What Eating Seasonally Looks Like For Us
With my garden in full swing, we've been eating from it as much as we can! These days, I'm a bit worried that our skin is going to start to turn a pale shade of green, since that's what is available in the garden!
For the past month or so, we have been eating a whole lot of green lettuce (multiple varieties, plus just a teeny bit of red leaf lettuce mixed in), green spinach, green herbs (basil, dill, cilantro), greeny-blue kale, green onions, and most recently, oodles of green snow and shelling peas! One guess at what's ready to harvest next… green broccoli!
(Actually, there have been a few purple/white turnips mixed in there, lots of red radishes, plus the beets and carrots are nearly ready, so we'll get some more color in pretty quickly! 🙂
Here's one of our favorite staple meals these days:
Pasta with peas, or some variation of it. Sometimes it's cold with olive oil, a splash of apple cider vinegar, bits of sausage, raw snap peas and red peppers, plus some feta cheese. Other times, like today at lunch, it's hot with shelling peas, chicken and some sort of sauce (today was leftover pesto with garden fresh spinach and basil, the other day was a creamy Alfredo-style sauce made with cashews).
The wonderful thing about eating seasonally is that when you're eating absolutely fresh-from-the-garden (or farmers or produce market) foods, they taste incredible. The way they are truly meant to taste. I can't get enough of my garden peas, and quite frankly, that's a good thing because they're coming out our ears! Peas, peas, and more peas!
The beauty of it, though, is that when we're thoroughly sick of peas and greens and radishes, we'll start munching on carrots and broccoli and cauliflower. When we don't want to see another piece of broccoli, we'll move on to zucchini and cucumbers and garlic, and then tomatoes and peppers, and after that squash and potatoes and corn. Throughout the winter, we'll eat what we preserved (supplemented with veggies from our produce market, of course- I don't grow enough to feed us completely). By next spring, guess what I'll be just salivating for???
Peas and fresh greens!
It's a perfect cycle, ordained by a perfect Creator.
(This works with fruit, too! Rhubarb first, then strawberries, and now
our first bag of fresh, local cherries! I'm in heaven, and the fruit
season has barely begun! Think these will taste good in this coconut milk ice cream?)
Have you been discovering the joys of seasonal eating? What does it look like for you?
We are drinking a lot of green smoothies to use up all the lettuce and spinach. One can only eat so many salads. The kids love green smoothies, and since they have seconds it’s almost 2 servings of vegetables and at least 2 servings of fruit (that’s per child).
It’s also a great way to use up excess greens faster.
If anyone is interested in the recipe, I can post it.
We also found a good recipe for “Radish Spread” on recipezaar.com. We have radishes galore, and they are a bit too hot to eat raw, but they aren’t too hot when made into this dip. (We leave out the butter in the recipe, as it doesn’t need it)
Well we have lettuce too….lots of it. But not much else has grown yet. I do have cabbage, broc, cauliflower, tom, zucs and cucs that hopefully will be making there presence known in a month. LoL.
It has been fun so far and you are right God made things in an order for us.
oh yes, the strawberries are soooo sweet in the lower mainland this year since we’ve had little rain. they melt in your mouth! raspberries will be coming soon!
you’re right. nothing tastes as fresh as picked from your own garden. we enjoyed eating our mixed variety of lettuce last night too.
Our garden is behind yours but the first snap peas are about ready to start harvesting. In the meantime, I’m supplementing with produce from local farmers who live at a lower elevation. We eat only what is in season with the exception of bananas that I buy at the store and what I have put away in my freezer.
This month I have canned plums, blueberries, and apricots for fruit spreads as well as frozen even more of them. This weekend I froze cherries and today I will freeze nectarines! I am planning to buy a pressure canner to do vegetables later in the summer. It’s amazing how wonderful everything tastes fresh or from your own garden. It just doesn’t compare. I think I’d do it even if it wasn’t cost effective.
Could you tell me how you make your “alfredo type sauce,” please?
Hi Stephanie!
I am curious what you do with rhubarb…. I can only find really sugarie recipes for rhubarb so I don’t even buy it. How do you serve it? Actually, I have some frozen in my freezer from a neighbors garden last year and I haven’t used it because I don’t want to give my family a bunchof sugar on their fruit.
Thanks!
God Bless,
Cynthia
Hello Stephanie,
It’s nice to meet you!
I just discovered your blog and it’s wonderful!
I’ll be back to visit with you often and I will add your button to mine to display.
Congrats on your upcoming new baby.
I see your due date is my birthday. Yeah!
Hope to see you soon. You’re always welcome!
Have a blessed evening. ~Warmly, Melissa 😉
Kika,
This recipe was passed on to me from a blog reader:
Savory Cashew Sauce
* 1 1/2 cups raw cashews (can be soaked ahead of time – this will actually make the sauce even more smooth and creamy)
* HOT water (enough to cover cashews, plus a little extra)
* 1 tbls. extra virgin olive oil (optional – I usually don’t include this in order to reduce fat content, but helps with texture)
* Pinch of cayenne pepper
* Desired herbs & seasoning (parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, etc.) to taste
Directions:
Place the cashews in a blender with enough HOT water to reach about 1/2 inch above.
Blend on high until completely smooth (about 1 minute, less if using soaked cashews), adding additional water if needed, until desired consistency is achieved.
If using olive oil, add after 1 minute and blend an additional 30 seconds.
Add desired herbs and blend 20-30 seconds.
Serve immediately over pasta, rice, vegetables, etc. For veggie dip, use less water and add dill. Also makes a great base for artichoke dip, cream-based soups, etc. Leftovers keep for 2-3 days – just add water to reduce thickness before reheating.
We tried this the other day, and really enjoyed it!
Cynthia, I tend to put rhubarb in fruit crumbles. I haven’t really found any great ways to serve them without adding some sugar. I make my crumbles with a mix of tree fruit and berries usually, and just add a bit of raw honey and arrowroot powder to the fruit. The topping is a mix of rolled oats, flour, raw sugar and butter.
I find it is totally possible to make this less “sugary” than it might be typically. You can even ditch the honey in the fruit (I add only a bit to help bring out the fruit flavors, but it’s not necessary if you use sweet fruit). The topping only needs to be a sweet as you like it, and I don’t make mine as sweet as most conventional crumble recipes. I prefer to let the flavor of the fruit come through the most. 🙂
Does anyone else have any non-sweet ideas for using rhubarb?
Hi Melissa,
Nice to “meet” you, too! Thanks for stopping by, and a big welcome to you! 🙂
I have just been loving eating the seasonal fruits and veggies. We were able to pick a nice batch of lettuces from the garden and the prices at the stores have been excellent! I picked up organic raspberries for .99 today! We hope to go strawberry picking this week also. Farmers markets are opening up..I love it!
Thanks for this blog–I’ve just discovered it and can’t get enough! I love all the book suggestions as well!
Just in the past year have I been trying to go toxin-free in our home and organic in everything I can. Eating locally and seasonally is something I’m just discovering in my journey as I’ve read Omnivore’s Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I love seeing what other people are doing with what is available to them in the “here & now.”
It’s so refreshing to see this from a Christian perspective–often I get the feeling that they think I’m on some hippy-bent one-with-the-universe spin when really it’s all about being good stewards with what God has given us.
We’re really enjoying beets right now. Mmmmmm. As well as lots of greens (lettuces, spinach, peas). Feel free to check out our local eats post at http://jilsyt.blogspot.com/2009/06/beets-aka-eating-local.html