As a not-huge fan of tomatoes who used to avoid them at all costs, I have in recent years come around to appreciate their place in a caprese salad or whatever. Generally when these things are offered as a result of being "in season" here..
My wife insists that the tomatoes we get in the off season are "grainy" or "tasteless" but honestly it's all still just as marginally edible to me, so at this point I feel like I've won something important.
In the case of tomatoes, they're a year round thing here because of the weather. In fact, many things are if you go to the local produce market.
The chain market, because they're Big Distribution, insists on giving us Chilean peaches and Dutch sweet peppers, and even bringing oranges from Morocco etc. I guess when you think in terms of cargo containers it's not worth it to shop locally.
A mile away from the RALPHS OF DOOM I can get year-round deliciousness for half the price. And if it's really not in season, they don't pretend, they just don't have it.
The other thing is that the Mexican growing season is reversed from ours for some things, so we benefit from that.
But Chilean rock-hard peaches in November are best suited for throwing at passing grocery executives.
Yeah, our growing season is not as good as yours. My best indication of that is the local/organic basket thing we used to subscribe to. It became clear quite rapidly, knowing the lengths they went to in the good times, when those sorts of things were simply no longer available at all and they had to resort to serious gymnastics to continue to justify their monthly fees.
I didn't mind, they had good culinary imaginations and filled the 3 or 4 down months with interesting alternatives, complete with odd recipe suggestions. It would be very nice to have ripe produce all year round, though.
And I do love having fresh herbs in the yard.
I used to hate the summer here, because it's humid like the inside of a boiling frog, but the herbs and veggies have begun to sway my feelings.
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on seasonality, and the benefits of being a tomato newb
Date: 2007-05-19 05:12 am (UTC)My wife insists that the tomatoes we get in the off season are "grainy" or "tasteless" but honestly it's all still just as marginally edible to me, so at this point I feel like I've won something important.
Re: on seasonality, and the benefits of being a tomato newb
Date: 2007-05-19 05:17 am (UTC)The chain market, because they're Big Distribution, insists on giving us Chilean peaches and Dutch sweet peppers, and even bringing oranges from Morocco etc. I guess when you think in terms of cargo containers it's not worth it to shop locally.
A mile away from the RALPHS OF DOOM I can get year-round deliciousness for half the price. And if it's really not in season, they don't pretend, they just don't have it.
The other thing is that the Mexican growing season is reversed from ours for some things, so we benefit from that.
But Chilean rock-hard peaches in November are best suited for throwing at passing grocery executives.
Re: on seasonality, and the benefits of being a tomato newb
Date: 2007-05-19 05:26 am (UTC)I didn't mind, they had good culinary imaginations and filled the 3 or 4 down months with interesting alternatives, complete with odd recipe suggestions. It would be very nice to have ripe produce all year round, though.
And I do love having fresh herbs in the yard.
I used to hate the summer here, because it's humid like the inside of a boiling frog, but the herbs and veggies have begun to sway my feelings.