eating seasonal veg!

beemuzed

DH and I had a long discussion over breakfast about this and I was wondering whether there's any advantage in doing this nowadays? We both remember frozen peas arriving on the UK market (probably late 50s??) and went on to speculate as to whether we belong to the last generation who remember a time when if it wasn't growing now, you couldn't eat it! We're both over sixty by the way.
I remember the first garden peas being something we all looked forward to - and no-one ate strawberries before June or after August (roughly anyway!). By now, there'd be no more new potatoes, we'd all be eating main crop.
Anyway, apart from growing your own, would there be any advantage in just eating seasonal stuff when the supermarkets stock everything all year round?

threemuttleys

Id imagine, if you were eating seasonal (even if from the supermarket) they would at least be British, so possibly taste better, as not been flown miles!

I have read that, eating with the seasons can help people who suffer from SAD No idea how!)

Pee

I am in my thirties and whilst I do eat a lot of frozen and imported fruit and vegetables, I do definately prefer the ones that are local and in season.

Gigervamp

I eat some things seasonally, although I do eat frozen peas and other frozen veg year round. But things like stawberries and asparagus I prefer to buy British and in season.
When you eat seasonally, you do look forward to and really enjoy the food, rather than take it for granted.

valk_scot

There's definately an arguement for not eating non-seasonal veg. Think of the cost of strawberries or peaches in November for example, not to mention they taste of absolutely nothinhg. but on the other hand as an allotment grower I can tell you it gets a bit limiting just eating UK seasonal stuff. Nothing but leeks and kale in January for example!

But a lot of crops can be stored such as potatoes, root veg, onions and apples so even back in the 50's we didn't eat strictly seasonal fruit and veg, we ate stored plus seasonal fruit and veg. I think freezing is an extension of this so my feeling is that if you ate frozen, UK seasonal and UK produce that was normally stored you'd get both a good variety and the best deal.

beemuzed

You're right, of course, I remember my Grandad storing loads in the shed - and indeed we did in the 70's and 80's when we had allotments. I do like exotic stuff too so would miss that if we went down this route! However - I'm always disappointed by the lack of taste when I give in and buy e.g. soft fruit out of season.

meritaten

yes - of course, but, I also remembering spending ages salting runner beans for the winter (also got the job of begging huge glass sweety jars from the local shop).
Fruits could be preserved in sugar syrup and stored in jars - my fave were plums - and I still dont like strawberries done like this!
and of course there was 'jamming' - everything that was likely to be spoilt by first frost went into the jam! lovely it was too!

But, we did look forward to the first of the new potatoes, the first Rhubarb etc - and I still do now! its rare for me to buy foods out of season.

maman

I remember when eating seasonal veg was a cheap option! DH and I had a conversation about when Woolworths or the Co-op used to pile a counter high with runner beans or broad beans or strawberries and you'd buy huge bagsful of them. But no longer. I agree that things like strawberries are only worth buying at this time of the year for the taste. Tomatoes are similar. Things like runer beans do come down a little in price but they're hardly cheap.

Since those days we've travelled more and become a lot more cosmopolitan in our tastes. I would really miss using things like peppers in my cooking if they weren't available all year round.

I do get stubborn though and refuse to buy things like cauliflowers when the prices get ridiculous.

THIRZAH

When I was a child my father grew all our veg and most of our fruit. It was good in the summer but we got very tired of sprouts after Christmas. The first sprouting broccoli was very welcome.

My mother used to bottle fruit too and salted runner beans. We did have tinned fruit for tea on Sundays and occasionally we'd have tinned peas if veg from the garden were running short.

We do try to eat seasonally now but will sometimes buy imported veg although I do feel guilty about air-miles etc.

meanmarie

I feel that I should support local growers as much as possible so buy Irish whenever possible and British next....pleased to discover that both Aldi and Lidl sell local produce more than the other supermarkets and at a better price.

Some day will get round to growing and preserving enough to avoid buying from anyone....I hope

Marie

Farway

meanmarie wrote: »

pleased to discover that both Aldi and Lidl sell local produce more than the other supermarkets and at a better price.
/QUOTE]

Yes I find it strange that the two German owned supermarkets sell more British produce, including meat