Eating Seasonally

When I started on this journey of self-reliance, simple living, being frugal, etc., one of the first things that I focused on was trying to eat seasonally. In an ideal world, I would eat seasonally from food that I grew on my very own, but I'm not there yet. So the next best thing is try and eat things local that are growing in my area at that time.

I've got a chart in my document section that shows what foods are in season for Illinois, but I just found this GREAT website that allows you to pick your state, and the time of year (it's toward the bottom of the page.)

Here is a copy of the information that I found when I looked at Illinois for Late October.

What's Fresh
Illinois: Late October

• Apples
• Bell Pepper
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Grapes
• Greens
• Herbs
• Horseradish
• Lettuce
• Okra
• Onions
• Peas
• Plums
• Potatoes
• Pumpkins
• Radishes
• Rhubarb
• Spinach
• Squash
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Turnips

(If you click on the links, it will take you to a recipe using that food.)

This makes it easier for me so that I can take a short list from this website when I go shopping. Because of course, you can buy any food at any time at the grocery store. Or at least most of the time. I do try and buy things from the local farmers market when I can or from the local health food store, but there are certainly times when I buy at a major grocery store and the foods I buy aren't necessarily local. But at least if they aren't local, I'm eating foods that are in season at that time.