Seasonal Fruits + Veggies

I always try my best to eat seasonal fruits and veggies. That means harvesting and consuming fresh produce based on the time of year, even down to the specific month. This includes the recipes I find and meals I make as well as those that I create from scratch. These days, it’s difficult to know what fruits and veggies are in season by scanning the grocery store’s inventory. Our mass-produced world gives us everything regardless of the season. But, the reality is the readily available, out of season, produce is either chemically enhanced to increase its shelf life or is transported across the world to reach our shelves.

Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables has three main benefits:

Health

Foods that are grown and consumed during their appropriate seasons are more nutritionally dense. When foods are grown out of season, they aren’t able to follow their natural growing and ripening rhythms.

Taste

Mass-produced produce is intended to meet global consumer demand and tends to suffer from a lack of flavor. The goal has become to produce a volume of “product” to meet high demand and unfortunately, quantity and appearance override taste.

Environment

More than half the fruit and almost one-third of the vegetables bought into the U.S. are imported. When produce appears to be abundantly available in grocery stores, it is harder to understand the effects of what it took to get there. Whether by car, truck or plane, our year round produce is adversely affecting our environment.