Eating seasonal foods is more than a trend.
Not only is it good for you and your wallet, it’s good for the environment too! Before supermarkets, processed foods, and convenience foods existed, eating seasonal, locally and humanely raised whole foods was the norm for humans. Nowadays, when you walk into a grocery store, you can get produce year-round from anywhere in the world, but that doesn’t mean these foods will always be at peak flavor or nutritional value, and it the convenience of a (bland) tomato in January comes with hidden costs, beyond flavor or nutrient loss – these items are mass produced on huge fields where only one crop is grown at a time, which causes environmental damages to water supplies from overuse of pesticides and fertilizers and cause problems with native pollinators, whose decline is at least partially attributed to pesticide overuse and habitat loss from the creation and cultivation of monoculture fields.
Seasonal eating starts with adjusting your diet to meet the particular challenges of each season and basing your meals around food that is harvested at its peak. There are some general rules while picking your seasonal food that correlate with what we see in nature – delicate, leafy greens come in spring, the fruits mature in the summer, and the root crops abound in the fall.
Watermelons at Vin De Set’s urban farm provide seasonal sweetness to their menu!
Save cash
By laws of supply and demand, when you purchase what’s in season, especially what is grown locally to you, you buy food that’s at the peak of its supply – it can cost less for farmers and distribution centers to harvest and deliver, meaning that prices can be cut for you, the consumer. When products are locally sourced, travel expenses are lower and storage isn’t necessary, further reducing prices.
The farm at Kitchen House Coffee provides seasonal ingredients for their restaurant.
Flavor
One of the best consequences of eating seasonally is the improved flavor. Seasonal foods simply taste better -they are fresher, riper, and sweeter than conventional, commercial crops. Commercial crops must be harvested early and refrigerated in order to negate spoilage during their journey from the field to your plate – these crops never reach optimal ripeness, and the chilling process further reduces the flavor of fruits and vegetables. Once the food reaches its destination, it must be artificially ripened through a heating process that diminishes the flavor of the food even more. This is a huge contrast with produce from local markets, which are often picked within 24 hours of your purchase!
Tomatoes are tastiest in the summer.
Nutrition
If you adjust your diet to seasonal eating, it’s likely you’ll be eating a lot more locally-produced food. Local food has a shorter time between harvest and your table, which means it is less likely that the nutrient value has decreased. Produce that is purchased in season is more likely to be fresher and higher in nutritional value. Some antioxidants such as Vitamin C, folate and carotenoids lose their potency when stored for long periods, as out-of-season produce tends to do.
Environment
Growing seasonally requires less human assistance, meaning fewer pesticides, chemicals, preservatives, etc. Since seasonal growing is more likely to be locally produced as well, the burden of transportation, or “food mileage” decreases too.
Community
There are dozens of community gardens that have sprouted up in and around the St. Louis region in the last few years, providing opportunities for residents to increase the amount of seasonal foods they eat, learn about what it takes to grow their own food, and strengthen our food system in St. Louis. To get involved with a community garden near you (or to start your own), check out Gateway Greening’s helpful resources and get growing!
The community garden at Buzz’s Hawaiian Grill’s commissary kitchen helps provide seasonal produce for a local food pantry.
Eating locally and seasonally isn’t always an option – try as we might, we aren’t going to get bananas to grow in our garden in Missouri (without a greenhouse) – but eating and ordering thoughtfully is a great start to improving the availability of local, seasonal foods by supporting those who grow it in our region.
What you can do
Look for GDA restaurants who use seasonal and local ingredients, or, better yet, have a seasonal menu when you choose to dine out (restaurants with 5 stars or better in the sourcing section tend to focus on seasonal foods).
When shopping for yourself, there are tricks to buying local and seasonal produce. Check out the Tower Grove Farmer’s Market, the Schlafly Farmer’s Market, City Greens Market, and Local Harvest, or join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to get a box of local, seasonal food every week.
Seasonal produce, courtesy of City Greens Market.
For more information about how to figure out what’s in season, check out the University of Missouri’s Extension Seasonal and Simple app.
– by Aspen Steiner
