How To Eat Seasonally
Meal planning can be a tricky task, but planning around the fruits and vegetables that are in season can help focus you and bring simplicity back into your and your family’s diets.
The nutrient content of fruits and vegetables is not as constant as you think. Though fruits and veggies are always a nutrient dense (more nutritious with less calories) option, when you eat them can have a big effect on the amount of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that you’ll get from the food. When food grows and ripens naturally vs being picked early to transport, it stays attached to its own food source (roots) longer, allowing for more nutrients to be absorbed. This means that when we eat the food, we also absorb all of those nutrients. Plus, perfectly ripened fruits and veggies taste better! The easiest way to ensure you are eating the most nutritious and delicious fruits and vegetables is to eat the ones that are in season in your area!
When choosing fruits and vegetables that are in season in your area, you are likely getting your hands on produce grown by local farms - which is another great benefit of eating seasonally! By buying produce from local farmers, you are supporting their farms and businesses and boosting your local economy. This can have many positive effects on your community. Easy spots to purchase local produce include farmer’s markets, small grocery stores, and farm stands that may be on the farm itself or along the side of the road near the farm. Sometimes large chain grocery stores have local produce, but make sure to check the labels to see just how local the farm is.
Keeping in mind how local a farm is is important because the closer the farm is to you, the less the food traveled to get there. Eating local decreases the need for outsourced produce and therefore shipping costs and pollution associated with the transport. In the summer months, instead of eating strawberries that traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, all the way from Spain on a huge ocean liner using gas, labor, and time, try biting into a nice, fresh, juicy strawberry from the farm next door or in the next town over!
Interested in what fruits and vegetables are in season in your area? Use this link to a Seasonal Food Guide. You can also check out the Lynn Grows Instagram!