Thursday was the first time I bought a bag of oranges since… probably later February. Oh, are they spectacular. They’re not even the sweetest and juiciest oranges of the citrus season, but they are a welcome change from the apples of fall that we’ve been eating with reckless abandon.
Several years ago we made the conscious effort to at least try to eat seasonally- especially when it comes to fruit. And when we want to go beyond eating fruit when it’s at perfection, I try to can or preserve what I can for another time. For the most part, we’ve been very successful in our campaign to eat seasonal fruit. Every once in a while I’ll put together a recipe that calls for something out of season, and then I’ll pick it up, but we’re really savoring the best of the best by eating the way we do.
When the apple trees were ripe and loaded in mid-September, we made our way to the orchard and loaded up. Apples have been the fruit of choice for several months now, and every year when we bite into that first one just seconds off the tree, it’s like eating an apple for the first time. It was worth waiting for perfection. Now, the apples are starting to soften, they are beyond perfection and the ideal for them is to be used in baked goods or jam. So enter the fresh citrus. Citrus season is just at the brink of beginning for both California and Florida, and now that we’ve been eating apples for months, we’re ready for a change. The oranges come at the perfect time. Closer to Christmas we will indulge over and over in a few crates of cuties.
The only time of the year where we rely on bananas, grapes, mangoes, pineapple and out of season produce is that grey area from March to June. Occasionally we’ll pick up a carton of strawberries that have come in from Florida. Every once in a while we’ll find a stellar variety of berry, but for the most part, we know that it’s well worth waiting for the local berries to ripen in June. Strawberries really herald the beginning of fresh fruit season for us. We start with the strawberries, and then move on to raspberries. Next up is the blueberries, often in tandem with delicious Michigan peaches. Once the peaches have been dealt with we start to eye the pear trees, followed closely by the apples. With every fruit’s arrival, we indulge in the best of the best. And are only reminded at that precise moment how inferior the out-of season species really are.
A great side-effect to this seasonal eating is that it is gentler on the pocketbook. In season fruit is almost always on sale at one store or another. If it’s locally grown you can often get it right from the producer at a great price. And it’s worth the wait. Every week at the grocery store I eye up the strawberry cartons. Every week! Last spring I actually found an organic berry that tastes as good as the local berries, but I’ve never seen them since. Yet every week I look at those large grocery store berries, and my mouth waters. Even though I know those berries will taste like water. So I pass them up. I’m already yearning for June and strawberry season. But in the meantime, I have several months of citrus delight to whet my appetite and fill my children’s diet with disease-fighting vitamin C.
Eating seasonally just makes the perfect sense. It’s more economical, more delicious, and it actually loads the body up with the vitamins and nutrients we need most at that time of year. What could be better than that? Bring on the oranges, tangerines and grapefruits!