New Year Resolutions
It’s tough to eat seasonally. A lot of research, experimentation and trial and error goes it find a figure out what’s in season and how to apply it to your daily life. But it’s definitely not impossible with a few helpful tips.
New Years is right around the corner and it’s time to start thinking about New Years Resolutions. Although, I know it’s not everyone’s favorite, I love making resolutions. It’s a great time to reflect and make goals for the new year. It’s actually easy to create small goals to make eco-friendly choices, save money, reduce waste, or to be kinder or whatever area you choose to focus on. Trying to eat seasonally is no different. I’m hoping this post will guide you along in the process and make it easier to eat seasonally and support local vendors.
What Does Eating in Season Mean?
Deciding to eat seasonally mean you include foods in your diet that are grown at the same time of year you eat them. With international shipping, the lines are skewed because technically just about anything can grow during any time of the year in certain places. The key is to know where your food comes from, find out what’s in season for your area and frequent stores where local produce is available.
Why It’s Important to Eat Seasonally
There are many benefits to eating with the seasons. In this post, we’ll discuss the environmental and economical impact.
Supporting local farmers (along with other local business owners) is one of the best things we can do for our economy. Supporting local farmers, specifically helps cut down the carbon emissions because instead of food traveling 1,500 miles to reach our plate, it might travel 50 to 100 miles. Food picked at the peak of freshness is often more nutritious and tastes better. Add the miles saved over the course of a few meals, and you’ll quickly start to see the benefits.
How to Tell What’s in Season in Your Area
Learning how to eat seasonally with what’s available in your area does require a little upfront research, but it’s possible.
Pay attention to prices.
If you’re shopping at a conventional grocery store, the seasonal produce should be cheaper than other times of the year. Have you noticed that berries, peaches, nectarines, and other stonefruit get really expensive at the end of fall?
Look at Quality and Freshness.
When produce is out of season, it doesn’t tend to look as good and definitely doesn’t taste as good as the produce available in the spring or summer months.
Look for the Signs.
If you’re in a health store, locally owned grocery store, they might use signs that indicate what produce is local or in season.
If you want to double check and come up with your own seasonal eating chart, check out the Eat Well Guide. Type your location and what fruit or vegetable you want to check and presto, you’re good to go. You can also look at the information on Eat the Seasons for more inspiration and information for what’s in season for that month.
If you’re in Oklahoma or any other zone 7 states, you can use this free printable: Monthly Produce Schedule.
How to Find Local Food
Farmers Markets
Farmers Markets seem to really be growing in popularity. They’re a great way to network and get to know your farmer. Shopping at a farmer’s market is more fun than wandering around the endless aisles at grocery stores. The food is perfectly fresh because it’s usually picked that morning or the day before.
Roadside Stands
I’m not sure about other states, but in Oklahoma roadside stands are everywhere, especially in the summer. They’re also a great way to get fresh, local food and they’re usually conveniently located on your way home.
Farmers Co-ops
Agricultural Co-ops like the Oklahoma Co-op, are usually controlled and by farmers, ranchers or growers. Through their cooperatives, farmers have control, as elected board members to make decisions that affect them. The farmers market their products together, share the supplies and services the need to market to their customers better. The co-ops are available online and bring the food to a central pickup, making it convenient to shop for whatever you need.
CSAs
Community-Supported Agriculture are one of my favorite ways to eat seasonally. At the beginning of season, you purchase a weekly 1/2 share or more of vegetables, fruit, bread, eggs, milk, meat or whatever your local CSA has available. Every week the farmer brings you an order. It takes the guess work out of everything. Sometimes it’s difficult to find ways to use the produce available, but it also forces you to get creative and eat healthier, so you don’t let the food go to waste. This program benefits the farmers because they give out whatever extra they have and they are able to guestimate how much food they need to grow to meet the demand.
Farm Produce Stores
Farm stores are usually small stores that sell only the produce they grow and a few other local products. This can also be a collective of farmers, but it definitely makes it easier to find what’s in season and buy from local farmers.
Search
Ask in your locally based Facebook groups, on websites like Local Harvest, Local Food directories, and even a Google search to find options to eat seasonally in your area. When you do find your favorite way to support local farmers, make sure to promote them and encourage all your friends to buy from them too!
Cooking Seasonally
One of the best ways to have a more balanced diet is to eat seasonally. Winter, spring, summer, and fall each offer their own distinct seasonal flavor, fruits and vegetables. Preserving your favorite produce with freezing, canning and pickling is another way to support local food, while enjoying your favorites all year round.
To inspire people in Oklahoma to try more local food, we developed a month by month recipe calendar that features local, seasonal produce in unique ways. Check it out!
Don’t forget to pin for later!
