What’s the big deal with seasonal food? Why not eat whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it? Who cares about strawberries in December flown in from Egypt or Kenya? Why would anyone want to live on turnips for the winter?

Well seasonality is a talking point at the moment. Firstly if we insist on eating food out of season it has to come from somewhere on the other side of the world where it is in season. That means lots of travelling for the strawberries, lots of sitting around in boxes, lots of airplanes, bashing and bruising…lots of chemicals to keep those strawberries looking spanking new and “freshly” picked.

Why would you want to eat chemical laden produce flown half-way round the world?

The result of people eating unseasonal food is that the person working on the land at home is growing food, harvesting it, then wondering what on earth do to with it as there is less demand since everyone is eating strawberries from Kenya…in December. So that grower decides that there is no future in growing food in Ireland and he packs it in and heads off somewhere else, or he sells his harvest at below cost because he has little choice, because you see the supermarkets are selling strawberries from Kenya…in December. They claim they can’t sell his stuff at a decent price, because who would want winter vegetables in winter? They want strawberries in December lad! So they give the Irish grower working on the land all year, a tiny pittance for his harvest.

Soon there will be no Irish vegetables, or fruit, or milk. It will all be flown in from all around the world out of season, from of course poor countries who think this is good for their farms and their people, or from factory farms where cows don’t get outside for air, or grass, or a bit of a run occasionally.

Then when we want a parsnip for the Christmas dinner, we can only get parsnips from Kenya because the Irish growers have no parsnips in season (they’ve all given up and gone to Australia)…and the grower in Kenya is not supplying his locality with vegetables or fruit because he is too busy growing parsnips for Irish supermarkets in his summer season, when he should be growing strawberries. He is instead growing out-of-season food for his country to supply another country with their supposedly in-season food because their growers all gave up.

This is a somewhat facetious piece, but does is not ring even a little true? Give seasonality a chance, just give it a go. It’s cheaper, more interesting cos you don’t get bored cooking the same stuff all the time, and it is natural and normal. We are talking about plants after all…they follow the seasons, so why can’t we?

About Me…

Tasteworks Cookery School is much much more than just recipe demos. This is about a whole approach to growing, harvesting, and cooking food in a casual informative environment. I am not a chef. I am a good home cook, with a lifetime of experience in all matters food! I love to cook, I love to teach others to cook, simple as that. I loathe pretention around food, and I get a huge kick out of absolute beginners emailing me to tell me they are now making brown bread every night and bringing their homemade lunch to work!

Learn how to open the fridge and cook…