Happy New Year. Start the year out with a healthy focus and more nuts, like pecans. Pecans are ranked number one among the family of nuts for naturally occurring antioxidants that may help contribute to heart health and disease prevention.

Merry Christmas! Arizona agriculture is a $17 billion industry. We’re looking forward to providing an abundance of nutritious, fresh and safe food for our Arizona families in the New Year. And, remember you can visit many of our local farms like our 4^th generation Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek.

In festive recognition of the coming New Year and holiday celebrations in general, put a raisin in a fresh glass of champagne and watch it continuously rise and fall. Arizona’s sparkling wines from our wine growers are award winning! And on Fill Your Plate, one of the most popular agriculture items searched is wine!

Hungry for Apple pie this Christmas? There are so many kinds of apples that if you ate a new variety every day, it would take over 20 years to eat them all. In fact, 7,500 varieties exist. In Arizona, our locally-grown crisp, sweet apples come in a great variety too!

(photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com)

In America, the traditional Christmas meal is often turkey or prime rib, a variety of vegetables, squash, and pumpkin pie and other yummy goodness. Plus, the USA has such a range of immigrant cultures that just about every type of food is eaten someplace on Christmas Day. And, just about everything we eat at Christmas can be grown or raised in Arizona.

What is on your Christmas Dinner menu? (photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com)