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Eating fresh produce that's in season is a great way to lighten your load on the planet and connect with your local food shed, not to mention enjoy tasty food that came from the land and not some greenhouse or cold-storage locker. Even with increasing awareness about local and seasonal food, it can still be tricky to figure out what's really in season, especially with modern grocery stores' affinity for having everything, all year round. If you haven't found a winter farmers' market to help you, we have a handy way to help discern what's really in season.
We'll call it the "three-month rule." If you're eating a tomato or a melon this month, count back and think about what sort of locale would be required to get that food growing in November; in the case of those sweet fruits, it's probably Southern California, Mexico, or even Chile. Shipping food from that far away not only gives it a huge ecological footprint, but, since most delicate fruits and vegetables won't stay fresh for over a week while traveling halfway around the globe, they also won't exactly be at the peak of freshness by the time they get to you. To put it another way, if you go looking for that sweet, juicy melon taste that takes you back to summer in the middle of winter, chances are you're in for a letdown.
Cookbooks like Simply in Season can also provide seasonal inspiration and offer handy guides to sourcing and enjoying seasonal foods, even in winter. You might even find that waiting for watermelon to come in to season makes it all the more sweet, juicy, and definitely worth the wait.
Difficulty level: Easy
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