Eating with the Seasons
—Julia Koch, Environmental Educator
Imagine this. You’re at a fall festival biting into a tart, crunchy apple. Or, you’re cuddled up on the couch with a mug of homemade soup while the snow is falling outside. Perhaps it’s July, and you’re soaking up the sun at your child’s baseball game, while the juice of a soft, sweet peach dribbles down your chin. The foods we eat seasonally have a cultural and emotional tie to them.
From nutrition to environmental and community reasons, the benefits of eating local food are plenty. When it comes to eating well, nothing is more important than the quality of food we eat. There is a big difference between the apple grown down the street and the orange flown in from South America. In our world, we’ve become very accustomed to being able to find whatever food we want at any time of the year, but this comes at a cost to the local farming community. The benefits of eating local food trump any powder, supplement, or superfood ingredient you will ever use, and here they are.
Local food is fresher, tastes better, and is more nutritious. At a farmer’s market, most local produce has been picked within the last 24 hours, ensuring it to be ripe and at its peak nutrient-density. In contrast, most supermarket produce gets picked days or weeks prior to reaching the grocery store shelf. Research shows that the longer fresh produce sits in storage, travels to the grocery store, and hangs out on store shelves, the more nutrient depleted it will be. The fresher the produce, the more nutrient-dense it will be. Seasonal eating is a great way to increase your intake of diverse nutrients.
Eating seasonally is the most natural and beneficial way to eat for our bodies. Before the modern grocery store, we simply ate what was available to us at that time of year. In summertime, our bodies require cooling foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, and berries to help us handle the elements, while in the dark and cold days of winter, we need rich and warming high-fat foods, root vegetables, and fermented foods.
Eating seasonally offers us the opportunity to try new foods and be more creative in the kitchen. At the farmer’s market, there’s a good chance you’ll come across some produce you’ve never even heard of. There are so many hidden treasures to find and explore with your kitchen skills and taste buds, such as Jerusalem artichoke, honeynut squash, and lion’s mane mushrooms. Eating is our most fundamental link to the natural world, and by looking to local sources we become attuned to the abundance and the limits of the soil under our feet and the climate we dwell in.
Eating locally creates a connection between people and their local farmers, building a vibrant community that is passionate about providing healthy and safe foods for all families. You know who produced it, what farm it came from, and exactly how it got from farm to fork. It’s the same way our mom’s homemade cookies evoke a very different feeling and connection than the ready-made stuff we grab at the grocery store. As you are more connected to the food you eat, you will eat more mindfully.
Buying local produces less waste and less pollution. When there is less time from farm to table, the distribution chain is shorter therefore reducing transportation emissions. There is also less packaging via transportation and shipping. Agribusinesses also use agricultural-preservation products and pesticides that can be toxic to the earth’s soil. Local organically-grown food does not contain pesticides or added hormones found in industrially-produced food. Federal and State environmental agencies now regard farming as one of the biggest polluters of the nation’s water system. Use of excess nitrogen fertilizer, common practice in industrial agriculture, pollutes waterways, which is linked to a number of human health risks, including miscarriages and cancer.
Supporting the local economy. When you buy food in the grocery store, most of the cost goes to the transportation, processing, packaging, refrigeration, and marketing of that food, not the farmers themselves. When you buy from a local farmer, you are supporting your local community directly, rather than supporting large corporate food suppliers. This can also create more jobs within local farms, processing, and distribution systems.
Supports sustainable agriculture. Eating locally encourages diversification of local agriculture and crop variety, reducing the reliance on monoculture—single crops grown over a wide area to the detriment of soils. Our food is only as nutrient-dense as the soil in which it is grown, and most food in the grocery store is grown in nutrient depleted soil.
Empowers us, the consumers. If you choose not to grow, harvest, and raise your own food, you vote with your dollar every single time you buy food. So, if you buy processed foods or imported foods, you are creating more of a demand for these products. In contrast, if you buy local, you are creating a very different and important demand. Additionally, every time you buy from a local farmer, you have an opportunity to ask questions, learn about farming practices, and gain a better understanding of your food.
It’s cheaper. When a fruit or veggie is in season, it’s abundant and available at a lower price. Have you ever noticed how expensive strawberries are in the winter? That’s why! So cash in on seasonal produce.
“You, as a food buyer, have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit.”—Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms
Another huge way to support eating seasonally is to invest in a CSA—Community Supported Agriculture, which is an investment in a local farm or collection of regional farms that is paid in bulk before harvesting. You will then receive weekly boxes of locally harvested produce to include in your meals at home. Another fun way to incorporate local foods into your diet is by going to restaurants that focus on sourcing their ingredients locally.
One of the best ways to know your local farmer is by heading to a farmer’s market. Here is a list of farmer’s markets near us:
Down to Earth Rye Farmers Market
Market open Sundays 8:30-2pm May to December.
Parking Lot on Theo Fremd Ave - Directly behind Purchase St Stores
Fable Farmers Market
Every Thursday-Sunday 10:30-4.
1311 Kitchawan Rd Route 134, Ossining, NY 10562.
Ossining, NY
Market open Saturdays, 9:00AM - 1:00PM, Year-round.
Parking Lot near the corner of Spring & Main Streets.
Village of Larchmont, NY
Market open Saturdays, 9:00AM - 1:00PM, 01/08/22 - 04/16/22.
Metro North upper lot - Chatsworth Av/Myrtle Blvd
Pleasantville, NY
Saturdays, Dec. 4 – Mar. 26. 9:00 am – 11:30 am (closed Dec. 25 & Jan. 1).
10 Memorial Plaza, Pleasantville, NY 10570 Metro-North Parking Lot
Tarrytown, NY
Operating every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month from January - April plus a special Mother’s Day Market on May 7.
Tarrytown Recreation Center Parking Lot (240 West Main Street, Tarrytown).
Hastings Farmers Market
Winter/Spring season (December 4 – May 21) the Market is open 1st and 3rd Saturdays from 9:30 am until 1:00 pm.
Zinsser Commuter Lot 131 Southside Ave Hastings on Hudson, NY 10706.
Irvington Farmers Market
Open 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month from January - May from 9:30am to 1:00pm.
Main Street School Lot 101 Main St, Irvington, NY 10533.
Hemlock Hill Farm & Market
Open year-round Monday-Saturday, 8am-6pm & Sunday 8am-3pm.
500 Croton Ave, Cortlandt, NY 10567
Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard
Farm Store: Monday-Sunday 9am-6pm.
130 Hardscrabble Rd North Salem, NY 10560.
