So in the U.K. you can get pretty much any fruit or veg, pretty much any time of year. The price doesn’t change dramatically and it often tastes like a watered-down version of what it should taste like, but it never tastes truly awful. The great thing you imagine about this is that you have this whole variety of fruit and veg in front of you, you can have something different, something new all the time. The reality: you buy the same staples every week, unless there’s something new you want to cook specifically why risk it? I know I always stuck with things that I could use in a lot of dishes and that I knew how to cook well. If I did venture out of my “comfort zone” when cooking something different, I’d usually end up throwing the rest away as I didn’t know what to do with it.
Moving to Melbourne gave me a massive culture shock (and a kick up the arse) with this! I couldn’t believe how expensive tomatoes were when I arrived, and I was devastated when the beautiful tasting strawberries I’d been eating day in and day out suddenly turned to over-ripe mush or bitter rock imitations of what I’d previously enjoyed.
I soon began to get the hang of what was “in season” and now the fruit and veg I buy tastes amazing, as soon as it stops tasting amazing I move on to something new. However, there was then the problem of what do I do with it. You don’t want to feel like you’re eating nothing but spinach for a month, and you don’t want to always include it in the same way, but then you also don’t want to buy it for one meal and throw the rest away. So here’s where In Season will help. I’ll choose a couple of fruits or vegetables that are in season each month and provide a few recipes of how to use them – either as key ingredients in meals, or quick ways to use up left overs. I’ll also give you handy tips on how to choose the fruit or veg so you know what’s ready to eat tonight and what you can keep to ripen over a couple of days.