Seasonal eating is all about flavorful, nutritious food. But how can you get started? Check out my tips for eating with the seasons like a pro – you’ll be climbing the ranks from novice to expert in no time!
Refocus on health and flavor
Learning how to eat seasonally is simple when you know what you’re looking for. With this type of cuisine, fresh whole foods are key.
Locally sourced produce often shines at the center of the plate, and ingredients are intended to “speak for themselves” with little need for additional coaxing from those old kitchen standbys, salt and fat. This also means you’ll be cutting out most canned, processed and packaged foods in favor of fresher fare.
Sure, you might spend a few more minutes in the kitchen per week, but the emphasis here is on health. Seasonal eating allows you and your family to learn about and focus on the best that nature has to offer.
Location matters
First, you need to consider what makes your little corner of the world unique, and what grows well in that region throughout the year. Websites like Sustainable Table’s Seasonal Food Guide help to break this task down for you by state, so you don’t need to spend much time researching growing zones or climate patterns yourself.
Learning to track down locally grown foods will help you to eat seasonally. Whether you have a plot in mind for planting a big vegetable patch in the backyard, room for a few pots on a patio or sunny windowsill, or a farmer’s market down the street that’s open every weekend, opportunities for procuring seasonal food are all around us, especially during the warmer months.
Food and family go together
Whether you choose to grow your own seasonal food or explore the local markets, both are great activities that the whole family will want to get involved in.
Making trips to the market or giving your children jobs in the garden like weeding and watering will teach them about where their food comes from. Research has also shown that children who grow the food themselves are more likely to try (and enjoy!) a variety of vegetables.
What to do in the winter?
Unless you live in southern California, Florida, or somewhere that’s similarly warm nearly year-round, you’ll probably find that the pickings slim down significantly during the winter. In this case, you might want to explore opportunities to extend the season, by canning locally grown produce or setting up covered tunnels to extend the productivity of your garden.
Many communities in areas with cold winters have started winter markets where local residents can continue to find seasonal and locally grown and produced foods year round.
It’s also important to keep in mind that seasonal eating isn’t all about produce – whole grains, meat and fish have seasons too. Depending on where you live, you can enjoy these types of foods seasonally and teach your family about them as well.
Eat according to a pattern rather than a set of rules
Beyond the regional temperature patterns, other weather elements can have an effect on the availability of seasonal foods as well. Maybe they got too much or too little rain, or a certain crop was eaten by bugs or other critters. It helps to be flexible.
Keep in mind that eating seasonally often dictates your food choices to some degree (especially when all of your zucchini ripen at the same time or the farmer’s market seems to have nothing but endless tables filled with tomatoes), but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
This is an opportunity to be creative – you’d be surprised by how many types of fresh produce benefit from sweet as well as savory treatments, how many items taste delicious after a few minutes on the grill, how many different flavors of homemade ice cream and sorbet you can make…
Being flexible in terms of the stringency with which you follow a seasonal diet can be helpful as well. Though this is a great way to enjoy healthy, delicious food, there are some items that you just won’t be able to procure year-round in your local area.
For example, most Americans love their coffee, chocolate and bananas. For the most part, these items are imported. Many of us are not able to get locally sourced orange juice either, even though wintertime is “citrus season.” Weigh the pros and cons of cutting certain items out of your diet completely based on seasonal restrictions, especially if they are rich in nutrients.
So, what’s for dinner?
Eating seasonally doesn’t have to be complicated. Decide what works for you and your family, try some new foods, learn about the seasons and the growing cycles in your area, and have fun!
Looking for even more seasonal dining inspiration? Search for seasonal recipes on rememberstuff.me here.
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