get ready to nerd out about Bay Area fruits and vegetables
Connect with your local food system, eat tastier produce, and learn hacks to reduce wasted food at home.
Welcome to Seasonal by me, Andrea Castillo, a food nerd.
As an insatiably curious eater, I always want to know the what’s, how’s, when’s, and why’s of the food I eat. I grew up eating seasonally and stopped for some reason while I was handling the whole adulting thing. And recently, I had two defining moments that inspired me to get serious about eating seasonally again. The first was having a bit of a freak out moment because I just couldn’t process how incredible a sweet Italian cherry tomato varietal tastes in August. The second happened after reading Kenji Lopez-Alt’s passionate BLT manifesto about why BLTs are the definition of seasonal eating and why he’d only eat this holy tomato sandwich in the summer. Something clicked and I decided to get in touch with the seasonality of my home, the San Francisco Bay Area.
I’ve spent months researching and learning about all the fascinating fruits and vegetables that are locally grown and naturally harvested around the Bay.
I learned that orachs and apriums are things you eat, that radishes remain insanely crisp if you keep them in a bowl of water in the fridge after trimming both ends, and that we are truly spoiled by the bounty of produce harvested around the Bay Area. Take January, for example, our most limited month for locally harvested food: there are 49 different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables ready for us to enjoy. Compare that to New York City, where harsh winters put everything on hold and they cannot harvest anything in January. And wait til October rolls around the Bay Area. Compared to January, the availability of local, fresh produce DOUBLES.
There are more than 110 different fruits and vegetables grown and harvested around the Bay Area and there’s a lot to know. And just as there is an abundance of nutrient-rich, full-of-deliciousness produce we can enjoy, there is an overwhelming number of fascinating stories about each individual fruit or vegetable grown by dedicated, hard-working farmers around us.
about the newsletter
Choosing what to cover is hard. There aren’t even enough weeks in a year to learn about all the produce the Bay Area offers. Seasonal exists to highlight the most interesting aspects of seasonal fruits and vegetables in order to illuminate our connection to the food systems we live and eat in.
So, what can you expect? By signing up, you will receive one e-mail in your inbox twice a month. Each e-mail will feature in-depth answers to some of the what’s, how’s, when’s, and why’s of one fruit or one vegetable that’s in season. For example, the first bonus post, which is available now, will explore what different grapefruit varietals are grown in the Bay Area, why grapefruits are not universally healthy, and how to eat grapefruit peel.
If you’re interested in connecting to the Bay Area food system one fruit and vegetable at a time, sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.
In the meantime, tell your friends!