The last time I went grocery shopping, I hadn't eaten enough fruits and vegetables in recent weeks, so I found myself checking out blueberries, strawberries and bananas. I'm not a huge fan of melons, grapes (I go through phases) and all the other normal fruit-salady fruits - or what're commonly considered fruit-salady fruits, anyway - but was pleasantly surprised to find a new love: the base for my own version of the Fruit Salad. Someday I"ll add pineapples, maybe some mango... lots of possbilities exist for delicious, melon-free salads. I've been eating the combination for about four days straight. Unfortunately, am all out of both strawberries and blueberries now, but that just means next time I'll have to buy more!
So I love this idea so much that yesterday I forgot to eat any carbs for lunch, and by two in the afternoon, was starving! Had to buy some crackers and Nutri-grain bars (I fall in and out of like with those). I remembered today, but still the greater part of my lunch consisted of fruit. It has become my new must-have, cannot-live-without food staple.
My only regret is that none of these fruits are currently in season, and bananas aren't grown locally (Tropics in DC anyone? Though it might feel like it in summer, we're not even close. Though I wonder if anyone has ever tried growing bananas here...). Ever since university, I've been attracted to locally-grown produce, and the idea of eating what's available and in season locally. It cuts down on a lot of waste (think gasoline for trucks, refrigeration of those same trucks), and sometimes even the cost of the produce. It also just seems fresher. Hasn't taken a cross-country trip in a refrigerator to get to your local grocery store.
However. Alongside this preference lives the knowledge that when technology and global commerce did not allow for cross-country shipments of "fresh" produce, communities only had what was grown locally. Meaning, no bananas for DC. Ever. No oranges, except maybe at Christmas. No berries until they were in season. And one thing that has come with the global economy, is more opportunity for better health. Nobody in first-world countries worries about scurvy anymore (at least unless you're one of those people who never eats fruits or vegetables, which I find extremely sad). And that's only one example.
So I'm going to take advantage of the opportunities I have to eat exotic fruits, even if they aren't in season or available anywhere but the tropics. And I'll try to remember next winter about my passion for fruit salad (does anyone else eat fewer salads, fruit or otherwise, in winter?)
If anyone has ideas about what fruits and veggies are in season right now in the mid-Atlantic region, please share!
In other, unrelated news, the Capitals won Game 7 in the first series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Rangers and are going on to Round 2!!! One grunge match against the Pittsburgh Penguins, coming right up. I have another favorite player as of the start of the postseason: Simeon Varlamov. What a stud!
So I love this idea so much that yesterday I forgot to eat any carbs for lunch, and by two in the afternoon, was starving! Had to buy some crackers and Nutri-grain bars (I fall in and out of like with those). I remembered today, but still the greater part of my lunch consisted of fruit. It has become my new must-have, cannot-live-without food staple.
My only regret is that none of these fruits are currently in season, and bananas aren't grown locally (Tropics in DC anyone? Though it might feel like it in summer, we're not even close. Though I wonder if anyone has ever tried growing bananas here...). Ever since university, I've been attracted to locally-grown produce, and the idea of eating what's available and in season locally. It cuts down on a lot of waste (think gasoline for trucks, refrigeration of those same trucks), and sometimes even the cost of the produce. It also just seems fresher. Hasn't taken a cross-country trip in a refrigerator to get to your local grocery store.
However. Alongside this preference lives the knowledge that when technology and global commerce did not allow for cross-country shipments of "fresh" produce, communities only had what was grown locally. Meaning, no bananas for DC. Ever. No oranges, except maybe at Christmas. No berries until they were in season. And one thing that has come with the global economy, is more opportunity for better health. Nobody in first-world countries worries about scurvy anymore (at least unless you're one of those people who never eats fruits or vegetables, which I find extremely sad). And that's only one example.
So I'm going to take advantage of the opportunities I have to eat exotic fruits, even if they aren't in season or available anywhere but the tropics. And I'll try to remember next winter about my passion for fruit salad (does anyone else eat fewer salads, fruit or otherwise, in winter?)
If anyone has ideas about what fruits and veggies are in season right now in the mid-Atlantic region, please share!
In other, unrelated news, the Capitals won Game 7 in the first series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Rangers and are going on to Round 2!!! One grunge match against the Pittsburgh Penguins, coming right up. I have another favorite player as of the start of the postseason: Simeon Varlamov. What a stud!
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