Savoring Seasonal Produce:
How to Fight Food Waste and Keep Your Favorite Flavors Fresh
By Damon BrownEver wonder why that juicy summer tomato tastes like a slice of heaven, but its winter cousin tastes more like disappointment? That’s the magic of seasonal produce! When fruits and veggies are in season, they’re fresher, tastier, and easier on your wallet. But what do you do when your garden gives you more zucchini than you can handle? Enter the world of preserving—where we turn "too much of a good thing" into "enough to last you until next year!"
In this series, we’ll show you how to preserve your seasonal bounty, so you can enjoy it longer, save money, and stop your fresh produce from becoming a long term resident of your crisper drawer
Wasting Food = Wasting Money (And We All Know How That Feels)
Throwing out spoiled food is like taking your money and setting it on fire. By learning a few preservation tricks, you can keep more of what you buy and make your grocery budget stretch further—kind of like finding a $20 bill in your winter coat.
How Preserving Your Produce Can Save the Day
Preserving your fruits and veggies is like having a superpower—one that prevents spoilage and lets you enjoy those fresh flavors long after your garden (or local market) has called it quits for the season.
Keep Your Food Fresh Longer: With easy methods like freezing, canning, drying, and fermenting, you can keep your produce in prime condition for months—even years! That means less food waste, more savings, and fewer trips to the store (because who needs more of those?).
Save Money and Reduce Waste: When you preserve your seasonal produce, you’re less likely to throw away food—no more sad, forgotten carrots at the bottom of the crisper drawer.
Enjoy Seasonal Flavors All Year: Why should summer strawberries only be a thing in, well, summer? With preservation, you can keep the taste of your favorite seasonal produce going all year round. December strawberries, anyone?
What’s the Deal with Seasonal Produce?
Seasonal produce is all about enjoying fruits and veggies at their prime—when they’re so good, you might even consider them dessert (sorry, chocolate cake). Think strawberries that taste like candy in early summer or pumpkins that are just begging to be turned into pies in the fall. Eating seasonally means getting produce that not only tastes better but also comes packed with extra nutrients.
Why Eating Seasonally Is a No-Brainer
Better Flavor: Seasonal fruits and veggies are picked at just the right moment, so they taste like a little bit of sunshine (or at least something way better than the off-season stuff).
More Nutritious: When produce is harvested at its peak, it’s loaded with all the good stuff your body loves.
Wallet-Friendly: Seasonal produce is usually more affordable because, well, there’s a ton of it!
Support Your Local Farmer: Buying in-season often means buying local, which is great for your community and gives you a reason to feel better about reducing your carbon footprint.
What’s Coming Up Next
In our upcoming pages, we’ll dive into the nitty-gritty of preserving your produce, covering everything from freezing to canning, drying, and fermenting. We’ll guide you through each method with step-by-step instructions, plus some tips and tricks to make sure you get the most out of your seasonal haul.
