What is seasonal food?
If you grow your own vegetables the packet will tell you when you can expect to harvest the crop and this is when it is in season. If you see vegetables for sale outside of this time then they are not in season and may well have been imported or grown under heat in a greenhouse.
Why eat seasonal food?
Food that is in season has many advantages over imported food or that grown under cover:
- It will have the best and freshest taste.
- It will have a higher nutritional value.
- It is good for the environment as it will have low food low miles and less energy will have been used than glass-grown plants to produce it.
- As a result it will be cheaper.
- Finally, as a consumer, you will get seasonal variety and the excitement of the first taste of a just in-season food is hard to beat. A strawberry in winter may look appetising but it has minimal taste compared to a summer one.
What is is Season in September?
September is one of the best months for local produce as so much summer produce is still available and the first of the autumn goodies are now on the shelves. It is however still worth confirming that the fruit and veg you are buying is locally produced as many shops will still import their supplies, often from far away and even if local farmers are growing the same things.
Please note I have based this list on UK and Northern France.
Vegetables
Everything on the August list plus:
- Fennel
- Marrow
- Turnips
- Celery
- Cauliflower
- Endive
- Kohl Rabi
- Peppers
- Squash and pumpkins
- Chillies
Herbs
- Fresh herbs are all in season now and if you pruned your herb plants earlier you should be getting a second flush of young growth now.
Fruit
- Apples
- Plums
- Figs
- Grapes
- Melons
- Pears
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Peaches
Foraging
With cooler weather many leafy plants will have a second flush of first growth now. Specific plants you can forage now include:
- Watercress
- Nettles - new young nettles only
- Rowan berries
- Water mint
- Blackberries
- Walnuts
- Crab-apples
- Hazelnuts
- Rose hips
- Elderberries
- Hawthorn berries
- Peaches
With so much fresh local produce there are unlimited recipes to choose from - here are just two of my favourites: Spicy Peach Chutney and Raspberry Vinegar and you might like to visit these 2 posts: 10 Cracking Courgette Recipes and 10 Brilliant Blackberry Recipes.
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| Image with permission from Julie's Family Kitchen |
Do you have any favourite recipes using September produce?
it all sounds so good. we shared two raised beds at our neighbors this past spring and got to have some of our tomatoes, carrots and beets. it all tastes so much better when you grow it yourself
ReplyDeleteHI Rosie,
ReplyDeleteGreat information on all the seasonal fruits and vegetable. Where I live in the US blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are in early summer which in usually in June or July so they are over for us. That recipe looks delicious.Congratulations on being featured on #WasteLessWednesday ! Pinned & tweeted. Have a healthy, happy, blessed day!