What's in season when, then? [Matthew's Journal]

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Following discussion elsewhere on how much one might be expected to know about what's in season when, I thought I'd have a poll. I probably won't test you on your answers later :-)

Please look at the following, and tick those you know about without looking them up:

[Poll #1152410]

If you're interested in this sort of thing, this website has quite a useful list (please don't use it to cheat :)

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There are 54 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

How sure and how specific do you need to be? I could have guessed some more. The ones I did tick, I can only give a season, possibly prepended with "late/early", not a specific month.

But just to see if I actually know, here are my answers: asparagus - mayish, beetroot - januaryish, leeks october?, apples - autumn, blackberries - late august / september, goosberries - similar to blackberries, slightly earlier, pears - as apples, raspberries - august.

Hmm, not too bad. The world has more beetroot in it than I expected (I guess I only notice it when everything else _isn't_ in season), goosberries are very slightly earlier than I expected, and leeks go on a bit more than I said, but not more than I thought.

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I ticked the ones I thought I knew about and then used the website to check - had to untick beetroot, which is actually rather earlier than I thought. (Although my confusion is based on my veg box apparently giving me beetroot out of season)

I ticked things I vaguely knew to within a 3 month window or so. Blackberries come in a bit earlier than I thought, but otherwise I was vaguely right :)

Blackberries come in much earlier in Cambridge than they do in Elgin.

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(no subject) —

lnr

Ah, I see, if I had done this, I would not have ended up ticking "none of the above". I'm just too specific it seems.

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For several of these I think they're in season in "the month of such-and-such, give or take a month" but I've ticked them anyway. Having kept a vegetable garden, albeit only for a year and for a narrow range of veg, turns out to help a great deal with this question.

your season is so obviously not our season. we still have snow in the forecast for tomorrow!

Gotta love that Gulf Stream!

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I am amazed at the idea of people not knowing when fruits/berries are in season. I mean, even living in a city, there are still plants around! There's still flowers, and they come out in spring when everything stops being dead and cold; and eventually their petals fall off, and there's a lumpy bit underneath, and that's the fruit; and that gets bigger and ripens and then if it's not poisonous you can eat it, probably; and then they all fall off and go rotten, and leaves do the same, and everything goes slushy and rainy, then everything goes cold and dead again. That's yer seasons, and, I mean, you don't have to be some kind of mental hippy living up a tree to see that happening. There are probably even flowers in London, in, um, a park, or something.

And ducks, yeah, I didn't tick them actually, but it's probably like chickens and stuff, innit. I mean, you get eggs in the spring, like easter eggs, you know, and then they hatch into chicks, and then they grow up a bit, and then OM NOM NOM. Or something along those lines.

I live in the countryside, however, I ticked "none of the above" because I would only be hazarding a vague guess as to which month. I never have cause to wonder when things are in season, in a detailed way, or rather, to memorise it - probably since we can get most things when we want/need them, and how in season they are is reflected in a. where we get them from b. how much they cost and c. whether they are being labelled as "British" or "in season" or "just dug up" or whatever.

I personally don't see anything wrong with this since I don't grow them myself - I also don't know when non-fruit/vege plants come into season, much, although I could probably hazard a guess at vague seasonality of most regular things including crops and flowers.

I know when it's potato picking time, since I see them being picked, likewise other harvests, I just haven't bothered to note it in advance, it just happens & I take note at the time. Is there necessarily anything wrong with this approach? I know that most things aren't in season in the winter, that's not the same as knowing exactly *when* though.

I don't think this not-knowing is equaivalent to "not having a clue", maybe we are just so used to the pace of rural life we don't give it a thought, it just is what it is when it is, such as the lambs waking us up in the mornings, which will in a fairly short while be gone, and heading to the abbatoir sometime after that!

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j4.livejournal.com

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emperor

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didiusjulianus.livejournal.com

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pizza.maircrosoft.com

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j4.livejournal.com

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pizza.maircrosoft.com

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pm215

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j4.livejournal.com

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pm215

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didiusjulianus.livejournal.com

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tienelle.livejournal.com

Up to modulo a month. I has done veg gardening which helps.

I only managed to tick the ones my parents used to grow/we used to go foraging for.

I'm surprised more people didn't get spring onions from the name.

that didn't even occur to me...

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woodpijn.livejournal.com

I'm judging on "what Abel and Cole have put in our veg box in the last few weeks". Also, celeriac, swede, kale, celery, some cabbage, or so it appears. Possibly also Jerusalem artichokes and globe artichokes, omnomnomnom. :D

Oops. I misread "when the following are in season" as "that the following are in season".

*goes back, redoes poll*

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Shame on me for knowing only around half - this year's campaign to live better definitely includes eating food which has travelled less / costs less...

In my defence on the duck and sea bass, I have only been buying these for the last few years, and most of that time I have been buying frozen meat.

I am also struck that with the sole exception of asparagus, all those I knew, I have grown. Simply seeing the label change from 'uk' to 'spain' on the supermarket shelf obviously does not register with me.

Asparagus I knew because I was in Germany during Asparagus time three years ago.

I think it is perfectly normal not to know when such things as fish and duck are in season, although kudos to those who do know, especially if it is actually relevant to their lives/shopping habits.

I wouldn't know about the fish, since I don't ever ever eat sea bass (okay I did once in a restaurant, someone else said "try a bit", but other than that, not), and don't like most fish, and not too much even of the fish I do like ;) I also only buy duck about once a year.

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Possibly related to the fact that we/our parents do or have grown most of them (except the ducks, and indeed the sea bass - but we only knew the season for duck, of those two)....

Or it might also be that we've become quite good at noticing what's both cheap and nice in the supermarket (or at the street market) at any given time of year.

stripey_cat's knowledge is rather more detailed than mine, as she's currently working out a planting rotation for the allotment we've just been allotted....

Are you sure farmed duck have a season? The site you link to only has a season for wild duck, which I believe is a hunting season rather than an eating season, IYSWIM.

lol everything I knew is fruit :-). Veggies are clearly too dull.

Sea bass is the only one I have totally no idea for.

I only knew mostly fruit, and duck. This is good on indicating my priorities, though I wish I knew the sea bass one - do they *have* a season or is that a trick question??

I think so, but I've not checked >1 source. It wasn't an intentional trick question.

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medieval-bunny.livejournal.com

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emperor

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medieval-bunny.livejournal.com

I Have No Clue.

I eat scarcely a third of those, which is my excuse for not knowing.

I know the things my Dad used to grow in the garden, plus a few others (but not duck or sea bass!). We used to dig and eat our beetroot in summer and autumn.

October