Map

As I've been reading a lot about seasonal eating and trying to grapple with how far to take it, I found this today. I threw "what fruit is in season now" into my google search bar and found this neat map. You click on the map and choose your state and then across the top are months. It appears that right now in our state, we have only four things that are in season: asparagus, peas, spinach and lettuce. It also suggest recipes using said ingredients. Awesome.

Interestingly, I see no fruit on the "in season" list right now. Usually we like to eat our apples, citrus, and melons. On occasion a banana. Now, apples I know are in season in the fall. We go and pick them every year. They are not in season right now, so they are being trucked in from somewhere. I grew up in Florida so I know that citrus mostly comes from there or California and that is a winter fruit. Melons are a late summer fruit and we actually have some watermelon seeds sprouted and ready to go in the ground. Does this mean that we don't eat fruit right now? I know berries will be in season in another month or two. I suppose I can wait until then for some fruit. Until then, we'll just eat a lot of asparagus, peas, spinach and lettuce.

I dug out our city calendar the other day to confirm when our city's farmers' market opens up. June 24th. That is a long time still. I can't wait for it to start up. I know I'm going to ask one of the vendors about his apples. There is always an orchard there that has apples and honey. I want to know how he has apples to sell when picking season was last fall. I'm curious. I do know that their honey is awesome. I will be buying more of that as soon as I can.

Well, we are about to head out to the library and the dairy to pick up our weekly supply of milk, eggs and bacon, and maybe an ice cream. Until later.

Random Thoughts

The last couple of days I've been mulling things over in my head a bit and doing some reading online trying to figure things out. What have I been pondering? A couple of different things. Eating locally and all that entails. Eating in season. How far to go down the non-processed road. It's all kind of overwhelming right now.

First off, eating locally. I feel that we are slowly getting better at this. I was trying to do some research to see what the general public considers "local". From what I gather, it's food within a 100 mile radius. Now, we get our milk, butter, eggs from the farm that is six and a half miles from our home. That is taken care of. Our grass fed beef was picked up 16.7 miles from here. The bacon and ham steaks that we occasionally get are from a farm 48 miles from here (we pick them up at the dairy farm). In another couple of months we'll be able to get all the local produce we could dream of at our farmer's market. Where I am having my issue is this: fruits like bananas and pineapples, grapes, avocados, lemons, oranges, grapefruits...you know, the things that don't grow anywhere near us. Do we stop eating them? I mean, I don't particularly care of bananas, so I can do without those. Avocados though are a different story. I use limes and lemons all the time in cooking. I actually researched getting a lemon tree and planting it in a very large container so that it can be moved indoors during the winter. The tree alone would cost around 70 dollars and then add another 40 to 50 for a good sized container. I don't think I want to spend that much on something that could potentially fail.

What about things like wheat? I don't have a mill to grind my own flour, and even if I did I don't know of a local source to get wheat berries. I suppose I could do some research on this though. I am pretty sure I can get an attachment for my mixer that grinds wheat. I love to bake and wheat is a big thing that I use a lot. Sugar. I haven't seen any sugar growing around here lately. How far does one go with this eating locally?

That then brings me to wondering about eating seasonally. Obviously it is best to eat food when it is in season. The food tastes better and has more nutrients in it. I have done some canning so I am already planning on gardening and bulk buying at the farmer's market to store food for the winter and next spring. Fruit though is a problem. Right now, berries are in season. I don't really like berries. I can deal with strawberries, but that is all. Tim, on the other hand, would be happy to eat berries day in and day out. The kids and I really enjoy apples. Apples are a fall fruit. Do we eat so many apples in the fall, when they are in season, that we don't want to see another apple until the next fall?

I guess the bigger issue for me is the eating locally than seasonally. I can manage eating what is in season. It will make us appreciate something more after we've not had it for a while. It will give us something to look forward to, kind of like we are looking forward to the next season just about the time we are getting tired of the old season. I understand the importance of eating locally. You support local farms. It's better for the environment to not have to ship food from all over the country/world to sit pretty in a grocery store. The food is in better condition because it's not picked before it's ripe so it can sit in bins waiting to ripen. I guess I will have to do some more reading/learning about it. I'll keep you posted as I figure these things out.