Seasonal Eating

Welcome to the first installment of what I hope will be a long and informative run on healthy and sustainable eating habits! I assume the vast majority of you reading this have come here from Facebook (which I very much appreciate!) but please, don't forget to share with family and friends!! And don't forget feedback please! I love the comments, discussions, criticisms, etc. So lay it on me!


What is seasonal eating?

It probably seems relatively obvious what it should be, but if you're new to sustainable living, it might not be. Seasonal eating means consuming products only during the months, or seasons, that they are at their peak. Thanks to our ever expanding global trade, modern grocery stores, with their aisles and shelves full of the same products year round, imply to the consumer that there is no difference between a tomato bought and consumed in May or November; or that even chicken is the same whether it is harvested in the Summer or Winter.

In fact, every food product we consume - vegetables, red meats, seafood, wild game, fruits, shellfish, poultry - they all have a "best if consumed DURING" date. And that time frame can be attributed to one simple factor. Climate.

Turkey for Easter?

Have you ever stopped and questioned where our "traditional" holiday meals, specifically the meats, came from? Why is turkey THE meat to cook on Thanksgiving, why is ham so popular at Christmas, and why are hamburgers so popular in the summer? The pilgrims didn't just so happen to choose a turkey because it was better tasting than a slice of beef from a cow (I mean really, that's not just a Texas thing, right?!). Young turkeys reach maturity in the fall. And anyone who is even partly a fan of meat knows that the best meat comes off of young, tender animals! The same goes for hogs harvested in the fall. Traditionally, once a hog was harvested, it was salted and set to cure in a cool dry area. By the time mid-winter rolled around, the hog was perfect for roasting! The original form of ground beef came from the "left overs" of a cow or steer after it is harvested and cut into the prime (favorite) cuts. The bones and other larger pieces were generally used for soups and creating roues which were consumed in the fall and winter months, along with the briskets, chucks, and other roasts. Smaller steaks are left for the spring, with "everything else" leftover being mixed with some herbs and a dry emulsifier (such as bread crumbs, raw eggs, or rolled oats) to create meatloaf and hamburgers to be enjoyed in the later spring and summer months.

Every meat product had its season for when it was best consumed, based largely on the biological habits of the animals during given times of year. This is true for vegetables & fruits, seafood, and wild game too. As the Byrds once sang, (or should we give the credit to the book of Ecclesiastes?) "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." Each and every single thing we eat, has a season. That season varies based on your specific location though. At the end of this post are some general seasonal guidelines based on typical Texas climates.


Why eat Seasonally?
There's a four fold reason eating seasonally is important, and the first two reasons go hand in hand. When food is ready for harvest, the flavor and the nutritional value of that food item is at its peak. True, we now have the technology and capability to grow many of our items year round, or import those that we can't, but the flavor just isn't the same and neither are the nutrients on the inside. Take tomatoes for example. We've all been to the grocery store and seen the tomatoes that were bright red, slightly firm & smelled delicious and then in the same store, months later, seen the tomatoes that were pale red, hard and had an industrial type smell, or just no smell at all. Chances are those bright red tomatoes were grown locally and harvested during the summer and fall months, while the paler, more firm ones were shipped in from elsewhere.

The third reason for eating seasonally is cost. It is cheaper for the producer, grocer, and you, the consumer, to eat seasonally. Like with the majority of markets, when there is an influx of an item, prices drop; when the items are scarce, prices rise. Don't believe me? Refer back to our tomatoes. The price per pound of tomatoes at your Kroger, H-E-B, or other local grocery store is going to be cheaper during the summer and fall months than they will in the winter or early spring months. This is because the majority of tomatoes (in Texas) are shipped in from Mexico during the winter and spring, adding to the overall cost the grocer has to pay to provide the tomatoes for you.

Perhaps the most important reason for eating seasonally though is sustainability. Eating seasonally puts less of a demand on suppliers for items not in season, which not only keeps prices down, but also reduces the carbon footprint of the agricultural system (of which we ALL are a part). Our food travels, on average, between 1,500 to 2,000 miles to get from the farm to the plate. That is a LOT of fossil fuel! Too much, in fact! In the United States, it is estimated that we input 10 kcal of fossil fuel energy for every 1 kcal of food energy that we intake! The amount of CO2 that this generates is massive! Also, due to the length of time in shipping, a lot of produce is picked before it has ripened. It is later ripened with gas after it arrives at it's destination (the last stop before the grocery store), or it is over processed in factories to make it stable and safe for retail sale. This early picking prevents the produce from reaching natural maturity, which not only gives it a different flavor, but it also reduces the amount of available nutrients in it.

Imagine being able to eat your food and know that you not only are getting the absolute most you can from it, but that you are also doing your part to reduce the amount of CO2 we emit into the atmosphere! It is possible! Eating seasonally is the first step in that direction. Purchasing your foods (not just produce, but meats also!) locally is the next step. Farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups, and private farms are all available to sell their locally grown products; some might even be closer than you think! You can use the following two links to help you find suppliers of locally grown produce and meat:
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html

Change is Tough
No one ever said change was easy, especially when it comes to changing our eating habits. My family is still working on trying to eat more seasonally, and let me tell you, it's tough! Case in point, I love Alaskan Salmon! It is one of the best fish you can possibly eat (I plan to write a post all about salmon in the future!), but did you know that the average Alaskan Salmon steak travels over 10,000 miles before ending up on a plate in Southeast Texas? (The salmon is caught in Alaska, transported to an Alaskan port where it is shipped to Japan for processing. Once cleaned and filleted, it is shipped back to Alaska for packaging, and then shipped down to the lower 48 for retail.) Knowing this, I've made a personal effort to reduce the amount of salmon I eat a year, and be more mindful of the season it is harvested in as well.

It is a tough road to take, but if you are serious about being healthier than you are now, living more sustainably, and/or reducing your carbon footprint, then seasonal eating is the first step in the right direction!