tomatoes on any date of the calendar, orange juices in August – beautiful iced, please! – and, now that it's spring, God forbid there were already aubergines in the oven. Nowadays almost everything is available throughout the year: why therefore deprive oneself of winter tomatoes, summer oranges or peppers in spring?
We all know the importance of daily consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables: le famous "5 portions" – 7 to prolong life – But do not pay more attention to the speech of the seasonality – which actually applies to many foods, for example for fish. For fruit and vegetables it becomes a priority, and let's not get confused by the fact that now even organic farming propose seasonal vegetables and fruits: it is not so in fact for biodynamic agriculture, which is really linked to the cycles of the Earth and takes care of the concept of "Vitality" of food.
And yet it is not only biodynamic agriculture that sustains it, but the whole science (and underlines it the Veronesi Foundation, which supports research and scientific dissemination, primarily in the field of oncology): the fruits and vegetables grown and matured in their own soil have a greater richness of nutrients compared to those not grown up in their own environment. And so it is for all the non-seasonal vegetables and fruit that the market offers us: it has grown in the greenhouse. The alternative is to arrive from distant places where the seasons are different from ours, with an expensive journey and all that it entails in terms of damage environmental and damage to health: the more time passes from the moment of collection to that of consumption, the more some nutrients disappear, vitamins primarily.
Not only: to be able to deal with transport and distant sales, vegetables – let's think of tomatoes – and even more fruits, come collected very prematurely, with the result of not fully developing neither the nutritional potential nor those of taste: you have noticed that fruits and vegetables they don't know anything anymore, right?!? It happens too often. Of course, this is also due to other factors, primarily the use of synthetic chemicals in cultivation, like nitrogen fertilizer, which means that increases enormously the liquid part of the vegetable: leaves larger, but with little flavor. But the loss of the latter is certainly part of the cause: if we catch a fruit of the earth in the season in which it predicted it will grow, and the we collect at its right point of maturation – ie at the point where the Earth has provided for it to be eaten, the nutritional and organoleptic properties are naturally at the top. Several scientific studies prove it.
And indeed nature also provides the right fruit and vegetables in the right season: for example in spring, time for our body to shake off the heaviness and toxins accumulated in winter and prepare for the good weather, vegetables and herbs arrive naturally detox and remineralizing such as radishes, agretti or monk's beard and of course asparagus, or dandelion (or dandelion). Even in terms of calories nature provides lighter and more consistent foods when it is the right season so that we receive more or less reserves and energy.
There are other elements to consider: when one plant is forced to grow and bear fruit in a season that is not his, it is always basically weaker, less vital and resistant and this translates into a datum: more treatments to protect it from attacks and parasites, or more Pesticides & c that come to her and then to us. And again: fruit and vegetables in season it costs less! If it is not so – that is if the tomato costs us little even in winter – we really have to worry …
Finally, let's not underestimate the variety factor: does the concept of tomato and tasteless courgette + string bean and frozen pea 365 days a year mean something to you? It is important to vary the foods we consume and if we follow the seasons, we do it by force more. It can help us subscribe to a convenience weekly delivery service of fruit and vegetables at home local producers: now there are so many possibilities around the country, it is worthwhile to inquire (and check that they provide only seasonal fruits and vegetables)! Why the conclusion is simple: to be aligned with the rhythms of nature of which we are a part can only feed ourselves better and more. And trust your papillae: if a fruit or vegetable has no taste, what is the taste?!?
Carola Traverso Saibante
April 2018
DISCOVER THE SALT AND PEPPER COOKING COURSES
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