Eating by the Seasons

Do you look forward to eating your favorite fruits and vegetables in the Spring and Summer months when their flavors and nutrients are at their peak?

One of my favorite summer activities is visiting a blueberry patch to pick and eat the fresh delicious berries. I pick enough so I can freeze a bag and enjoy them year around!

Reasons to Purchase Fresh Local Produce:

• Health benefits
• Save money
• Support local farmers
• Reduce pollution caused from shipping, packaging & storing foods
• Opportunity to try new foods & seasonal recipes
• Taste better!

If you're not ready to change your eating habits just yet, you can start by buying local produce when it's available rather than the same type of food from the other side of the world.

You can look up the State you live in and find out when local produce is in-season by clicking here. In Kansas, you can buy fresh local produce from late April to early November. During the winter months, the meaning of local usually has to expand to within the United States.

The majority of fresh produce grown in the United States comes from California, Florida and Washington. Fruits and vegetables from distance states and countries can take 1 - 2 weeks to arrive in your supermarket.

Let's pay for taste & nutrients not transportation & packaging!

Winter:

chestnuts, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, tangerines, kale, leeks, radicchio, radishes, rutabaga, turnips...

Spring:

apricots, avocado, mango, pineapple, rhubarb, strawberries, artichoke, asparagus, carrots, celeriac, chives, collards, fava beans, fennel, fiddlehead ferns, morels, mustard greens, new potatoes, spinach, spring baby lettuce mixes, sugar snap & snow peas, vidalia onions, watercress...

Summer:

blackberries, blueberries, nectarines, peaches, plums, raspberries, tomatoes, watermelon, beets, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, corn, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, green beans, summer squash, zucchini...

Fall:

apples, cranberries, figs, grapes, pears, pomegranate, quince, acorn squash, Belgian endive, butternut squash, cauliflower, celeriac, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, swiss chard...

What are your favorite fruits and vegetables?

What do you do to enjoy or capture the freshness and nutrients of in-season produce: shop at your local farmers market, harvest and buy from local farms, look for in-season items at your local grocery store, canning, freezing?