Seasonable
Even in winter, grocery stores keep their produce displays full of color and shape. That’s really very nice, but …
When I was in college, I used to buy whatever was on display. Strawberries in the winter. Sure. It was only when I changed my diet some time later that I finally realized that my body did not really want strawberries in winter. I wanted beets, mushrooms, squash. Soup, gravy, cake. Well, cake is kind of a year-round thing (see [‘A Cake Can Be Anything’]). And certainly soup works just about any time of the year. I love soups and stews. I guess you know that about me by now.
Now things have changed and we usually rely on seasonal foods. It turns out that the most effective way to do this is to buy foods that work with the seasons: brussels sprouts are easy to store in cold weather, half-ripe fruit ripens in summer on your windowsill or on a shelf in the kitchen.
Or we consult the kitchen cupboard. Because some foods store very well. Legumes like red lentils, for example. Which generally seems like a good and easy choice. But good storage not only needs to be carefully planned and monitored, it also needs to be self-explanatory. That’s what we’ve found over the past few years. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a lot of waste in the back of the storage space, with food that’s forgotten about and simply expires. Which is very sad because all food is valuable.
But of course the seasons are not the same everywhere, so sometimes it makes sense to buy exotic fruits during the winter (in our case in the northern hemisphere). Like kiwis, which are ripe in southern Europe right now. And, of course, the seasons change not only during the year, but in themselves. The salad rocket in the middle picture above was harvested on my balcony at barely above freezing. While it was snowing. And it was the most aromatic arugula I have ever grown myself (I will definitely pay attention to this new knowledge next fall). The solo blackberry on the right was ripe in December – due to a very mild fall (also partly due to the fact that our apartment is poorly insulated – but that’s another story). And the Hokkaido pumpkin next to the pomegranate on the kitchen shelf in the left corner is a regular. We basically keep Hokkaido pumpkins on the kitchen shelf all year round (except for very hot summer weeks).
However, you know, besides the fact that storing and cooking with ingredients that are effectively storable or in season just makes sense – and, by the way, is a lot cheaper than the ‘strawberries in winter’ thing – I have come to realize that having to adapt regularly can actually be quite nice. It works for me to take the changing availability of foods as a creative challenge, and I like to accept and enjoy that when inventing new recipes. And, frankly, it is less stressful to go with the flow than to hunt for the last melon. It may be there, and I appreciate the effort, but somehow having a fruit travel first class with window seat and snacks across the globe seems, well, too expensive in more ways than one.
“The foods they are a-changin”, as Bob Dylan put it (well, he was originally referring to time, but somehow that’s not always different). So we could just go for the unexpected. Discover and be brave. Fail big if you have to (and make sure the result is still edible), but take the chance.
And who knows, if you do this on a regular basis, your body might just give you some love by singing back: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s just what I need this time of year!”
… besides the fact that storing and cooking with ingredients that are effectively storable or in season just makes sense – and, by the way, is a lot cheaper than the ‘strawberries in winter’ thing – I have come to realize that having to adapt regularly can actually be quite nice.
Side Notes:
- No, I do not always look up the seasonality of foods before I buy them. We are very fortunate to have a grocery store nearby that makes a point of carrying mostly seasonal and local foods. Also, I sometimes check out the beautiful poster on our kitchen wall before inventing or planning a dish.