How to Eat Seasonally

For some strange reason, Ted likes to read the CostCo Connection, the company’s magazine that they send out monthly to its members. Ted is a member because he gets stuff there for his business, and we also buy dog beds and contact lenses there. But their mailer is not something I would read, so I was glad that Ted pointed out an article in the Connection that I otherwise would have missed. It’s titled “CostCo’s World-Class Produce,” and the whole article is about how glorious it is that they ship out-of-season produce from all over the world to its stores. I guess CostCo Connection readers aren’t locavores.

The article was written by a consumer reporter, and I only had to read the first few sentences to get an idea of how he feels about eating seasonally:

“It was one of those “pinch me” CostCo moments. Walking into the produce area on a cold and dreary winter afternoon in Seattle, I was dazzleded [sic] by the wondrous summery kaleidoscope of fruits and vegetables before me: luscious fresh cherries, rosy red strawberries, spring green asparagus and gorgeous blueberries. Heady with joy, I stocked up… And that night we ate like royalty.” ~Pat Volchok, p. 72 in the February 2008 issue

Before I address the abomination of eating strawberries in the dead of winter, I first have to wonder why the author of the article thinks that royalty would ever eat bland, nutrient-low out-of-season fruits and vegetables. Any reader of mine knows that I wouldn’t buy produce at CostCo in the first place, but if I did… Strawberries? Really? If you’ve ever eaten a plump, ripe, fragrant strawberry freshly picked on a hot summer day, you’d know what a real strawberry tastes like. You’d also know why it’s best to restrict your strawberry consumption to the months when it’s in season, when you can appreciate strawberries at their best. If you’ve eaten a perfect summer strawberry, you’d know that the out-of-season strawberries that show up in large conventional supermarkets are nothing but a sad imitation of the real thing. I can hardly imagine anyone getting “heady with joy” at the thought of it.

The article goes on to talk about CostCo’s “global produce team,” a group of about forty so-called “produce experts” that travel the world in search of cheap, “quality” produce that they can then ship via plane, truck, and boat to their stores worldwide. The article makes a point to emphasize the strict food safety standards that the company’s produce buyers must adhere to, and also mentions that “value is always a priority.” Dude, I don’t care how cheap those mid-winter berries are, I wouldn’t buy those tart cardboard fakes if you were giving them away for free.

All this made me start to think about seasonality, something I strive to achieve in all of my meals. I am totally spoiled, since I live in California; the season of any given food is usually longer here than it would be in, say, Fargo, North Dakota, or in the upper Eastern reaches of Canada. I do realize my epicurean good fortune in living in such a temperate climate, and I don’t take it for granted. But with that said, I still couldn’t get a decent strawberry here in winter. It doesn’t matter where you live or how available things are; just because you CAN doesn’t mean that you SHOULD.

If you think that you’re eating seasonal produce just because you shop at Whole Foods, think again: even Whole Foods offers out-of-season produce throughout the year. Granted, it’s almost always conventional, with the organic versions of these foods popping up during their appropriate seasons. I’ve thought about it before, and I can’t fault them for selling what people want in their stores. If their customers want strawberries in winter, then it’s their bottom line at stake if they don’t sell them; and better from Whole Foods than from CostCo, I suppose. But this confusion does make it more difficult to decipher which fruits and veggies are at their peak and which ones should be avoided. The best way to get around this at any store is to educate yourself a little about what’s in season. Below is a list of things you can do to teach yourself what to eat when. It takes a minimal amount of work, and soon it will become second nature to you; plus, the payoff of tastier and more nutritious foods all year long will make the process greatly worth your while.


Start with a good, basic chart. A simple seasonality chart is a great place to start. Wikipedia has a small one, and I like BBC Good Food’s more thorough version because it includes fruits, vegetables, seafood, and meats. You can take a chart with you to the store, or just look over it a few times before you shop.

Go to a local farmer’s market. For the most part, small local farmers will be producing what grows best in your region during that season. It’s a great place to learn which fruits and vegetables taste best when. A farmer’s market can also be helpful for teaching you about quality, because usually the people at the market know a lot about what they’re selling, and sometimes you can even speak to the farmers themselves. FarmersMarket.com is a good place to search for a market near you in the US, and the Open Air Market Network provides a list of markets in countries all over the world.

Ask a knowledgeable employee in the produce section. At our nearest Whole Foods, there are a couple of guys who can always answer my questions, whether I want to know about broccolini or Belgian endive. Sometimes they even have recommendations on how to prepare something. Employees at co-ops and small local markets with good produce sections can prove to be a helpful resource, too. Don’t be afraid to ask about what’s in season, and you can go further by asking what they think is really good at that time. Sometimes one farmer can have a good year and another won’t, so the people who work in the produce section are your best bet for this kind of information.


With time, your knowledge of seasonality will grow until you don’t have to think about it anymore. I really enjoy learning about which things are best during which season, I’ve had a lot of fun in gaining the knowledge I have now. I’m still learning, and that’s the point: if you’re always learning and trying new things, you’ll always be having fun, and you’ll never be bored in the kitchen.

And if you have kids, you will have the opportunity to teach them what you’re learning, which will be fun for all of you. Take them to the markets, let them watch and help while you cook. They may not always like what you’re making, but a variety of seasonal foods will provide lots of nutrients to their bodies, and the learned value of eating quality seasonal foods will stay with them for life.

Eating seasonally can change the way you eat and even think about food. I’d highly recommend it to the guy who wrote that CostCo Connection article. He could learn about the beauty of wild blueberries in summer, and hold their memory in his mind during the rest of the year until he could enjoy them again. He could try spring lamb with fresh mint in in April, wine-poached pears in the fall, and roasted sweet potatoes with a small dollop of butter in winter. If he tasted all of these things, I’m wiling to bet he’d never dream of touching a CostCo strawberry in the middle of winter again.