What exactly is Seasonal?

I went downtown to the Chicago French Market today and I run into some sort of a conundrum.

I saw that there were strawberries were on sale for about ninety nine cents and I only see strawberries were that cheep during Strawberry season. (Although I would like to note, that I do know that strawberry season is between Mothers Day and Fathers Day.) Yet, it seems that its was too early for strawberries to appear organically.

So I decided to ask the nearest clerk about the strawberries and why they are so cheap. The clerk told me that there was a surplus of strawberries and when I asked her if they were in season, the clerk told me that she does not know.

From there, I started to question myself: "What exactly is seasonal and why we have forgotten about it?"

From as far as most people understand it, seasonability is when a particular food is in the right time to eat. Yet, I start to think that in America, we are starting to lose our sense of seasonability. Since more foods are becoming available all year round, we forgot what exactly is in season and the true flavor of the "peak" of the season. It sounds somewhat idiotic at first, but if you really think about it we don't tend to think about how fresh a certain item is and how seasons can really effect our food.

For example, if there are blueberries in the winter and they looked like they were just picked, what exactly did the providers do to their berries to look like that?. It just doesn't really make much sense once it start to notice because you start to think how those berries are processed to look like during that time. Im not saying that every single supermarket does this but this is somewhat of an issue that has to bring into light to many consumers.

If you think about all the chemicals, time and money that is invested to just keep a certain product available all year around; its really not the best thing for health ,taste buds, or the wallet of the consumer. Once you start to piece together all those factors, we are not just wasting money on expensive produce that is not fresh but you are eating chemically treated vegetables that might hurt you in the long run. Im not saying that grocery stores do this because their evil, it just mostly business to provide food. So please don't raise pitch forks and torches towards them. Its just business. Although this does bring in to question about quantity over quality.

As a chef myself, I always encourage people to eat seasonably because not only the product has reach the peak in flavor but because all the nutrients and freshness is perfectly in tuned for anyone who is willing to change ones health for the better and to truly experience that particular food. Plus, this also gives the dinner the true experience of eating a strawberry on a warm late spring day and to give that true sense of pleasure.

I just want to bring on this issue just to bring seasonability to light and to maybe see what you have to say on the subject. That brings me to a question I want to ask to you. "What is Seasonability mean to you?" Feel free to Facebook, Tweet or provide the answer below in the comments about this issue.

As always I bid you a-do and eat seasonally not just because its healthy, but because its tastes so good and so right.

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