A calendar for seasonal eating all year round
Are you one of those who complain that tomatoes don’t taste like they used to, but you want them in your salad every day, summer or winter? Or have you been invited to a spring dinner party and been surprised by how good the strawberries your host grew in their pots taste?
We have become so accustomed to being able to buy almost any fruit or vegetable throughout the year that we are increasingly less clear about When is each food in season?. Worse still: we are not even aware of everything we lose along the way.
However, fruits and vegetables picked in season They taste better and are more nutritious than those that are forced to grow in a greenhouse or endured for months in a chamber.
Why it is better to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables
The benefits of eating seasonal foods are many. If not, think first about what are seasonal foods: they are what nature puts at the service of life at each specific time of the year so that everything around them continues its cycle in the best possible way.
Or in other words, fruits and vegetables that They have grown at the time when nature is most favorable to themfrom the moment of sowing to the moment of harvest.
Thus, no one will be able to deny that the tomato ripens more comfortably. under the summer sun. But, in the meantime, the summer heat is very good for the sweet potato to grow fat underground and be ready in autumnbefore it rains too much and temperatures drop too much.
That, lowering temperatures, is just what the orange likes, which fills with juice with the rains and grows provided with a good coat for the cold. Unlike the strawberry, which will prefer to wait for spring so that the first rays of sun take out the colors.
Following the seasonal calendar you will, therefore, be able to enjoy the fresh vegetables at their optimal moment. In addition, you will save on the shopping cart and you will be opting for a more ecological option than if you buy out of season.
How to use seasonal calendars
In our seasonal calendars you will find two types of information. On the one hand, in the year-round calendar You will be able to check when the fresh fruits and vegetables that arrive at the markets are in season.
On the other hand, in the monthly season calendars You will be able to see what some of the fruits and vegetables are in season each month.
1. Seasonal calendars for each month
In each of these calendars we highlight twelve fruits or vegetables per month. The majority are the news that nature brings at that time of the year, but they can also be seasonal fruits and vegetables that are of special interest that month.
Below each calendar, we include a more complete list of everything that is in season, distinguishing between what is in optimal season and in good season.
The optimal season corresponds to that of maximum availability in the markets.
By good season we mean those months in which, either because it is early or the season has begun to end in some areas, fruits and vegetables are available, but no longer in such a general way. That doesn’t mean that, in some areas, those fruits and vegetables can’t be at their best.
2. The seasonal calendar for the entire year
In it downloadable calendar throughout the year, you will find all the previous information summarized and in a more visual way.
The optimal maturation months For each fruit and vegetable, they are indicated by marking them in a more intense tone.
The rest of the good months to consume them, which usually coincide with the months of early or late harvestappear in a lighter tone.
You will see that we have included some tropical fruits. Many are found all year round, or much of the year, but for this they are imported from other countries, which is not very ecological. Some, however, have adapted well to some areas of Spain. The months in which fruits from those areas are available are indicated as the optimal season.
Get familiar with the cycles of nature
Remember that months are temporal classifications that human beings have invented, that the limits are relative and that the weather can advance or delay the beginning or end of a food season. Precisely because of the climate differencesseasonality can also vary from one area to another.
One of the best ways to get familiar with the food seasonality It is by growing them yourself, be it on a small piece of land, a terrace, a balcony or a community garden. That way you can also ensure that you grow them in an ecological way.
The seasons of the year They can also help you situate yourself and have a clearer idea of the transition from one food to another. There are foods that are naturally available all year round, such as garlic, onion or bananas, but others are clearly more typical of the cold or hot months.
Curiously, in the transition seasons between cold and heat, spring and autumn, we find some of the more ephemeral seasonal fruits and vegetables. They are short-season fruits and vegetables that do not tolerate extremes well and are often difficult to find out of season.
In general, among the winter fruits and vegetables Citrus fruits, roots and tubers, cabbages, pumpkins, bitter leaves, some types of lettuce and stew vegetables predominate.
Among the spring fruits and vegetables We found several stone fruits, pods and wild leaves. Ephemeral in season we find, for example, loquats or apricots.
As the temperature rises, the summer fruits and vegetables: lettuces, berries, melons or juicy salad vegetables. They also pluck the pears and towards the end, the apples.
Among the autumn fruits and vegetables We now find many more apples, pears, the first citrus fruits and a large number of the vegetables that we will later find in winter: roots, tubers, pumpkins, cabbages…
In the section of more ephemeral seasonal fruits, clear autumn examples are persimmon, chestnut, cherimoya or pomegranate.
Don’t miss it…
If you are interested in this topic, I’m sure you will like the course to organize your healthy menu How to plan your weekly menuby María del Mar Jiménez, expert in natural and ecological health.