Seasonal Eating

By Selena Randall

Traditionally, our ancestors would have eaten fresh foods grown locally, even in their own kitchen gardens, only when they were in season. No fresh strawberries when there is snow on the ground. They would have stored food to last over the winter, and bought staples such as flour that came from local mills.

These days, you can get fresh foods all year around, because somewhere in the world they will grow. It’s just a case of transporting them in a way that will ensure they don’t perish on route and arrive looking fresh. This means some cunning techniques are employed. For example, fruit are picked before they have reached their peak, to ripen on the journey. I’ve heard stories about green bananas being stored in warm rooms to ripen them. Some years ago I remember outrage that tomatoes were being ‘irradiated’ to stop them decaying so quickly in the grocery store – noone wanted irradiated tomatoes. And I am sure you have heard about the genetically modified apples that don’t go brown.

We could go into the economics and costs and benefits of adding value to products such as oranges to produce orange juice, and whether it is better to transport fresh orange juice in a refrigerated truck or concentrate in frozen cartons.

We could discuss whether it is ethical for us to be buying exotic foods flown in from Africa, where farmers grow for export because it’s more profitable than selling to their local communities, who find little on the market stalls.

But instead, I’m just going to sing the praises of local food, and at this time of year locally stored food. In our house, we are drinking mint tea, and using herbs I dried and stored. We have one more pumpkin to use from fall, and are still eating carrots, onions and garlic carefully stored. We have cans of rhubarb, apple, beets and tomatoes to see us through to our next harvest, plus homemade jams for our bagels. We have dried kale, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and squashes, canned soups, before I even start on what’s in the freezer. It’s been a long time since I’ve used a shopping cart at the grocery store – a basket carries all I need.

Now I’m planning for this season – some new things to try, things to grow more of, things to grow less of. It’s all a big experiment!

What are you growing?