☽ Foodboheme ☾: Seasonal Savvy, Benefits?

WHY? HOW?
To Buy In-Season, Local Fruits and Vegetables

Love my constant bounty of Mint :D

Rationale

Value for dollar & the Environment
Great taste, bursting with flavour
Bursting with nutrition
Wellbeing

1. Value for the Environment?

Local/seasonal produce creates less energy and water being embedded in the food to table process (growing, transport and refrigeration)
Seasonal crops are more likely to work with, rather than against, local biological and environmental systems and species, minimising the requirement for pesticides and glasshouses.
Local agriculture and rural landscape go hand in hand.
Sustainable agriculture is a vital component of the environments lungs, contributing to biodiversity and providing green space, which provides opportunities for activities that enhance human wellbeing.
It is also central to the quality of water and soil health, both of which are strategic resources for future generations
Locally produced food grown in sync with the seasons is fresher and requires less energy to produce and transport to table.
Eating local and seasonal food also supports local producers and the production of crops that are appropriate to the environment.
Alleviates the reliance on long-distance transport and refrigeration of foods that are grown thousands of kilometres away.
Such a simple way to reduce our impact on the environment, address climate change (via reduced transport and industrial energy) and support local communities and farmers. Not to mention, save dollars.

The courtyards first season... What a collection.... Yes, also staring Shalimar Fox

2. Great taste, bursting with flavour

When transporting crops, they must be harvested early and refrigerated so they don’t rot during transportation. They may not ripen as effectively as they would in their natural environment and as a result they don’t develop their full flavour. Flavour is lost as the moisture is lost. Whereas fresh, local foods are usually harvested when/with their full, whole flavours intact. Delightfully released in the palate. Grocery store produce is also chilled and shipped. This chilling, transport & warehouse storage cuts the produce flavour.

3. Bursting with nutrition

Go for flavour & colour to bring on better nutritional quality. When the flavour is lacking due to chilling, transport, storage, & even out of season selection also means the full complement of nutrients the produce should have will be hampered. At closer inspection;

Transportation of produce may also occur irradiation (zapped produce with radiation to kill germs)
Transportation of produce may also occur preservatives (like waxing) protecting produce for refrigeration in the trip
Consumption of produce grown in sync with the seasons is also more in tune with our intuitive nutritional needs

My lemon tree in a pot... Up close... The buds are startin....

4. Wellbeing

The good sense of eating seasonally aligned (local) food is a well-developed tenet of preventative medical traditions (such as traditional Chinese medicine).
Intuition and tradition tell us to eat root veggies in winter, sprouting veggies in spring and cooling veggies in summer. Don't fight it ;)

Removing random grass & plants from a courtyard was critical,
for most are weeds that attract pests,
which in turn destroy or bug future crops (No pun intended :)
Also easier to lose your friends when theirs an Amazon in the courtyard :p

Grocery store produce;

Higher priced produce is usually from far away sources. Look for stickers/signs at the grocery store that tell where the food was grown & eat organic wherein possible, Checking/questioning;

Is it Genetically Modified?
How far away that food came from?
How long has it been sitting around?

Great In-Season, Local Fruit and Vegetable Sources

Nearby Farmer's Markets, great places to buy locally produced food
Roadside fruit and vegetable stands
Local community garden to volunteer time and share in the harvest.
Planted seasonal fruits and vegetables in the backyard, garden or containers. Picked fresh goodness when required. Because of limited growing seasons in most regions, its smart to grow and pick the produce straight from the backyard or even balcony :) enjoying produce at its peak the day of harvest.