Seasonal food guide

​Many people are interested in eating food that is locally produced, but unless you are able to visit a good farmer’s market that carries local food, it’s hard to know where your food comes from.  It is helpful that some grocery stores do label some of their produce as “local”, although the definition of local varies.  Some brands or types of food are well known to be from a certain part of the country, such as Vidalia (Georgia) onions, Palisade (Colorado) peaches, and Idaho potatoes, so it is easy to know if these are local for you.  However, one of the huge benefits of our modern society is that we can get a variety of foods all year, which greatly contributes to a healthy diet.  Some foods, such as citrus fruits, will never be locally grown where I live, but I consider them important and so purchase the ones that are shipped in.  I looked up which fruits and vegetables are considered “in season”, meaning they could be locally grown at this time of year in my area of the country.  As I expected because our winters are too cold, there are no fruits or vegetables locally in season right now.  To eat a balanced nutritious diet in January, I have to rely on fruits and vegetables that were either preserved last summer or are fresh and shipped from somewhere much warmer.  So, in January, because I didn’t spend much time last summer preserving locally grown fruits and vegetables, I choose to enjoy the healthy fruits and vegetables in my grocery store.  However, knowing what’s in season and what’s not may be helpful in making some of your food choices or knowing what you can buy (or grow) locally and preserve for later in the year.  It may also give you some ideas for preserving some of next summer’s local harvest.  In just a few minutes of website searching, I found several seasonal food guides.  Some are for the US, some for Europe, and one includes South America and Australia.  
https://www.seasonalfoodguide.org
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/seasonal-calendar/all
http://na-nu.com/terfloth.org/Kitchen/Season_Cal.pd
http://www.damngoodrecipes.com/seasonal/8.html