Eating With the Seasons

Now that my vegetable garden is in full swing, it’s getting easier to supplement our meals with fresh fruit and veggies.  Even though I try to eat with the seasons all year round, this time of year is when I can usually make up for being over on my grocery budget.  I try to come with/find recipes that revolve around what is either in my garden or what I can find at rock bottom prices.

Not having to buy fresh produce each week is saving me a bundle.  Yes, we don’t have as much variety as we could if I were willing to buy whatever I wanted in the store, but we do get the best the season has to offer, and we try to enjoy it while it lasts.  Plus, somehow food in peak season tastes better when you know you won’t get it again until next year {unless you put some up, of course}.  On top of food tasting better when it’s in peak season, it is more cost effective, and it takes a lot less resources to get it into the stores and/or onto your plate.

Eating seasonally can seem like you are restricting yourself, but it’s easier than you’d think.  Right now, I have tomatoes, beets, cabbage cucumbers, onions, herbs and beans. I try to combine them/serve them in different ways to make sure we don’t get sick of them.  We’ve had salads, spaghetti sauce, smoothies, and egg scrambles with veggies.

On top of serving the seasonal items in a variety of ways, here’s a couple more tips I’ve picked up over the years {though, admittedly, I am totally imperfect at it}:

1. I think the key to eating with the seasons is putting food up.  Freezing, canning, and dehydrating all make food available in times where seasonal produce is hard to come by.  I totally rely on my garden and deals I score at farmers’ markets to sustain us through the winter.
2. Another easy way to make sure you eat seasonally is to eat locally.  If it is available from a local farmer, it’s probably in season.
3. In months where produce lacks variety, rotate items in and out {along with the food you put up} regularly.  That way you don’t get sick of having the same thing over and over.
4. Challenge yourself and your recipe repertoire.  Sometimes, when I have gotten sick of all of the ways I know how to prepare a certain fruit or veggie, I find myself googling or flipping through cookbooks for recipes using ingredients that are in season.  New recipes keep things interesting–and lucky for me, my family is full of pretty adventurous eaters.

Need help coming up with recipes for what’s in season?  Try Simply in Season.  It has tons of great recipes that walk you through the seasons–whether you have a garden or not.

Do you try to eat with the seasons?  How do you make it work?  Do you ever get bored?

~Mavis