To everything, turn, turn, turn....

Living in a rural farming community in Madagascar for the last two years, I really learned to appreciate the comings and goings of the seasons. Not necessarily winter, spring, summer, and fall, but the seasons of fruits, vegetables, and grains.

In the states, unless you're living on a farm, it's easy to forget that vegetables and fruits even have a particular season or only grow in certain places. You can walk into any major grocery store at any time of the year anywhere in the country and you're likely to find lettuce, tomatoes, oranges, bananas, pineapples, and maybe even a kiwi.

In my village, we didn't have those options. When the litchis were out of season, that was it until next year. When the weather was too hot for lettuce, we do without until it cools off again and we can plant more. We have jackfruit in October, litchis in November, pineapple in December, mangos in January, and oranges in February. Each month has it's own flavor that we enjoy as much as possible while we can.

Where I lived in Madagascar, there were no refrigerated coolers to keep our food "fresh." Instead, we would eat our fresh produce while it's still actually fresh and doesn't require refrigeration.
There aren't even roads reliable enough to transport food in and out. Sometimes, depending on the weather, boats would carry vegetables from the central plateau. Usually by the time they arrive, the tomatoes are smashed, the carrots are soft, and the eggplants have dried out. The best veggies always come from local gardeners around town, and are usually more reasonably priced too.

Eating locally wasn't just a personal choice for me in Madagascar, it was a basic necessity. But what I discovered, is that when given the choice, locally grown food eaten while in season actually tastes better. Maybe this is obvious to some of you. But I think for the most part, Americans are still eating frozen and canned vegetables bought off of shelves in grocery stores.
Isn't it more appealing to visit your local farmer's market and meet the people who grow your vegetables in person? Find your local farmer's market at localharvest.org. Support your local farmers!

I think my first insight into this superior local in-season taste phenomenon happened when I moved to California back in 2001. After a lifetime of despising avocados, I had my first avocado grown by farmers in Santa Cruz bought at the local market in Santa Cruz. Maybe I'm going too far by saying that avocado changed my life, but where would I be today without guacamole? I don't even want to think about it.

Similarly, there's no better place to eat tropical fruit than in the tropics. If you've ever picked a pineapple out of the ground, you know what I'm talking about. Even rice tastes better during the harvest. No joke! Freshly harvested rice has an unmistakable quality you won't find in rice bought off a shelf in the grocery store in a plastic bag.

It's a rewarding experience being in tune with the seasons. Sure, I can't eat an apple a day, but when the time comes for apples, I have months of anticipation to flavor the experience of that first bite. As they say, good things come to those who wait... The instant gratification ingrained into our American culture really does not appeal to me. I'll visit Florida if I need to eat a Florida orange, but don't waste precious fossil fuels bringing those oranges to me. I don't actually need to have anything 'right here, right now'. And I also don't need to have it 'my way'.

This idea isn't new. You've seen the bumper stickers. Think Global. Act Local. I'm not trying to be original here, I'm just starting to come to my own conclusions about the issue. In the last several months, I've read some recent books that really made me think and got me inspired. Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about her experiences eating only food she and her family grew themselves or could find locally. A similar book is Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, a young Canadian couple document their year experiment of eating only food found within 100 miles of their British Columbia home. Both are very inspiring stories and also full of great information about all the benefits of eating locally. Michael Pollan also does a good job of breaking it down in many of his books, including The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. Check those out if you're at all interested in the issue.

Now that I'm back in the states, I am really making a conscious effort to make good decisions about the food I eat and the environmental impact I'm having on the earth. It's been great to be back and see how much has changed in the level of consciousness around "green" and environmental issues.

Lucky for me I'm at the Esalen Institute (until June 7th) where a majority of the food is either grown on the property or bought from local organic farms. I'm also busy working on a permaculture design project regarding the land stewardship and food production on the property, so hopefully some of the ideas we come up with surrounding the issue are implemented in the near future as Esalen works on it's effort to become more sustainable.

Life is beautiful and healthy and abundant!

Here's a nice view of the ocean from the gorgeous Esalen garden: