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Eating fresh produce seasonally is not difficult for people living in a warm or tropical climate where there is lots of variety year-round. I lived in San Diego for several years. I wandered wide-eyed from store to store marveling at the beauty and choices I had. I’d moved there from Ohio where choices were extremely limited in winter. I was so in love I thought I’d stay in California forever.

After San Diego, I lived in Alaska for over a decade.

The problems in Alaska were the same as Ohio—little or no local produce in winter. Food in Ohio came from Florida and California mostly by truck. In Alaska, food came by plane—making the cost of fresh food out of reach for a lot of people.

But the cost of food wasn’t the only problem; the quality was awful. Food grown for transport is not the same as food grown for local consumption. In order for food to be transported long distances, growers plant seeds bred to produce food that can survive a long trip, and harvested before they are ripe. Growing foods for transport does not encourage taste, or nutrition.

While my choices for fresh foods in Portland are not as limited as in Ohio or Alaska, there are no Farmers’ Markets in the dead of winter.

I usually limit my winter fresh produce to foods grown in Oregon, Washington, and California. This means no fresh tomatoes in January.

Tomatoes in stores during winter look and taste bland and boring. Today I am dreaming of pulling a warm tomato from the vine on a hot summer day and taking a big juicy bite. The anticipation of a fresh tomato is better than a poor imitation for instant gratification. I’m not into hardship or suffering, rather I strive to eat foods at their peak of flavor and nutrition and think the rewards are worth the wait. Besides, having a more limited palette in winter forces me to be creative.

Not so long ago, our ancestors had no choice but to eat food they processed themselves. They grew their food in summer; then canned and stored it for winter.

If you can’t grow and process your own food in summer to eat in winter, fermented and sprouted foods are a healthy delicious choice. Fermentation is easy—cabbage becomes sauerkraut in less than a week. Sprouting beans, grains and seeds is even easier. All you need are glass jars and some cheese cloth. Within 2 or 3 days you’ve got a lovely crop of crisp fresh veggies with an outstanding nutritional profile.

For a really well written, informative, and interesting book on the topic of eating locally get a copy of Paul Nabhan’s “Coming Home to Eat.”

And remember, spring is just around the corner.