It’s now a year since I began my monthly seasonality update, so this post brings us full circle. As I’ve said before, I haven’t been eating totally seasonally for a year, I’ve eating more seasonally. This time last year I could not have told what was in season, beyond strawberries and new potatoes perhaps, and I didn’t give it a moments notice. I am considering what I eat more carefully now. I’m eating a much broader range of fruits and vegetables, I’ve tried a bunch of new things, and I appreciate what I eat more. And it’s been fun.
All of which makes me wonder how we got into this seasonless habit in the first place. I’m glad we don’t go hungry in the spring any more, and that winter doesn’t mean a diet of turnips, but do we really need everything all the time? The supermarkets claim they are responding to consumer demand, but where did the ‘demand’ for year-round asparagus come from, for example? Was there a campaign for it that I missed? Were we deeply unhappy when asparagus was a seasonal treat?
Are we, in fact, poorer for the wealth of choice before us?
I will continue to eat seasonally as much as possible, and I can recommend it.
As for this month, the aforementioned turnips are in season, along with swede, potatoes, parsnips, swede and beetroot, all sturdy wintery roots. Above the ground you’ll find kale, leeks, cauliflower, red cabbage, sprouts and celery. There are still pumpkins around.
There are still plenty of apples about. Ask around, see if someone’s got a windfall problem – we’ve had bags from colleagues and friends with more apples than they know what to do with. I don’t think I mentioned it last year, but it’s also a good time for nuts – walnuts and chestnuts. See if you can find some roast chestnuts on the high street.
PS – I’m experimenting with GetSocial today, see below, making it easier for you to share posts on Facebook, Digg and so on. At the moment I have to add these each individually, so if you’ve got an opinion on the usefulness of this, or you know a better way of doing this in WordPress.com, let me know.
The Earthbound Report 