Why eat seasonally?

We hear it a lot, that we should eat fruit and vegetables that are in season, but what’s all the fuss? When they’re available all year round in the supermarkets is there a reason to hold back and only enjoy your favourites for a few months of the year?

Well, simply put, yes!

There are four reasons we like to eat seasonally when we can at Soulful…

1. The fruit and vegetables taste better! Deeper flavours, sweeter fruit, better textures, fresher tasting. Who doesn’t want that? Say good bye to bland, woody berries that taste of nothing and green vegetables that may as well be cardboard.
2. Seasonal produce is healthier. When things are grown with all the right conditions suited to them they are able to create more of the particular nutrients they’re known for. And when we eat them we benefit from that! 
3. They tend to come with a lower carbon footprint. We’re all trying to do our bit to reduce our carbon impact and it can be the sum of the small choices we make that have the biggest difference. Seasonal fruit and vegetables will be local, rather than flown half way around the world. They won’t have required creating the right conditions through unnatural means, so the energy required to grow them will be less. Mother earth will thank you.
4. They can be cheaper. We ALL need a bit of help with our budgets at the moment and eating seasonally can be a great way to do that. The costs involved in growing fruit and vegetables out of season (see number 2!) have to be recouped somewhere and usually that is passed onto you. So save the pennies, and choose only local, seasonal produce.

Pretty compelling, right? You can find a calendar of what is in season in the UK right here and as it’s September here are three delicious recipes for veg and three mouthwatering dishes for fruit that are in their prime right now.