Eating Seasonal and Local in the Fall

by Laura Reeves & Leah Bouchard

Fresh food abounds after the summer growing season, which means there is no better time to focus on eating local. Connecting to your food, land, community and the farmers who grow it, are just some of the many reasons to focus on local and seasonal eating. Equally fulfilling, gardening, foraging, and raising your own food bring you and your family more appreciation to where food comes from.

Although rewarding, eating locally does mean a shift in eating patterns - not all food is available year-round in our diverse climate. Thankfully there is plenty of variety during the fall months, and so you won’t be able to claim sacrifice by committing to local fare. No one can deny how wonderful it is to get fresh delicious food that hasn’t travelled far from home.

Here is a list of just some of the foods available at this time of year.

Vegetables – Although the more delicate vegetables such as greens, peppers, and cucumbers have frozen out (in outdoor gardens anyway) now is the time to source plenty of root veggies such as garlic, onions, carrots, beets, and potatoes. In this season there is also an abundance of squash, pumpkins, and cabbages.
Honey – Many options in flavour and variety make this a great time of year to buy honey in bulk and stock your pantry. (Honey will store indefinitely.) Wildflower, Alfalfa, Sunflower, Clover and Buckwheat are just some of the great local options in the autumn.
Preserves – After a long summer of harvest, there are a ton of local preserves around that have been created in local kitchens, including pickles, dried herbs and spices. It’s time to stock your pantry if you haven’t already.
Wild Edibles – Acorns are a valuable source of both food and medicine and now is the time to gather them to use as a nut flour in all kinds of breads and cookies. Unshelled, they store for years. Cooler fall temperatures stimulate the flow of energy and nutrients into wild plant roots and tubers, so fall is a prime time to harvest dandelion, burdock, Jerusalem artichoke, sow thistle and wild caraway roots, to name a few. Dandelion, burdock and sow thistle make wonderful beverages with great medicinal properties while Jerusalem artichokes, burdock and wild caraway roots can be used as mainstays, similarly to potatoes or carrots.
Pastured Pork or Chicken – The only time of year you can get in on this delicious, pastured meat, make sure to buy direct from a small local farmer and stock your freezer. Chickens will tend to be a perfect large roasting size, and pork that has been raised on pasture is incredibly tasty and nutritious. 
Beef and Lamb – This is also the time of year that farmers (or your local butcher) may sell a beef or lamb by a whole carcass, a half, or a quarter. Ordering this way, you can get in on local meat at a more economical price, choose from a variety of cuts, and fill your freezer for the long winter.

  So, whether it’s from the local farmer, your own backyard, the wild, local butcher, or even the grocery store, we hope that you take the time to celebrate local and seasonal food this fall.

Leah Bouchard and Laura Reeves are active in the Stuartburn and Emerson Franklin Local Food Initiative. The Initiative can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/312011346157839/