In the spring I posted the best times of year for planting, but more importantly (in case you aren’t able to grow your own food) is when things are in harvest. We’re about to get into the time of year when fresh produce is a bit sparse in the north. The only things fresh, local, and in season in Maryland in December are sweet potatoes … and Christmas trees but last time I ate one of those I did NOT feel well afterward. Hence, lots of freezing and canning, right?
Seasonal is still a ballpark estimate by region depending on where you live. My tomatoes are on their way out in Maryland, but my mom lives in Michigan and is just starting to see pink on her first tomato. I think she may have to pick some and put them in the window sill where they’ll get some heat, because it has been an unseasonably cool summer.
Eat Well had a seasonal food guide for the U.S. and Canada where you can click on your state (or province) and get a produce list for your area. In the Yukon, they only harvest Christmas trees in December, so northern America, consider those sweet potatoes a blessing. Epicurious has a great idea for a seasonal, farm-to-table cooking guide where, besides seeing what’s in season in your state, you can also get associated recipes. Unfortunately the map didn’t go through testing (haha- little shop joke there since I lead a test team in my day job), and it’s not working correctly. But try back and hopefully they will fix the recipe links.
What you do with a seasonal guide, is substitute what’s in season for your recipe that calls for something similar that’s out of season. For example, today I substituted blackberries for the raspberries in my sunflower seed butter pancakes. This time of year you can take your spring cherry cobbler recipe and use peaches instead. Here is a peach crisp recipe without as much sugar as most recipes. We don’t dip our peaches in sugar when we’re eating them fresh, so I don’t see why we need much sugar in the dessert. You do not need to peel them if you wash them and know your farmer (or know they’re organic). My topping looks a little dry after baking because I only had ¼ cup of butter and didn’t have time to go to the store, so I stirred the topping into the peaches when I put it in bowls. And I only used three peaches because they were massive.
Peach Crisp
4-5 sliced peaches, depending on size
2 T brown sugar
1 C oats
1/2 C flour
1/2 C butter
1 t cinnamon
½ t nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350. Slice the peaches into a sprayed 2 qt baking dish. Mix in the brown sugar. Mix the oats, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg and cut in the cold butter. Pour about 1/3 of the oat mixture on the peaches and combine it a little. Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture on top and bake for 30 minutes.
