What happened to the Seasons?

What happened to the Seasons?

 

 

Ever wondered how come food is so available all the time? I mean bananas in winter, apples in summer, cherries in winter, oranges all the time, tomatoes all year, and so on.

I remember when I was a boy growing up in Bendigo we could tell the season from the fruit and vegetable that were available. What mum could buy but also what Uncle Connor would bring in from the farm. Mum would also preserve fruit and vegies so that we had an available supply in the pantry for when they were unavailable from the shops or Uncle Connor.

Without going into the nitty gritty here is a rough list of when things were and are in season in Victoria:

Fruit

·         Apples	·         Autumn Winter
·         Apricots	·         Summer
·         Bananas	·         All Year
·         Berries	·         Spring Summer
·         Cherries	·         Summer
·         Figs	·         Summer Autumn
·         Grapefruit	·         All Year
·         Grapes	·         Summer Autumn
·         Kiwifruit	·         Winter
·         Lemons	·         Winter Spring
·         Limes	·         Winter Spring
·         Mandarins (Imperial)	·         Autumn Winter Spring
·         Melons	·         Summer Autumn
·         Oranges (Navel)	·         Winter
·         Oranges (Valencia)	·         Summer Autumn
·         Peaches	·         Summer
·         Pears	·         Summer Autumn Winter
·         Plums	·         Summer
·         Strawberries	·         Spring Summer Autumn

·         Vegies:

·         Artichokes (Globe)	·         Spring
·         Artichokes (Jerusalem)	·         Winter
·         Asparagus	·         Spring
·         Basil	·         Summer
·         Beans	·         Spring Summer Autumn
·         Beans (Broad)	·         Winter Spring
·         Beetroot	·         All Year
·         Broccoli	·         Winter Spring
·         Brussel Sprouts	·         Autumn Winter
·         Cabbage	·         Autumn Winter
·         Capsicum	·         Spring Summer Autumn
·         Carrots	·         All Year
·         Cauliflower	·         Autumn Winter Spring
·         Celery	·         Autumn Winter
·         Chillies	·         Spring Summer Autumn
·         Corn	·         Summer Autumn
·         Cucumber	·         Spring Summer Autumn
·         Eggplant	·         Summer Autumn
·         Leeks	·         All Year
·         Lettuce	·         All Year
·         Onions	·         All Year
·         Parsley	·         All Year
·         Parsnips	·         Autumn Winter Spring
·         Peas	·         Spring Summer Autumn
·         Peas (Snow)	·         Winter Spring
·         Potatoes	·         All Year
·         Rhubarb	·         All Year
·         Silverbeet	·         All Year
·         Spinach	·         Autumn Winter Spring
·         Spring Onion	·         All Year
·         Squash	·         Spring Summer Autumn
·         Sweet Potatoes	·         Autumn
·         Tomatoes	·         Summer Autumn
·         Turnips	·         Winter
·         Zucchini	·         Spring Summer Autumn

 

         

 It is unbelievable but true we import fruit and vegies from all around the world they travel thousands of kilometres because we can afford it, but at what cost?

As Simon Thomsen put it in the Age recently- To get the same fruit and veg all year, we turn to cold storage, or imports. Winter cherries from California, asparagus from South America. More food is coming from overseas, to the point where the balance of trade on food is roughly even. For example recently 50,000 tonnes of navel oranges rotted in Australian paddocks as juice manufacturers used Brazilian concentrate instead. Yes it's cheaper for consumers - and a high dollar hasn't helped - but the result is that Australian farmers uproot trees, leave farming, and manufacturers close, including several canneries. The last Australian-owned cannery in Cowra closed in April.

Heaven knows what is the cost in food miles through pollution and environmental affects?

An orange imported from Brazil to Australia travels over 140,000 Km to get here!

Again Simon Thomsen puts it well when he says our food is often old: Much of the food you eat is older than you realise. Ethylene is a petroleum-derived flammable gas that mimics the ripening hormone of many fruits, especially tomatoes, which can be months old by the time you buy them. Green tomatoes are picked and gassed so they ripen slowly and evenly. Ultimately, a tomato turns red before it's ripe, so the reason it can lack taste is that it's still unripe (and cold storage has killed off the flavour enzyme).

There are new season apples and then there are ''birthday apples'' - the industry nickname for those sold after up to a year in cold storage, a common practice to smooth over interruptions in seasonal supply.

In 2008, The Sun-Herald analysed Australian-grown Granny Smith apples from Sydney supermarkets and found they were between nine and 10 months old.

As Australian author Dianne Loughnan says in her book Food Shock, ''We are not paying for taste at the supermarket. We are all paying for the transportability, speed and convenience.''

The other thing I remember about that food from long ago was that it tasted so good, the apples were crunchy, the bananas not woody, the strawberries deliciously sweet, and the tomatoes juicy with a natural sweetness. It was as though they were made to be eaten not just consumed.

Ah- maybe it is nostalgia but I cannot help thinking that Uncle Connors fruit was probably very good for us too.