Eating Seasonally Now
Apparently there is some confusion about what it means to live in Albany and eat locally and seasonally. There is good reason for it, especially in March.
Spring may feel like it’s in the air, but it’s going to be a long time before just-picked produce starts arriving from my CSA. Heck, when the rest of the country is enjoying their first local asparagus of spring, it’s possible we will still have snow on the ground.
Last year around this time in a post entitled Eight Months of Mud and Ice, I wrote on this topic from a different angle. That story was focused on the larger role restaurants can play in educating diners about the stunning food that is produced in the region.
But when Ruth Fantasia recently gave MezzaNotte a 3.5-star food review for a braised short rib that was served atop sautéed summer squash and red peppers, I had to speak up. Because while it may be challenging to eat local and seasonal foods now, it is far from impossible, and it can most certainly be delicious.
In response to my criticism about a lack of seasonal produce in such a lauded dish, one Table Hopping commenter had this to say:
About “local’ produce, who has a fresh garden around here right now? I’m sure the weather is ‘summer like’ where those peppers came from. I’d rather have imported produce than polenta out of a box.
My official response was met with silence. I have a feeling that the conversation moved onto more current topics. But I’m very bad at letting things go. Besides that, I think the commenter’s question and attitudes are probably widely held by local diners, and I think it is worth addressing directly.
People like to eat fresh. I get it.
And there are temptations at every turn. Strawberries look awfully good right about now, sitting on the shelf all bright and red, a reminder of the summer that was and the potential that will be. Frankly, the fact that they are just mere shadows of a good strawberry (that is, one grown for flavor and not for international travel / extended shelf life) is almost immaterial.
But on another level, “fresh” food is special not because of the interval of time between being plucked from the ground and going into your mouth. Rather, “fresh” food is special because of its vibrancy and depth of flavor. And I can assure you there is nothing terribly vibrant about the strawberries you can buy now in Albany.
Eating delicious seasonal foods in the depths of a Northeastern winter is all about preservation.
Luckily there are lots of methods for maintaining the vibrancy of our local produce deep into the winter. Some fall harvest vegetables just last and last in cold storage. I really think I could live a long time and eat very well with just beets, sweet potatoes, cabbage, potatoes, winter squash, onions, garlic, carrots, celery root, and apples. While supplies of these winter staples dwindle at the farmers markets as the season marches on, they are still there.
Other produce can be dried. I recently came across Cayuga Pure Organics located out in Brooktondale, NY. While they are one of those regional farms that sells its wares primarily in New York City, you can buy from their online store. They specialize in beans and grains including polenta, farro and barley.
Still other foods can be frozen, canned, or pickled. Breaking out a batch of frozen pesto made from the fragrant basil of summer is one of the winter’s greatest treats. We are also still sitting on several pounds of blanched and frozen summer tomatoes that are destined to go in a slowly simmered sauce. I’m not much into canning or pickling myself, although if I had my own garden I suspect it would become mandatory.
Now I’m not saying everything you eat should be local. Please don’t get me wrong. And I’m not just even talking about essentials like sugar, coffee, and chocolate and vanilla. These are the foods that stymie true dyed-in-the-wool locavores. Nor am I suggesting a life without bananas, mangoes or dates.
Earlier in the week I cooked spaghetti with oil, garlic and parm reg.
Last night I made a GMO-free tofu stir fry with local carrots and frozen broccoli.
Today I’ll make a tamale pie with organic corn meal, beans, onions and canned tomatoes.
There is a lot to be gained by eating food that is in season, and avoiding certain out of season foods that have to travel great distances. It’s not difficult. It’s not a burden. And it’s not impossible. Even in upstate New York.
If you need any help, just let me know.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
In late summer/early fall, I was given the job of pitting about 800 (I might be exaggerating, but it was a lot) of plums at work. It took about a million hours, but we reduced them into a jam, and STILL have piles of it left. Every now and then it goes into a cake, or sandwiched between some cookies, and I am filled with happiness. And flavor.
As a single person, I find the prospect of canning etc. too daunting to contemplate. Plus I don’t even know how to do it.
I also have a hard time storing things. Recently I pulled out two onions from my cupboard and both were moldy. I don’t have a basement since I live in an apartment, and I know storing things in the refrigerator isn’t always an answer either.
Thank you for this post. I am constantly shocked when “good” restaurants are serving clearly off-season vegetables. Especially for a dish like short-ribs, which is such a wintry choice (braised, fatty, comforting) that pairs so well with potatoes, celeriac, greens etc.
Local and seasonal food has been a major force in food for a while now. Restaurants that don’t pay attention to seasonality strike me as particularly old-fashioned (and not in a good way).
Plus, summer squash (et alia) don’t taste as good in February as they do in June!
Let’s give her a little credit for not ordering the calamari.
I was just thinking about this the other day and remembered a Mark Bittman piece about frozen veggies. I eat a lot more frozen veggies in the winter because they seem “fresher” to me – there’s less time from truck to store because they’re frozen quickly. When I have a garden, I usually do my own freezing and last spring, my roommates and I went crazy for jamming, canning and pickling.
Here’s the MB piece:
That said, I can’t resist a good sale. Mangoes were two for a dollar recently at my local grocery store and I bought a huge bag – a few of which I diced and froze.
I have found the freezer more useful than canning. True, in the event of an apocalypse I will wish I hadn’t chosen a preservation method that relied on electricity, but I’m willing to hedge my bets. We still have strawberries, swiss chard, pesto, shredded zucchini and tomato sauce in the freezer. It’s not enough to make up our whole produce diet, and never will be unless I get a lot more serious about gardening, but it makes a nice supplement for the endless parade of beets, carrots, cabbage and potatoes.
I’d just like to give another shout-out to celeriac. In my opinion this is a totally underrepresented root vegetable available at farmer’s markets in abundance this time of year. People shy away from it because it looks completely funky, but it tastes great, especially when roasted or boiled with potatoes and mashed up with some roasted garlic and sour cream mixed in. Somewhat off-topic, I know, but I couldn’t resist!
I had exactly the same thoughts as yours when I read the review on Sunday. Bones are the best. Summer squash and red pepper, besides being not seasonal right now, are a weird pairing for short ribs. In my opinion, they would take over the beefy taste (I feel that way about peppers in many dishes). The review was quite silly, on all the counts that you mentioned in your response.
Like Steph, I’ve struggled as a single apartment-dweller. But really, once you get started, it becomes easier. You figure out what you can store (and you really can freeze an awful lot), and what you just need to buy (and it that case, going organic or at least regional relieves some of the guilt). Give yourself time: I think there’s pressure to be “locavore,” all or nothing, but it doesn’t have to be that drastic. And as you experiment with the ingredients you’ve got (familiar and not), you’ll figure out plenty of new, satisfying recipes– enjoy the food ride!
@Steph,
Canning and freezing is so much easier than I expected it would be. My then-roomies and I invited some friends over and had a whole day of canning. It’s a fun if nerdy group project.
I’ve also used this to deal with CSA shares. They’re often too much stuff for one-two people, but if you’re industrious, you just store a lot of it for the winter.
Here’s a great guide for anyone who wants to play around with it:
Thanks for sharing this book! I am going to check it out. The past two years I had a garden (organic and mainly heirloom). I want to try canning and freezing this year. I ended up eating most of everything before even getting to that step, except for some winter squash and green tomatoes. I had a million green tomatoes left at the end of summer, I picked them at the end of the season and they lasted well into the fall.
I have said it before, and I will say it again… I can’t stand Ruth Fantasia’s reviews. I don’t know why exactly, but something about works me into a froth after about 3 paragraphs.
I had to chuckle at the responses to your comment on Tablehopping. People just get so mad! You are, however, dealing with a Guilderland/Capital Region audience, and we have discussed their endearing foibles and prejudices before. I find them quaint.
Keep giving ’em hell Daniel B.!