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In season now (and soon!)

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Eating seasonally and locally is a way to live more lightly on the earth – with a side benefit of enjoying more tasty produce! If you’ve ever compared a woody, out-of-season California strawberry with one fresh-picked from the garden, you’ve experienced this first-hand. But if you’ve always just bought what’s available at the grocery store (and you don’t garden yourself), you may not know just what is in season. Act Now B.C. has compiled a list of benefits of eating seasonally, along with a handy chart that shows when your favourite produce is available.

Photo: Sharon Mollerus
Photo: Sharon Mollerus

The two benefits identified by Act Now B.C. are affordability (out-of-season produce usually costs more) and sustainability (environmental, community and economic) but, as I alluded to at the beginning, the most immediate and satisfying is the sheer pleasure of eating a strawberry that tastes like a strawberry should.

So, what’s in season now?

  • Strawberries
  • Beans
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Corn
  • Lettuce
  • Green onions
  • Radishes
  • Rhubarb
  • Spinach
  • Turnips
  • Zucchini

We can look forward to all of the above, plus the following treats at the Royal City Farmers Market in July & August:

  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Cherries
  • Currants
  • Raspberries
  • Parsnips
  • Field peppers

Remember, the market is held every Thursday from 3-7pm, starting June 25 and continuing until October 8, in Tipperary Park near City Hall.

Eat local, eat in season

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Many people are becoming more concerned about food quality, food security, and greenhouse gas emissions caused by the long-distance trucking of their food. The best thing you can do is to eat local, eat in season. And here in the GVRD, that is becoming easier all the time!

Did you know that…

· While there are many farmers in the Fraser Valley, most sell their produce to large distributors via advance contracts. It is hard for them to take time off from farming (what they do best) to travel around to sell at markets. This story in the Georgia Straight illustrates the complexity of what faces our local farmers.

· Growing vegetables in hothouses in BC causes fewer CO2 emissions than trucking them in from Mexico and California. Typically, you will save about 70% of the weight of the vegetable in greenhouse gas savings by buying local produce.

· If you have to make the choice between eating trucked-in organic produce or local conventionally-grown produce, it’s better for the environment to get the local stuff.

· The provincial government supports local products via its “buyBC” campaign. There are specific guidelines for terms such as: BCgrown, BCmade, and BCproduct; in general, these items have >50% local content.

· In BC, food security is closely tied to the province’s Agricultural Land Reserve or ALR. Without the ALR, the 100-mile diet will become impossible. With real estate prices sky-high, the ALR is under constant pressure. A recent report (PDF) by the David Suzuki Foundation gives some recommendations regarding the ALR.

· “Community Supported Agriculture” is another model of supporting local farmers.

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Land Acknowledgement

Our market is grateful to operate on the unceded land of the Qayqayt, Kwikwetlem, and other Halkomelem speaking Peoples. We acknowledge that colonialism has made invisible their histories and connections to the land. We acknowledge the incredible gift this land is to our market and BC Agriculture. We commit to the ongoing work of decolonization and allyship.