe and tastes better. Fruit and vegetables that have been left to ripen naturally and harvested at the right time, tend to carry a lot more nutrition and flavor. Cooling and heating fruit and vegetables in order to prolong shelf life or speed up the ripening process can reduce the flavor and decrease the benefits. Anti-oxidants such as Vitamin C, folate and carotenes will rapidly decline when stored for periods of time. Locally in-season sourced fruit and vegetables will also look a lot brighter and much more vibrant rather than limp and dried up.

PICO farms ensures providing consumers with the freshest produce by implementing a ‘harvest upon order’ strategy; only picking in-season produce off the farms after it’s been ordered.

Persistent to stay mindful in our day to day practices by reducing waste, saving energy, and minimizing our carbon footprint. Some of our steps include:

Integrating a semi Automated irrigation system to maximize efficiency and consistency in water saving.
Automated ERP system to maximize accuracy with our inventory and commercial orders, to let no produce go to waste.
We abide by the Integrated Pest Management scheme and are annually audited to meet quality and safety standards.
Partnered with Dacom, our integrated data combined with our own in house weather station provides us with extremely accurate weather measurements, resulting in minimum use of pesticides and water saving.

The nutrients and vitamins found in kiwis keep the body functioning well and boos the white blood cells in our systems to aid in fighting infections.

Blueberries
Blueberries are known to contain one of the highest antioxidant levels amongst commonly consumed fruit and vegetables. The nutrients found in blueberries can help boost a person’s immunity and play an essential role in the respiratory tract’s immune defense system.

Including blueberries in your daily diet can lower the chances of getting a respiratory infection or cold.

Ginger
Ginger is another important ingredient people turn to after feeling sick. It is known to help reduce sore throats and decrease inflammation.

Spinach
Spinach is not just rich in vitamin C, it is also packed with many antioxidants that strengthen our immune systems and give us the ability to fight infections.
It is the healthiest when cooked as little as possible so that it retains all the existing nutrients.

Red Bell Peppers
Red bell peppers contain almost 3 times as much vitamin C as citrus fruits do.
Stir-frying or roasting them can preserve the nutrients found in red bell peppers much more than when steaming or boiling them.

The Vitamins and nutrients found in red bell peppers help in keeping your eyes and skin healthy.

If you want to get the maximum benefits from your blueberry muffins, make them using whole-wheat pastry flour instead of refined all-purpose flour, and replace the fat in the recipe with a fruit puree, such as mashed bananas. These changes will increase the fiber and micronutrient content while lowering the amount of fat and calories in the recipe. You can also decrease the sugar by one-quarter to one-third, especially since the recipe contains vanilla, which intensifies sweet tastes and makes the decrease in sugar less obvious. Watch the cooking time carefully, since decreasing the fat may make the muffins cook up to 25 percent more quickly.

Using PICO’s Blueberries:

Step 1
Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and a little salt in a large bowl.

Step 2
Add oil, an egg, milk, and vanilla extract then stir with a fork until blended.

Step 3
Mix in the blueberries, divide the batter between muffin cups and bake.

Make your own healthy and delicious pizza using PICO’s fresh, off-the-farm produce.

What you’ll need:
– Pizza Dough
– 2 tbsp pizza sauce
– 4 oz fresh mozzarella (or any cheese of your liking)
– Cherry tomatoes sliced
– Arugula leaves
– Basil leaves
– 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
– Pinch of salt
– Optional: balsamic glaze

What you’ll do
– Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.
– Roll out pizza dough on a pan. Spread pizza sauce across the dough, then top with your choice of cheese.
– Add the tomatoes on the pizza, then bake for 12-15 minutes.
– While the pizza is baking, combine arugula, basil, olive oil, and salt in a bowl.
– When pizza is done, add the arugula mixture on top of the pizza. Drizzle with balsamic glaze if desired.