Eating with the Seasons

Explore the benefits of eating seasonal foods for your health, your meals, and your local community.

What is seasonal eating?

Seasonal eating means choosing fruits and vegetables around the time they’re harvested, particularly those grown in your region.

Different types of produce thrive under different growing conditions, including sunlight, temperature, and rainfall. That’s why the fruits and vegetables available from nearby farms change throughout the year.

Eating with the seasons can be as simple as adding a few locally available ingredients to your usual meals and snacks.

Related reading: Should your diet change with the seasons?

What are the benefits of eating with the seasons?

1. More variety

Eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables helps you get a broader mix of vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial plant compounds.

You’ve probably heard the advice to “eat the rainbow.” Different fruits and vegetables contain different phytonutrients, naturally occurring plant compounds that include many of the pigments responsible for their colors.

Following the seasons gives you a reason to change things up. You might enjoy berries and tomatoes in summer, then try apples, winter squash, and leafy greens in fall. It’s an easy way to bring more variety to your meals and discover new favorites.

2. Supporting local farmers

Shopping at a farmers market or farm stand gives you the opportunity to support growers in your community and ask what’s being harvested nearby.

Another option is community-supported agriculture, or CSA. With a CSA, you purchase a share of a farm’s harvest and receive produce throughout an agreed season.

Payment arrangements vary: some farms ask for payment upfront, while others offer installments. Produce is often available weekly, but the schedule, share size, selection, and pickup or delivery options depend on the farm.

Before signing up, compare the cost and amount of produce with what your household is likely to use. A CSA can be a convenient way to try seasonal foods, but it isn’t automatically the least expensive option.

Use the USDA’s Local Food Directories to find farmers markets, CSAs, and farm stands near you.

3. Freshness and nutrition

Locally grown seasonal produce may spend less time traveling or sitting in storage before it reaches your plate.

That can matter for certain nutrients. For example, the National Institutes of Health notes that prolonged storage can reduce the vitamin C content of food.

However, seasonal produce isn’t automatically more nutritious than every other option. Nutrient levels also depend on the type of produce and how it’s grown, handled, stored, and prepared.

Frozen fruits and vegetables can be nutritious choices, too. A University of California, Davis study comparing refrigerated and frozen produce found that the vitamins measured were generally comparable, and sometimes higher in frozen samples, although results varied by nutrient and food.

Choose a mix of fresh and frozen produce that works for your budget and routine. You can enjoy seasonal foods while still keeping convenient favorites in the freezer.

4. Great flavor

One of the most enjoyable reasons to eat seasonally is the taste.

Produce harvested at an appropriate stage of ripeness can offer great flavor. Think of a juicy late-summer tomato or a crisp apple picked in the fall.

Ask growers what tastes especially good that week and how they like to prepare it. You might discover a new apple variety, a squash you haven’t cooked before, or a simple way to enjoy a familiar vegetable.

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What food is in season?

What’s in season depends on where you live, the time of year, and local growing conditions. Fall harvests in California can look different from those in New York.

For a guide tailored to your location, use the Seasonal Food Guide to explore produce by state and time of year.

Fall produce in New York

According to GrowNYC’s seasonal produce guide, examples of produce available in the region during fall include:

• Apples
• Pears
• Grapes
• Sunchokes
• Winter squash
• Curly kale
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Beets
• Carrots
• Potatoes

Availability varies throughout the season and from farm to farm. Some crops are also available beyond their harvest season thanks to storage.

Start with one or two ingredients you enjoy, then build them into meals you already make. Try roasted squash in a grain bowl, apples with oatmeal, or leafy greens stirred into soup.

Related reading: Why winter makes you hungrier

Words by Madeline Peck, Huel US RDN, CDN.