In the super-efficient super-market world where we live it’s easy to forget about the seasons, but if you’re buying fresh local food you have to be much more aware of them.

Over the past twenty years supermarkets that buy food from around the world have made nearly all fruit and vegetables available all year round.

For example apples are always in season somewhere in the world and they’re always in your local superstore – but in this country they’re mainly an autumn fruit and that’s when you’ll find them at the farmers’ market.

There are a range of ways growers extend the seasons and make a wider range of vegetables available for a longer period of time, by using glass houses or poly-tunnels to protect from colder weather, or using uncommon varieties or unusual crops.  There is also the option of processing food and storing it, or buying fresh in peak season and freezing it.

But in the end fresh food tastes best and that means being a bit more creative with your cooking and adapting to what’s available.  For generations we have eaten whatever is available in season; tasting the first asparagus spears in early may, or eating perfectly ripe tomatoes straight from the vine in summer, and roasted parsnips on an early winters’ evening – eating seasonally can be exciting.  It is a wonderful way to reconnect with the seasons and your local landscape, as well as benefiting the global environment.

Click on this link to look at Seasonal Availability of Vegetables

Links to websites on seasonal eating:               Eat Seasonably,     Eat the Seasons,    Seasonal Food Recipes,           Veg Box Recipes,           Camel CSA and  Delicious magazine.

tastyguide – you could print this and stick it on your fridge to remind you the best veg that each month has to offer.

At Diss Community Farm we supply our members with seasonal vegetables, to help you know what to do with any unusual veg we include cooking tips and seasonal recipe ideas with the veg share and on this website.