A Practical Guide to Buying Locally & Eating Seasonally
One of the biggest motivations for me in writing these posts is to show that if we all take small steps together, we will achieve a greater end than a few people taking leaps and bounds. I believe in the power of my choice to lead by example from my subtropical homestead, but I also know that millions of people demanding fresher, more locally and regionally grown food will have a greater impact than one yoga teacher who became the off-grid version of Martha Stewart.
So, take my hand. Here we go, small steps towards a new world.
Find out what grows in your region. It’s not difficult. The good folks over at Mother Earth News, a mainstay resource for living closer to the earth, have done an excellent job for you. Simply go to their site and in the search bar type “foods that grow in {your region}” — Mother Earth is oriented to gardening so it will give you a nice list of foods you can grow wherever you live. But don’t fret if you don’t garden. This list can do very well as your shopping list. Take a screenshot and refer to it when you're browsing the produce section.
Pay attention to what is abundant, fresh, and priced lower. Supermarkets have costs, and they pay less for June strawberries from New Jersey than December strawberries from México. Buy what is in season, savor it, and if you want strawberries in December, make jam in June.
Patronize local farmer’s markets and/or sign up for a CSA. It’s a no-brainer, really. A farmer who comes down to DC or Baltimore from Frederick, Maryland isn’t going to have pineapples. But he will have the most delectable raspberries in spring, the most fragrant basil in summer, and the sweetest delicata squash in the fall. There’s nothing wrong with indulgence in season.
Recipes are guides, not rulebooks. How many times have you gone shopping with some exotic recipe in hand, scoured at least three stores looking for all the ingredients, spent way too much time and money, and for what? Be creative. Improvise. Putting meals together involves mixing ingredients from categories of items that easily substitute one another. If the recipe says purple Thai hot peppers and you have a little container growing jalapeños at home or the corner Latin market has chilies, they will work fine. Can’t find bok choy? Napa cabbage or chard is just as good. No radicchio? Try endive or escarole. Shallots for onion and vice versa.
Listen to your body. Yes, just like when you do yoga. If you get a hankering for fresh-baked apple pie or hot cider in October, go for it. Your body knows when apples are in season and your nose knows that cinnamon and cloves will help your digestion and warm your blood. How about a hearty kale minestrone in the dead of winter? And nothing tastes better than a refreshing slice of melon on a hot summer day — but why does eating melon leave you feeling bloated and gassy in January? Hmm. Because it’s totally out of season, because it was harvested hard as a rock 3,000 miles away, and because never really ripened are the answers you’re looking for. The fact is eating regionally grown seasonal foods isn’t only better for the planet and other people, it’s better for you — ripe produce has a higher nutrient content.
Still not sure what to do? Here's my fail-safe beginners guide to foods for seasonal eating. Extra bonus if you can find them grown locally.
Spring (March through early June)
Asparagus
Brussels sprouts
Baby spinach
Mesclun or other tender greens
Dandelion
Scallions
Radishes
Peas
Perennial herbs like rosemary, mint, and thyme coming back after the winter
"Overwinter" roots like turnips, rutabagas, and yellow beets. These are really late fall foods but they often over-winter and farmers/gardeners will unearth a spring bumper crop
Strawberries
Red raspberries
Peaches
Apricots
Summer (mid June-early September)
Lettuces *these will wilt in very hot weather, so it depends on your region.
Tomatoes
Cucumbers (hey, salad anyone?)
Eggplant
Basil
Oregano
Onions
Okra
Bok choy, Napa cabbage
Zucchini
Early sweet corn
Tender green and yellow string beans
Melons
Blueberries
Blackberries
Figs
Quince
Kumquat
Fall (mid September-early November)
Hardy greens: kale, mustard, chard, collards
Bitter greens: endive, escarole, radicchio
Scarlet runner beans, kidney beans, chick peas, lentils
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes and yams
Corn
Onions
Red beets
Cabbage
Broccoli
Cauliflower
All hard sweet squash varieties: acorn, butternut, delicata, kabocha, pumpkin. Every region has its specialty. When it comes to squash, local is infinitely better
Apples
Pears
Persimmons
Winter (late November-late February)
*Depending on your region and last frost date, there are foods that can be harvested in winter, even in a light frost. Not surprisingly, they are best roasted, stewed, or made into soups.
Red kale
Collard greens
Hearty roots: turnips, rutabagas, swedes
Citrus fruit (in the southeast and southern west coast)
The best way to fortify yourself with regionally grown goodness in the winter is to pickle and preserve what grows in abundance at other times of the year. Preserving food with sugar, salt, vinegar, and fermentation is a wonderful practice and could become a necessary skill. It’s also fun, easy, and a great project to do with the kids while they’re home in quarantine. I’ll share much more about "putting up" your fruits and veggies in coming weeks, but if you're curious, here’s a video from my kitchen to get you started.
Please ask questions or contribute any seasonal foods I missed — I’m sure there are many! In the meantime, here’s to shopping, cooking, and eating better for ourselves, people and our planet.
At Sueño de Vida we work in a meaningful way to heal land ravaged by deforestation. How meaningful? According to a recent UN Foresight Brief on climate change,
--It is of the utmost importance to stop deforestation and to increase reforestation efforts around the world. Agricultural practices should focus on soil building and the use of agroforestry methods.
That is exactly what we do here at SdV. You can help by helping us do what we do every day: plant forests that nurture soil, people, and local community.
Click HERE to donate directly to our reforestation fund OR make a monthly pledge on Patreon.
Thank you.
Kristen Krash is the director and co-founder of Sueño de Vida, a regenerative agroforestry farm, education center, nature reserve in Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Cloudforest. Prior to moving, Kristen was known for her guerrilla gardens — productive green spaces she created in any available space. Now an urban transplant in the South American rain forest, she has adapted her urban gardening and sustainability skills to large-scale reforestation of degraded land. She takes a practical and accessible approach to helping others achieve more balance and self-sufficiency in their lives.
Kristen’s articles and interviews have been featured on popular sustainability platforms like Abundant Edge and The Mud Home, and in the Rainforest Regeneration Curriculum at the Ecological Restoration Camps.