Knowing which fruits and vegetables are in season can be determined by using a chart, checking appearance and price, and considering the location. Eating in season is eco-friendly, tastier, and cheaper, with spring offering tender produce, summer bringing a variety of fruits, fall featuring dark leafy greens, and winter providing root vegetables and citrus fruits.
There are several ways to tell if a fruit or vegetable is in season, and there are many reasons to seek out which ones are in season. One of the best ways to tell is to use a fruit and vegetable chart, which will tell you specifically which produce is in season in your part of the world. Also, the appearance of fruits and vegetables in season tend to be very good, they are usually readily available, and the price is often lower.
Many produce tastes best when eaten in season. They tend to be transported shorter distances, because they don’t need to be grown in parts of the world where they are in season. It’s also more eco-friendly to buy when a fruit or vegetable is in season, because it doesn’t need to be grown in climate-controlled greenhouses.
One of the best ways to tell is to use a fruit and vegetable chart that is relevant to your part of the world. Some grocery stores distribute such charts, and you can often obtain a chart through a Community Supported Agriculture Association (CSA). There are also a number of websites that provide such charts. These charts can also provide insight into wild foods, such as mushrooms.
Another clue is the cost and appearance of the product. When a fruit or vegetable is in season, it tends to be plentiful in the grocery store and significantly less expensive than when it’s out of season. It may also look especially good, suggesting it was well grown and harvested at its peak. Berries, for example, will be plump and full with no signs of discoloration in season, while out-of-season berries may appear wilted, mushy, or moldy. When a vegetable is in season, it will tend to be smaller, with a more tender texture and intense flavor, rather than large, woody, and tasteless.
As a general rule, spring is a good time for tender new fruits and veggies. Baby potatoes, radishes, lettuce and asparagus are all in season in early spring. Later in the spring, you’ll start to see peas, onions, rhubarb, and some berries like strawberries. In the summer, a profusion of summer squash is in season, along with raspberries, melons, corn, tomatoes, and okra.
Fall is when dark leafy greens like kale and chard are in season, along with persimmons, grapes, apples, broccoli, and, of course, pumpkins. In winter, you can find potatoes, beets, dark leafy greens, citrus fruits, and kale in season. Many winter greens can be eaten year-round, with the assistance of a root cellar for storage.
Determining whether or not a vegetable is seasonal also depends on where, exactly, you live, especially if you want to eat locally. As you get closer to the equator, more things become available year-round, but you also lose things that require a frost to ripen properly. In more southern or extreme southern climates, fewer foods are available year-round, and things like dark leafy greens and root vegetables are more plentiful and diverse.
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