When are various fruits & vegetables in season?
October 16, 2005 12:37 AM 
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During which times of the year are various fruits/vegetables/herbs/other in season?
I love to cook, but the list of dishes that I cycle through has stopped growing. Whenever I'm at the markets I see loads of ingredients I would love to try, but not knowing when they are at their best (and cheapest -- I'm a stingy uni student), I'll play it safe and rush home to make the same delicious Carbonara I've been filling my arteries with for the last 3 years.
Most of the websites I've found using Google are northern-hemisphere-centric, and I have no idea if it's as simple as just reversing the seasons. Since I'd imagine that geography comes into it, I'm in Adelaide, South Australia. The climate here is pretty temperate: the winters rarely duck under 5ºC even at night, and the summers only occasionally peak above 37ºC. Don't let that limit your answers though, be as broad as you like. And I'm talking about any ingredients here, from tomatoes to figs to taragon to squash. Anything you can think of. If some ingredients aren't worth the fuss to buy fresh and in season, by all means mention those too (e.g. if I'm just cooking for me and the girlfriend, frozen raspberries are fine for a quick coulis).
If you're talking in terms of months of the year, please specify whether you're in the northern or southern hemisphere if it makes a difference.
posted by teem to food & drink (10 comments total)
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That's an incredibly broad question, and I doubt anybody here will really be able to answer it. This is self-evident, but every fruit and vegetable can be harvested at some point in the year. And in the Southern Hemisphere, that harvesting should be 6 months before / after the harvesting in the Northern Hemisphere. If there are specific fruits / vegetables you're interested in, I imagine people will be able to help you better.
Keep in mind that some of the produce you'll be buying might be imported from the Northern Hemisphere. Also keep in mind that greenhouses allow farmers to grow plants in the off seasons.
I'm in the Northern Hemisphere. It's both hotter and colder here than in Adelaide.
Figs are in season now, and have been for a few months.
Lettuce is in season throughout the summer and fall, and until the first hard frost. That's December around here.
Leafy greens (collards, spinach, kale) are (I think) available now, and get less bitter as cold weather approaches. I think they're fine until later in the winter.
Watermelon is available in the summer and very early fall.
I know oranges and other citrus fruits are harvested the most in the winter time (at least, that's when we get people coming door-to-door selling them), but I think they're available all year(?).
Pumpkins and other gourds (squash) are available in the fall, mostly.
Taragon and other herbs are, I think, available all year round, since you're eating the leaves, not some blooming seed pod.
Tomatoes are flexible, I think. If you stagger the times when you plant them, they'll provide tomatoes for a long time. They're mostly available in the summer months, but I think you can get them in the spring and late fall, as well. Also, don't forget about greenhouses.
Apples are around all year, but the ones I know are harvested the most right about now.
From what I've seen, grapes are at their peak in the early summer.
Also, I'd suggest you contact a local agricultural center: either a university program that specializes in farming or a private gardening center. Take a list of fruits you want to know about, and they should be able to tell you when they're freshest.
posted by Alt F4 at 4:12 AM on October 16, 2005