Healthy doesn’t have to be hard. It used to be so easy. Take fruits, for example: summer was watermelon seed spitting contests and fuzzy peaches, fall was Bishop’s Apple Farm apples and pears, winter was grapes from the A&P, spring was picking and gorging on raspberries and blueberries in the woods across the street.
I grew up in Connecticut in the 50’s and 60’s and those are what came and went with the seasons. Bonus: Every Christmas we were thrilled with a box of exotic Florida oranges sent from our cousin Anne in Georgia. Such a treat!
The fruit seasons were easy to see because each of us four kids were gifted a fruit tree:
Sandy had the pear tree that ripened in the fall.
Todd had the apple tree that ripened in the fall.
Sarah had the most abundant peach tree for summer peach pies and homemade peach ice cream and me?...
I had the crab apple tree. Can you spell s-o-u-r?? BUT it had the prettiest and fullest blossoms each spring!
Mom’s front flower garden was choked to death one summer from the watermelon seeds we spit there, where they took root and sprawled their hearty vines a la Jack’s beanstalk.
It made sense. Each fruit had its season and we ate them when they were ripe.
These days, eating local fruits in season is a forgotten natural rhythm because any kind of fruit from all over the world is available any time of year. But it’s so much more nutritious for us when we make the seasonal, regional choices because they are:
· Lower priced
· Rich in their fruity flavor
· Ready to ripen, if not already ripe
· Brimming with nutrients
· Less pesticide laden
· Small carbon footprint
In contrast, buying fruits out of season from halfway around the planet yields:
· Higher prices
· Tastelessness
· Heavily waxed skins/peels (so they can sit in cold storage for months on end)
· Hard to ripen
· Way less nutritious
· More pesticides
· Big carbon footprint
Friends, with my message of “healthy doesn’t have to be hard”, I am suggesting to everyone to get back to the natural rhythm of mother nature’s seasonal bounty and eat produce that is in season in your region. But that’s not to say you can’t have fun treating yourself to an exotic Passionfruit or Northwestern Pacific Lingonberries if they call to you!
Here’s a good resource to find what grows best in each season:
Meanwhile, for my Florida readers, put down that Fuji apple and California naval orange and let the watermelon juice drip off your elbows instead!
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