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| My pretty little basket of May produce from my favorite organic food store |
Answer: Depending on where you are, you may notice that the vegetables in your market change from season to season. I say "may" because if you're living in the Southern Hemisphere, or close to the Equator, chances are there is no change. But here in the Northern Hemisphere, the produce you will find at the market changes radically from one season to another-from one month to another, even. Tomatoes aren't available in winter because tomato plants don't produce tomatoes during winter in France. Hence the lack of tomatoes.
Normally.
But what you can find are tomatoes that come from Italy, Spain, warmer countries, or even French greenhouse-produced tomatoes available in supermarkets during winter. But it's not as tasty, and the carbon-footprint on these babies are HUGE in winter. Instead of buying produce like leeks, beets, and potatoes that come from only 50 km away, when you choose to buy tomatoes in winter, you're paying for produce that came from thousands of kilometers away, meaning more gasoline and CO2 went into the delivery of winter tomatoes.
So if you're even a little eco-friendly, you abstain from buying tomatoes in winter.
And if you're a lot eco-friendly, you try to buy produce that corresponds to each season and cook accordingly. Here in Veggie Friends, I try to apply to this principle, by posting recipes using fruits and vegetables that are in season.
Here are some examples of what you can find in May in the Northern Hemisphere:
- Strawberries
- Tomatoes
- Bell peppers
- Zucchini
- Cucumbers
- Beets
- Carrots
- Rhubarb
- Lemons
- Oranges
Ideal dishes would be Ratatouille, Strawberry Pie, Cucumber salad, etc.
So have fun, unleash your creativity with fruits and vegetables that are in season, and don't forget to look at where the product came from to keep your carbon footprint down!
