How To Eat Seasonally (And 3 Reasons Why It’s Super Important)

This post is part of the Eating on a Budget series, which includes the essential tools, tricks and tips that underpin eating on a budget, and a collection of recipes to put those tools into practice.

Seasonal eating is a popular phrase in the era of sustainability that we’re presently living in. But what does it actually mean? And it may make you wonder how to eat seasonally in practice? In this post, we’ll answer both questions.

To eat ‘seasonally’ quite literally to eat with the seasons. It means to eat the produce that is grown in your local area, in the season that you’re currently in.

Eating in accordance with the seasons is historically pretty much the only way humans have ever consumed food — that was until the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.

The Industrial Revolution swept modern transportation into society. These new forms of transport, such as planes, trains and ships, enabled food to be moved across large distances in relatively little time.

Coupled with the invention of refrigeration, suddenly humans could eat exotic foods almost all year round, instead of relying on whatever grew on the local farm.

This availability of out-of-season produce has a bunch of benefits.

For one, it gives vegans access to more food. Many healthy greens and other fruit and vegetables can only be grown in the spring or summer. Shipping food from elsewhere in the world means that those who rely on plant-based diets have a steady supply of palatable food (don’t get me wrong, I love parsnips and potatoes, but I’m sure winter would be dull if that were my only sustenance).

For us non-vegans, it gives us the option to try exotic foods that we would never have been able to try otherwise, and it helps nudge us closer to a healthy diet by making sure we have a steady flow of healthy greens and other veg all year round.

But there are also drawbacks.

Importing produce is an expensive business, and that additional cost is usually reflected in the price; it’s harmful to the environment to transport food over such great distances (some foods in the UK are imported from as far as New Zealand) and often the produce that is available has travelled so long and far that it’s just a little bit sad when it arrives on the supermarket shelves.

So although access to exotic fruit and vegetables all year round may be a great way to keep your diet healthy and interesting, it also comes with a cost on the environment as well as your own pockets, not to mention that the produce itself probably won’t be in it’s prime.

The alternative is to simply embrace whatever is in season in your location.

In the Western world, this isn’t as easy as you may expect. There’ll always be imported produced available in the typical Western supermarket scattered with the season produce.

That means that the only way to eat seasonally is to do it consciously — you need to learn what produce is currently in season in your area, and buy only that.

And, as we’ve already touched on, there’re a lot of reasons why you may want to do this.

Benefits of eating seasonal

If you’re wondering how to eat seasonally, you’re probably also wondering if it’s worth the effort. What are the benefits?

First and foremost, eating seasonally is much cheaper than purchasing imported produce.

As I said earlier, importing food costs money: you have to pay the transport fees, duty taxes, the wages and fees of the courier and the energy bills to keep the food fresh all the while. Undoubtedly, it involves a lot of effort, and this effort is reflected in a higher price tag.

On the other hand, local seasonal produce involves fewer intermediaries, often resulting in lower costs.

In short, eating seasonally is often much, much cheaper.

At this time of year, parsnips are in season in the UK and they’re often available as cheap as £0.25 ($0.30 USD) a bag (approx. 300g). Meanwhile here in New Zealand, we’ve just left avocado season — at the peak of the season, I could buy 4 avocados at the supermarket for only £1 ($2.00 NZD; $1.10 USD).

Avocados in the UK are usually the single most expensive fruit on the shelves, and that’s because they’re never in season in the UK. They don’t grow there. They’re probably expensive here in New Zealand, too, when they’re out of season. Yet when you buy them in season, in a place where they actually grow, they’re suddenly the cheapest produce available.

For all the aforementioned reasons, eating seasonally is cheaper for the environment, too. Less transport means a lower carbon footprint, which in turn means fewer greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (the difference is probably insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but that’s neither here nor there).

Another benefits of eating seasonally is that you’re forcing yourself to try a limited rotating wheel of choices. This limitation can be, in my opinion, a positive thing. It’s an opportunity to try new produce, and to try it when its at its best.

Seasonal fruit and vegetables that you’ve never tried might be available, and they’ll be available in their prime and cheaper than ever — now is the time to try something new!

How to know what’s in season

The only question is: how do you know when something is in season?

It all depends on where you are in the world, and when you’re there.

The northern and southern hemispheres have alternating seasons: when it’s winter in the northern hemisphere, it’s summer in the south. That means here in New Zealand, we’re entering summer while back home in the UK winter is setting in.

Naturally that means that the produce available here is vastly different to what is sitting on the shelves in the UK. We’re eating avocados, asparagus and spring greens, while back home its pumpkins, Brussels sprouts and parsnips.

The season is only one factory, though. Even if you’re in the same hemisphere, the produce available to you will depend on a bunch of factors: how far north or south you are, what your countries climate is like, and what is generally grown in your area. This is all going to vary country-to-country (and maybe even region to region).

There are a few options to find out what is seasonal in your area.

You could go to the greengrocers or supermarket and ask the staff there what’s in season.

Another option is to use a guide. There’s high-level guides available online which explain what is in season for each given month. Here’s a few examples:

• United Kingdom seasonal eating guide
• New Zealand seasonal eating guide
• United States seasonal eating guide

Search Google for help in figuring out how to eat seasonally. There’s probably a ‘seasonal eating guide’ for your area.

Bottom line: how to eat seasonally

Eating seasonally is an easy way to save money while cooking, lower your carbon footprint and try some new ingredients.

If you’re thinking about how to eat seasonally, you need to first think about where in the world you are, and what the season is. To find out what’s available in your area, check out one of the guides above, or Google a guide for your local area.