Growers and Grocers

I signed up for a farm-share program with a local grower about a month ago and I love it. Apart from getting delicious fresh produce that I trust to be healthy (we never had to stop eating tomatoes due to the salmonella outbreak, for instance) I’m also learning a lot about our growing seasons.

This surprised me, as I’ve been gardening for a decade or so and trying veggies seriously for the past three years. I have lots of “book learning” when it comes to vegetables, but that’s not the same as seeing what the local pros grow and when. Each bushel box is an edible gardening tutorial: basil is just about finished in the heat, but eggplant and tomatoes are still going strong and the squash appears to be unstoppable.

For anyone, gardener or not, trying to learn what’s in season in their area, a CSA membership is an easy way to pick up that knowledge. You’ll certainly learn more from your farm-share box than you will from a trip to most supermarkets, where items like fresh strawberries and peaches are on offer most of the year, trucked or flown in from wherever they’re growing at the moment. I love a fresh strawberry in the summer, but I can’t miss them in the winter if they never leave.

The other nice thing about eating what’s in season is it forces you to add variety to your cooking repertoire. Get enough eggplant and you’re bound to figure out how to make mirza ghassemi. Given enough zephyr squash, tomatoes and basil, you’ll discover that simply combining them, lightly cooked, with a little butter is bliss on a hot weekday evening.

Sure, you may reach a point where you’re ready to scream if you see another zucchini, but then zucchini finishes for the year and goes away. You can actually come to miss it and await its return. Even better, you’ll know when that return will be.