#012: Monthly food seasonality screensaver

(Available in my Etsy shop!)

One of my bugbears when going shopping in supermarkets is that the produce that are not-in-season sit shoulder to shoulder with in-season ones. 

This I find annoying because, I admit and put my hands up, I’m not 100 percent clued up on what is currently in season. And so, despite wanting to buy seasonally, I am one confused woman at a loss with too much options to pick from. I know, it’s a bit sad isn’t it, that I never learnt the stuff. Growing up in the city, with a mother who preferred the newly found joy of convenient industrial foods that wasn’t available when she was a child, ‘seasonality’ wasn’t really in our family vocabulary… 

Whilst this supermarket system function well to serve us in our busy modern lives and provide us with anything everything that we want all-year round, feeding our ‘wants’, I wonder, as a consequence, have we compromised not only the ecosystem (through greenhouse gas emission, fertiliser runoffs and such), but also, compromise our stand with reality and morality? Because the reality of nature is, no, you can’t harvest strawberries in winter; and yes, it is morally weird and OTT to air-freight your daily food from thousands of miles away, and your plate of dinner consisting of produce from more than 5 countries around the world.

Its as if reality became less and less important for us and this supermarkets situation exemplifies the new norm. And sadly I’m part of it, knee-deep, nay, neck-deep. Quite a disillusioning thought.

So, I want to try a bit harder to be better. Because my heart yearns – in the fundamental core – to eat naturally to the rhythm of the land where I live. 

Because I want to hold a naturally vine-ripened tomato that is so plump and juicy, it bursts with flavour that is mesmerisingly real. I want to look forward to seasons because of the bounties it offers; talk enthusiastically about the first seasons crops after abstinence of not eating it through the rest of the year.

Did you know that nature provides what our body require: Winter root vegetables are designed to warm our body and summer fruit and vegetable cool us and repair sun damage. Why go against nature that cater so well to fix us up?

Anyways, I’m learning. – I’m learning to align my eating with the seasons. 

So:

I’m extremely proud to share with you a set of monthly seasonal food screensavers/ lock screen wallpaper that I put together. 

I have this as a lock screen on my iPhone, so whenever I’m shopping at a supermarket, I know which food is seasonal against non-seasonal.

Upon creating this, I was charmed to find that in fact meats and cheeses also have a season. Hence this comprehensive list, that is not just about fruits and vegetables. Cheese made ‘in’ season is when the cow (or sheep or goat) had quality pasture to munch on. Similarly, animals produce healthier and tastier meat when it follows the ebbs and flow of the year; cows that graze on sweet summer grass is much fatter hence succulent, and pigs that packed on weight for winter is much tastier.

My screensaver set are available for purchase on Etsy. 

I’d be absolutely so chuffed if you could use this to guide your food-choices in the supermarkets too! 🙂

t xx