I try to cook food that's in-season but I don't always remember what is and isn't in season so I'm sure I make a few blunders. But its something I am conscious of.

It's a matter of cost for me. If it's out of season but I can buy it frozen I will. Because when it's cold...we need more than squash and root veggies to get all the vitamins and minerals.

Nope, I'll cook it whenever if it's in a recipe that I want. And honestly, Slow Food can bite me. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I'm on a budget, so I can't always afford local and sustainable. If they can find a way to make it affordable, then fine, but that philosophy really ignores the fact that for some people going to the grocery store means ignoring the credit card bill.

Hmmm, I guess I'm feeling a bit rant happy today. Sorry, it's bill time, and I'm feeling more than a little broke.

I have to confess that I'm honestly not aware enough to know.

I'm with Mesayme - I have to be able to afford it, which almost always rules out the expensive, out of season items anyway.

I adore Mark Bittman. He's amazing, and his recipes are always so simple and great.

I choose in season and Australian grown (am an Aussie) and local if possible...works out much cheaper that way!

I am not going to pay a couple of extra dollars for asparagus just to eat it whenever, when I know it wont taste as good as when its at its peak. I'd rather go without and save my $$$.

It is interesting that some are saying they only buy what they can afford --- well more often than not, you're probably buying seasonal produce. Reason being is that out-of-season produce is RIDICULOUSLY expensive.

I cringe at thinking of eating asparagus in December.

I was mostly talking about sustainable and local in my rant about affordability, since both categories are way more expensive at my grocery store.

I love broccoli all year long, but certain things: strawberries and asparagus are ONLY good in season

Ah I get it! Sorry TLS.

But either way, even if you are buying nonlocal food - if you went to the store today for asparagus, they'd be expensive and courtesy of Peru.

Meh. Commitment to seasonality only goes so far when I have a serious food craving.

No problem, guess I should have clarified since this was more a post about seasonality. Sometimes when I get to ranting I don't make a whole lot of sense

We try for the most part because I'm not paying $4lb for asparagus or artichokes. But we forgo that if it's something my son really likes such as raspberries. I know that they're being shipped from Argentina so it's supposed to be a big no-no, but when you're trying to get a picky toddler to eat healthy you're going to get him what he'll eat.

i know that the right answer is that i shouldn't eat things that aren't in season, but that's just not realistic seeing as how most of my options aren't going to be only locally grown in season products. i can really see and understand the value of it but it's just not something that i can work with right now.

For the most part, yes. Since I get 99% of my produce from the farmer's market (the 1% is mostly bananas) it makes that kind of easy to do. But I also live in CA so I have a huge variety available to me and the growing seasons are long anyway, so it's really not too restrictive (seriously, I am still buying fresh berries at my farmer's market). Eating seasonally makes the foods that are available more enjoyable and special, in my opinion.

OK, so I live in Wisconsin and the season for locally grown produce is short and sweet. All the other times, stuff has to be trucked/flown in. I pretty much buy what's cheapest, which is usually what's in season I guess. I won't buy fresh berries in December because they're usually crappy anyway, so if I need berries I try to make sure the recipe can use frozen ones.

I would love to just eat seasonally and locally but since I live somewhere that is too cold to grow much of anything much of the year, I eat what I feel like and is in the store as it's all pretty much shipped in anyway.