Most people here see no point in importing, for example, strawberries off-season. Sure, they're red, and a little tangy - vaguely strawberry-scented fleshy things. But true, delicious, worthwhile strawberries only come out for a few weeks in summer - and then it is strawberry-mania. For a few weeks, the French gorge themselves on freshly picked strawberries from local farms. And once its over, there's no point in continuing to import old, off-season, less-delicious strawberries, because the peak of apple season is right around the corner - time for apple everything! And then, grapefruit!
I, as anyone who knows me knows, am not (historically) someone who would consider fruit a real dessert. Upon first arriving in Europe, I felt sorry for my poor, misguided roommates eating peaches for dessert after dinner. No wonder they're so freaking skinny! They don't even eat real desserts! I thought as I dug into my Ben and Jerry's. (Never mind that they thought I was nutso for jogging - only Americans jog - daily through the smoggy streets of Madrid in order to keep that Ben and Jerry's off my hips.)
But then something happened: I didn't see a peach for a year. Okay, there was the occasional bruised, brown, gross looking peach at the grocery store, but basically, I didn't see an edible peach for a whole year. And I didn't drink smoothies with frozen peaches in them (Europeans just don't get the smoothie thing); the closest I got to a peachy flavor might have been some stale gummy candy at the movies. To the point where, the following summer, when I finally did see a peach again, I got this huge, sudden craving and went and bought a big bag of peaches and ate them constantly for a week. How delicious! Their flavor was exotic and new, unlike anything I had eaten for a long time. Suddenly, Ben and Jerry's seemed really boring. I eat that all the time. But a juicy, sweet, tangy peach, that would only last a few more weeks, and I had to get them and eat them all while I could still find them.
It's the end of pear season right now. How can you not get swept up in the excitement, when everyone (the French talk about food constantly) is incessantly talking about the thousand things to do with pears before the season is up (from foie gras to salads to cheeses to crumbles), and which farmer's market still has fantastic pears. Next is rhubarb, and I'm already planning . . .
For more about seasonal eating:
In NorCal - http://www.cuesa.org/seasonality/charts/vegetable.php
In General - http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/
I, as anyone who knows me knows, am not (historically) someone who would consider fruit a real dessert. Upon first arriving in Europe, I felt sorry for my poor, misguided roommates eating peaches for dessert after dinner. No wonder they're so freaking skinny! They don't even eat real desserts! I thought as I dug into my Ben and Jerry's. (Never mind that they thought I was nutso for jogging - only Americans jog - daily through the smoggy streets of Madrid in order to keep that Ben and Jerry's off my hips.)
But then something happened: I didn't see a peach for a year. Okay, there was the occasional bruised, brown, gross looking peach at the grocery store, but basically, I didn't see an edible peach for a whole year. And I didn't drink smoothies with frozen peaches in them (Europeans just don't get the smoothie thing); the closest I got to a peachy flavor might have been some stale gummy candy at the movies. To the point where, the following summer, when I finally did see a peach again, I got this huge, sudden craving and went and bought a big bag of peaches and ate them constantly for a week. How delicious! Their flavor was exotic and new, unlike anything I had eaten for a long time. Suddenly, Ben and Jerry's seemed really boring. I eat that all the time. But a juicy, sweet, tangy peach, that would only last a few more weeks, and I had to get them and eat them all while I could still find them.
It's the end of pear season right now. How can you not get swept up in the excitement, when everyone (the French talk about food constantly) is incessantly talking about the thousand things to do with pears before the season is up (from foie gras to salads to cheeses to crumbles), and which farmer's market still has fantastic pears. Next is rhubarb, and I'm already planning . . .
For more about seasonal eating:
In NorCal - http://www.cuesa.org/seasonality/charts/vegetable.php
In General - http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/
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