Frugal living tip #31.

“Buy fresh, buy local.” It’s a bumper sticker slogan that our friend Ben thinks says it all. (Well, practically all; there’s also “No farms, no food.”) Saving money on food purchases and eating a healthy diet often seem to be mutually exclusive goals. But they’re not if you’re willing to reeducate yourself to eat as our ancestors did: seasonally.

Eating seasonally means eating what’s ripe and abundant (and therefore cheap) in your area right now. To those of us who grew up with the watermelon and tomatoes in the dead of winter mindset, this might seem an exotic or limiting idea. But think about it: Right now, where Silence Dogood and our friend Ben live in southeastern Pennsylvania, corn on the cob, tomatoes, green and yellow wax beans, cabbages, eggplant, peppers, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, cucumbers, sweet onions, summer squash (including zucchini), Romaine lettuce, early apples, and peaches are at peak, not to mention abundant herbs like basil and mint. This certainly sounds like a feast to our friend Ben, and not just a feast, but a feast of full-flavored, fabulous produce, not pale, mealy, tasteless stuff that’s been grown and shipped from God-knows-where.

Learning to eat seasonally means enjoying abundance in season, but it can also mean preparing to enjoy produce off-season by buying it in quantity while it’s fresh and cheap and then preserving it by canning, freezing, pickling, and/or drying. Home-canned or frozen corn or beans (or corn relish or salsa or dilly beans) may not be the same as fresh, true, but they’re still better than the ghastly imitations that have been doused with chemicals and shipped bazillion miles to be sold at premium off-season prices. And an inventive cook can always make the most of them, in soups, cornbread, casseroles, stir-fries or sautes, corn pudding, etc.

Speaking of inventive cooks, I’ll let Silence take over here to give you some good resources. But our friend Ben wants to remind you that there are three benefits to rediscovering seasonal eating: First, for the point of these tips, it’s the least expensive way to enjoy fresh, flavorful, nutrition-packed food. Next, it enhances your anticipation of each fruit and vegetable in a way you wouldn’t believe. If you know the only time you’ll be eating watermelon is in late summer when it’s locally available, it’s enough to reactivate even the most jaded palate. And of course, in-season local produce tastes so much better that you’ll fall in love with fruits and vegetables all over again. Finally, it feels good to be supporting your local community—really, your neighbors—by buying locally-grown produce. In these tough economic times, giving back to your community matters more than ever. And what better way to do that than to get the freshest, most flavorful fruits and veggies in return? Okay, on to Silence:

Silence Dogood here. As OFB says, we’re big believers in eating seasonally and locally. We’re not so fanatical that we’re willing to give up our salads in the winter, but we also find that fresh produce tastes so good that we don’t mind—in fact, we look forward to—eating, for example, corn on the cob and green and yellow wax beans several times a week while they’re in season. Ditto for the fabulous Caprese salads made from Romaine lettuce, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, fresh mozzarella, scallions (green onions), salt, and a drizzle of olive oil. Fresh, perfectly ripened food just can’t be beat, and another joy is that it’s easy and fast to prepare.

However, I realize that switching to seasonal cooking can be a challenge for our everything-all-the-time society. So thank goodness there are plenty of cookbooks out there to help us! Here are a few of my faves:

Farmers’ market cookbooks are a great source of seasonal, regional recipes. Two of my favorites are From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce (Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition, Third Edition, Jones Books, 2004) and Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables (Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics, Gibbs Smith, 2006). There are doubtless many more; try to find one from a farmers’ market in your area, or at least one from a similar climate.

Learning to Eat Locally: Berkshire Recipes for All Seasons (Juliette Spertus, Williams College, 1998). This was the first locally- and seasonally-oriented cookbook I ever saw. I still love it.

Simply in Season: Recipes That Celebrate Fresh, Local Foods (Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert, Mennonite Central Committee, Herald Press, 2005). Though described as “A World Community Cookbook,” the “world” part refers to the international scope of the recipes, which are divided into seasons based on the North American gardening year. That makes the book easy to use if you’re an American or Canadian, but it also provides a wealth of international recipes for seasonal produce in case your family can’t face eating, say, boiled corn on the cob over and over again. (What’s wrong with them?!!)

Recipes from a Kitchen Garden (Renee Shepherd and Fran Raboff, Ten Speed Press, 1993). Renee Shepherd has spent her professional life trying to encourage home gardeners to grow the most delectable, flavorful vegetable and herb varieties, first through Shepherd’s Garden Seeds and now through Renee’s Garden. In this book and its sequel, she shows you how to make the most of your backyard bounty (or the bounty of your local farmers’ market or CSA).

Cooking from the Garden (Rosalind Creasy, Sierra Club Books, 1988). Ros’s book launched the revival of kitchen gardening and cooking from the garden here in the States. I have a signed copy of this classic and it’s still one of my most cherished cookbooks. Kudos to you, Ros!

The Let’s Preserve series. Our friend Ben and I (and our puppy Shiloh) went to Meadowview Farm this past Wednesday to see what Jim Weaver had on offer, and we weren’t disappointed. I snagged a wealth of heirloom tomatoes, including the famed ‘Banana Legs’, which I had read about for years but never encountered, as well as bags of green and yellow wax beans and some jalapenos. When we got to the checkout counter, I saw something new: in addition to recipe cards, the Weavers had sheets of “Let’s Preserve” pamphlets from Penn State, summarizing the best ways to preserve everything from blueberries to snap beans and tomatoes. Needless to say, I snapped them up. Your local Cooperative Extension Service may have the equivalent of these, and if not, there’s always the classic Ball Blue Book, which gives directions for hot-water-bath and pressure canning of fruits and vegetables, as well as recipes.

Finally, though it’s not a cookbook, Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Harper Perennial, 2008) is a fantastic introduction and inspiration for eating locally and seasonally. A must-read!

If you have any favorite seasonal/local cookbooks, please share them with us. And meanwhile, everyone, buy fresh, buy local, save money!

                ‘Til next time,

                        Silence and our friend Ben