Married Food » Sustainable Food

Eating Seasonally and Shoulder Season

Elle — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:29:02 +0000

Eating seasonally has benefits. For some eaters rotating their meals based on what’s fresh locally is having some built in diversity. It can make meals more exciting as they wait for their favorite produce to be harvested. Others find that it saves them money as prices tend to be cheaper when the produce is in season.

I found this nugget on Jaime Oliver‘s site:

Produce is at its peak nutritional value when it is fresh and ripe, so the fresh fruit and vegetables you pick up from a farmers market which are freshly harvested are great for you in terms of maximum health and nutritional benefits. Fruits and vegetables that have travelled long distance to be sold are picked before ripeness, and although the produce might gain color and softness on its journey to the supermarket, its nutritional value decreases – once harvested, a vegetable is as nutritious as it is going to get, and nutritional value decreases every day past harvest.

Seasonal food is not only good for your health but there is an environmental aspect too – although we can now buy foods grown virtually anywhere in the world, these options are not the most sustainable. By buying local you can help decrease the environmental damage of shipping foods thousands of miles, and you and your family can enjoy the health benefits of eating fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables.

With all of its benefits, though, eating seasonally can also pose challenges.

Eating Seasonal Year Round

Shoulder season is a phrase associated with travelling and slow/off seasons, but it applies to seasonal eating as well. In some areas of the world, food is available pretty much year round albeit with different crops being harvested at different times. However there are many times when things slow down (or in some areas, stop growing). What can you do?

Can you eat seasonally and still have food year round?

Learn to Prepare and Store Your Food

For many the answer is yes. Even if it’s a bit of work, learning how to properly store your food can pay dividends. You can enjoy fresh food year round when you prepare your produce and meats as you get them fresh. For some that means portioning and freezing or it could be canning.

Wojo and I have written about storing your food a couple times, specifically Effective Ways to Stop Wasting Food and How To Freeze Your Berries. While neither one of us or experts or chefs, we both appreciate savoring a good thing, so we try our best not to waste food.

Thoughts on Eating Seasonally

How about you? If you eat seasonally, how do you smooth out the small dry spells? For those who eat seasonally as much as possible, what are some of your biggest challenges?

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon

What Are We Going to Order from Our NC CSAs?

Elle — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:02:56 +0000

This week will see not one, but two deliveries. The Produce Box is starting its season and our membership with Carolina Grown has been processed. We’re going to get all of our vegetables ans fruits from The Produce Box and order meats (and a couple of other items) from Carolina Grown.

The Produce Box Order

It appears that we’re starting off the new season with a bang. Plenty of choices this week, making the process a bit hard. Watching our food budget and looking at possible meal items, we decided this week to go ahead and order the garden box ($17). It has plenty of items while the portions are designed for a 1-2 person household. This week’s box include:

Romaine Lettuce
Kale
Cucumbers
Vidalia onions
Sweet potatoes
Spinach

We’re starting small to make sure no food goes to waste. We also added a loaf of Cinnamon bread to our order. We loved it last year – it was great breakfast with some peanut butter spread over it.

Carolina Grown Order

This is a new program for us, so we went ahead and ordered a variety of stuff to see what the quality will be like. Here’s our ekectic order:

Strawberry cheesecake ice cream (pint)
Three cheese and roasted garlic ravioli
Chipotle ginger marinated trout fillets
Pork Chorizo Sausage
Bacon
Whole chicken

The orders won’t come in until later this week, so I’m going to finalize the meal plans by Wednesday. I’ll probably use the chicken for next Monday/Tuesday’s meals as those are our busiest evenings. I can’t wait to have breakfast this weekend to try out the bacon!

I’m predicting that the ice cream will be gone in 2 days, 3 days top.

Thoughts on Buying Local

How many of you signed up for a CSA program this year? Which one and why? If your season already started, what have you ordered?

Photo Credit

What’s in Season in North Carolina?

Elle — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:58:32 +0000

By relying more on our CSA options for our groceries, we now are adapting to eating more seasonally as the produce is coming from local farms, ranches, and producers. Buying in season is also wonderful because you can find some great deals when the supply is higher – strawberries were on sale at every grocery store last spring. We managed to freeze them and use them later in the year.

One benefit of a global economy is availability of foods year round. However it comes at a price – shipping food further and further away takes a toll on your wallet and it can take a toll on your wallet. Just increasing our meals to more seasonal schedule can have a positive impact.

Eating Seasonally in North Carolina

I’ve included a chart from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on what’s in season for the state along with a list of some of the seasonal produce so you can copy and paste for your own reference. Click here for the printable version.

What’s in Season for March?

March isn’t too shabby. Sweet potatoes, peanuts, leafy greens, and strawberries are in season.

What’s in Season for April?

April is the start of the season for The Produce Box. In season foods – sweet potatoes, strawberries, greens(Romaine, kale, spinach, green or red leaf), radishes, garlic, green house tomatoes and cucumbers, spring onions, cabbage, peanuts, and herbs.

What’s in Season for May?

Most of the above produce are still in season as well as garden peas, sweet onions, new potatoes, broccoli, cut herbs, summer squash, field tomatoes, blueberries, beets, and snow peas.

What’s in Season for June, July, and August?

Last year we had our boxes filled to the top with goodies. Plenty of foods are in season in North Carolina, including:

Green and Butter beans
Blueberries
Cabbage
Cantaloupes
Corn
Cucumbers
Leafy Greens
Eggplant
Peaches
Sweet and White potatoes
Squash
Tomatoes
Watermelons

What’s in Season for September and October?

Fall comes in and there are plenty of options still. North Carolina has some great produce in season, like:

Apples
Green Beans
Cabbage
Cucumbers
Grapes
Pumpkins
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli

I love living in North Carolina- the weather is very conducive to growing a variety of produce.

Thoughts on Local Foods

I’d like to hear from you and your area’s seasonal produce. What’s in season in your state or part of the world?

Photo Credit

Another Community Supported Agriculture Option in NC

Elle — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:17:17 +0000

With spring coming we’re looking forward to another season with The Produce Box. We found it to be a great buy for us – not only saving money, but improving our family’s menu with fresh local produce. We paid the annual enrollment fee ($18) and we’re already thinking of how we’re going to plan our meals around the weekly deliveries.

This weekend we were chatting with friends and they were speaking about a program that they’ve signed up for, Carolina Grown, that offers a similar service with produce, meat, dairy, and more.

These programs offers something slightly different than the typical CSA. They are wonderful ways to get fresh food in a sustainable manner. It’s even delivered right to your door, making it incredibly convenient.

There are several benefits to this model:

No upfront fees: Families don’t have to pay for the whole season upfront (though Carolina grown does offer that option). Enrollment fees for the year cover containers for deliveries and are less than $20.
Affordable food: Having already used the Produce Box, I’ve seen the value of buy the weekly deliveries; we got plenty of food for our money. This season The Produce Box offers a smaller box for feeding 1-2 people, which is a better fit for us.
No long term commitments: You can skip your weekly deliveries, which is handy when you’re on vacation or perhaps still working through last deliveries.

Programs like these can be incredibly powerful, not only for the families signing up for the program, but also for farmers and businesses in the area.

Carolina Grown has a point system that they use for orders. You pay weekly, monthly, or yearly and spend them as you see fit. The Produce Box is a bit more straight forward with weekly payments.

Thoughts on Community Supported Agriculture

I’m happy to see more options in our area for local food and we’re looking at Carolina Grown for picking up meats and local specialty items. How about you- what options are in your area?

Source: Community Support Agriculture (CSAs) in North Carolina
Photo Credit

Sign Up for The Produce Box This Season

Elle — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:55:09 +0000

The season is about to begin and if you’re in North Carolina, I highly recommend you check to see if The Produce Box is delivering in your area. They’re starting deliveries the week of April 18th and they’re taking new members now.

Save Money, Eat Better, and Partner with Local Farmers

For those not familair with community supported agriculture, when you sign up you’re shareholder or member that has a economic relationship with a local farmer or farms. The Produce Box works to connect North Carolina farmers with local consumers. It’s a wonderful way to get fresh food in a sustainable manner. It’s even delivered right to your door, making it incredibly convenient.

We saved some money going with The Produce Box last season. For $22/week we have our sides covered for the week and sometimes our entire meal as we have been having more vegetarian dishes.

Here’s what we received one week last season:

Personal Watermelon
Roma Tomatoes (5-7)
Blueberries (1 pint)
Sweet Pepper Mix
Corn (six ears)
Cucumbers (3)
Red Potatoes ( 2 quarts)

Our box was pretty much full the entire season. We had friends over for meals to help us finish our boxes, another bonus in my book.

How The Produce Box Works

what really appealed to me when we were looking around was how easy it was to sign up and become a member. The Produce Box has a small enrollment fee annually ($18 this season) and then you pay weekly. How it worked last season for us:

On Fridays we received an email with a list of options for boxes of produce along with news and information about the farmers and member events. There’s a default box that has a variety of items and there are other , typically themed boxes (like all organic, salad box, salsa box, etc).
We placed your order (or skip the week) by Sunday evening through their website. We also had the option to add on specialty items or extra produce. (If you don’t skip or decide on other box, you’ll be sent the default box for the week.) This year the weekly default is $23 (price include sales tax and the cost of delivery).
We received our box on Thursdays (deliveries are made Wednesdays and Thursdays). Included with our deliveries were the member newsletters full of tips and recipes for the produce we received.

We loved the system and had no problems when we decided to skip a couples of weeks. Out of the whole season, we had one item that need to be replaced and it was automatically done for us.

Thoughts on This Season’s Food Plans

I’d love to hear what you have planned for this upcoming season. Are you participating in CSA in your area? Do you plan on growing a home garden?