Seasonal eating
An approach of eating fruit and vegetables when they are naturally harvested locally, for freshness, taste, nutritional value and a lower environmental impact.
Eating seasonally means consuming produce when it grows naturally in your region, without forcing (heated greenhouses) or long-distance imports. Strawberries in summer, squash in autumn, citrus fruit in winter.
Seasonality maximises nutrients and meaning: several converging benefits, some little known:
- Optimal nutritional value: fruit or vegetables picked ripe, in the height of the season, are richer in vitamins and antioxidants than produce harvested green (to survive transport) and ripened artificially. A tomato in peak season has more flavour AND more nutrients than a winter greenhouse one
- An intriguing physiological fit: nature often “offers” what we need according to the season. Citrus fruits rich in vitamin C arrive in winter (infection season); water-rich fruits (watermelon, melon) in summer (hydration). This fit, though partial, is striking
- Rhythmic diversity: following the seasons naturally forces you to vary your diet through the year, which feeds a diverse microbiota and avoids monotony
The environmental impact (the real lever): seasonality is often more decisive than local for environmental footprint. Eating in season avoids:
- Heated greenhouses (very high emitters) used to produce out of season
- Air freight of perishable exotic goods
- Energy-hungry long-term storage (cold rooms)
A seasonal product, even one grown locally in an unheated greenhouse or shipped by boat in its season, often beats a forced out-of-season product.
Practical and economic benefits:
- Lower prices: seasonal abundance brings prices down (full harvest)
- Better taste: optimal ripeness
- Rediscovering the pleasure of waiting and of variety (spring asparagus, the first tomato of summer…)
Limits and caveats:
- In our climates, winter is short of fresh variety, so tinned and frozen foods (frozen at ripeness, often very nutritious!) and storage foods (squash, apples, root vegetables) usefully fill the gap
- Some quality imported foods (eaten in their own season) have their place
In practice: a simple seasonal calendar guides your shopping. Combining seasonal, local and minimally processed is the environmental and nutritional optimum. Seasonal frozen produce is an excellent addition in winter.