Today’s guest post comes from Reisha, the founder of Farm Box LA. Every week, she delivers to your door a Farm Box full of freshly picked produce that she personally selects from local farms and farmers markets. There’s nothing better than eating food that tastes the way it’s supposed to – as if just harvested from the earth! Along with the Farm Box, you can check out her blog and receive weekly recipes to go along with some of the Farm Box weeks produce. To read more about Farm Box LA or sign-up for a Farm Box, visit her website: www.FarmBoxLA.com or email her at [email protected].
Why should we eat seasonally?
It’s simple! Seasonal food is the freshest, most locally available, most nutritious, tastiest, and usually the cheapest food you can buy.
As oil prices skyrocket, where we grow our food will become an even more important issue, as will food security. When we can no longer afford to fly in food from all around the world, how are we going to be able to produce enough for ourselves and have continuity of supply?
In the future, I believe local produce will resume its importance in the economic world. We will once again learn to value the land because we will need it to survive and will learn to appreciate it again, like our ancestors of previous generations.
What we should do now, is support our local farmers so they have not all gone out of business when we really need them. “Peak oil” and “food security” are two phrases we are going to hear more and more from now on. If we start redeveloping our regional farming sectors now, these two issues will not be as devastating to us as they will be if we continue to depend on food flown in from other countries.
While the concept of “eating with the seasons” is very familiar to me now, it was only a few years ago that I started learning about making food choices that revolve around the seasons. When we start eating with the seasons and synchronize ourselves more to the earth’s cycles, our bodies are returned to balance and our food instincts can be re-awakened. Seasonal eating ensures that we get a wide variety of nutrients, all of which help protect us from poor health and allow our bodies to thrive.
If you aren’t already eating seasonally, don’t worry, it’s easy to start! Begin by going to your farmer’s market, as what’s for sale there almost always comes from local farms, many of which follow organic practices. If you have questions, talk to the farmers about their produce, where and how it grows, and easy ways to cook with it. If there’s no farmer’s market near you, or if it’s closed for the season, talk to the produce guys at your grocery store to find out what’s in season in your area, or what traveled the least in order to get to you. In most areas, there are also CSA (community supported agriculture) programs — like Farm Box LA — who will deliver a bounty of local organic fruits and vegetables every week. Check out this website to find one in your area.
What’s in Season in Springtime?
Here are just some of the delicious options….
Asparagus, artichokes, avocados, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, cherimoyas, all types of citrus (blood oranges, grapefruit, kumquats, lemons, navel oranges, tangerines), dates, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, onion, green peas, and strawberries.
What to Make
Farm Box LA’s Seasonal Vegetable Curry, or one of our other great recipes!
Note: image above taken from Bon Appetit’s Vegetable Curry Recipe.
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