Eat the seasons

[Millie]

Just found this handy site, thought I would share :)

http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/weekbywe ... lendar.htm



Do you eat only whats in season, how do you find it? Ive been spoilt almost all my life, and worry about variety

[Wombat]

me too!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

I mostly only eat what is in season, at least the fruit and veg bit (though I do buy lettuce, cuc and tomatoes in winter). There is much less choice of out of season produce in France anyway as very little is flown in from far away.

There's a huge choice in that list anyway, so how can you worry about variety?!!!

[Stonehead]

Seasonal to where? I had a look at July and it has maincrop potatoes listed. The traditional time to lift maincrop tatties here is September/October.

French beans wouldn't be available until August at the earliest (weather permitting) while a lot of the other examples of fruit and veg wouldn't grow up here.

[mybarnconversion]

Seasonal to when and where?

It's very precise, with each month split into pieces - an interesting tool but strangely precise!

[wulf]

I see that the site specifies "UK / Ireland" (with "USA / Canada" being another choice) but, as Stonehead notes, seasons are more localised than that (if we think the difference between Bognor Regis and Inverness is extreme then Galveston to Calgary must cover even more variety!).

When shopping for food (generally, I admit, in supermarkets) I look for where things were produced. Generally I will happily go with anything from the UK or even, at a push, near parts of Europe but I normally pass up items from further parts (except bananas... I'm only an -ish!).

That is not a perfect indicator of seasonality but at least gets a step in the right direction.

Wulf

[Millie]

Yes, Im not about to live my life by it, but it gives me a good idea

[red]

eating seasonally was the main reason (joint reason with local produce) I started having a veg box - many years ago - shame is now they have things from overseas - but do at least indicate which are which...

but it was very educational., and I think you enjoy your food more when you can only have it in season. (strawberries all year round make them very unspecial)

Difficult during the 'hungry gap' though -there is a limit to how many spring cabbages can face...

I'm not pure though - we hzvae bananas all year round. and bread (the flour comes from USA mostly for bread) but at least we try

[Meredith]

I try to eat food in season, at the very least it is fresher and tastes so much better. I am guilty of buying 'new season' apples from New Zealand at this time of year because to be honest cox's orange pippin have lost their freshness. I wouldn't dream of buying apples grown abroad during the British apple growing season. I can't grow bananas and mangoes here so that's my justification for buying them.

At the moment I am heartily fed up with with strawberries and gooseberries and a whole lot of other stuff but I'm eating them because they are there. I know that in the winter months I will look back fondly at this time of plenty.

Meredith.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm still enjoying the strawbs and raspbs but agree that if I ate them all year round they wouldn't be special anymore - same goes for all summer fruit which I really look forward to eating - plums, peaches etc.