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What's in Season?

Yesterday, a woman approached me in the grocery store to ask, "Are grapes not in season now?"  I was a bit taken aback, and told her that grapes are more of a summer crop.  When she said she couldn't find any grapes, I realized that her real question was, "Does this store have any grapes for sale, and if so, where do I find them?"  I pointed her in the direction of the grapes, and wondered how many consumers are so removed from food production that they truly don't know what is in season locally, and what has been imported or brought out of cold storage.  


I realize that I do have the advantage of having grown up in a family that always had a garden.  I also realize that what is in season depends upon where you are living.  Perhaps the woman in the store did not grow up with a garden, or perhaps she grew up in the southern hemisphere.   Most likely, she knew that grapes are summer fruits, but was pretty sure that in the past she could buy them year round, and so was a bit confused when she didn't see them. 

Her confusion, though, reminded me a bit of this commercial (and more like it) for the Los Angeles County Fair:

 


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Thanks for seasonal fruits, and for vast availability.

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Comments

  1. ChristineJanuary 9, 2014 at 1:08 PM

    That commercial is hysterical!!!
    It's true. People don't know when things are in season like they used to, mostly because you can buy most things year round. Us old farts might still remember from when we were younger, but younger people don't have the benefit of remembering when we could only eat strawberries in late May/early June.

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  2. Dyanne @ I Want BacksiesJanuary 9, 2014 at 4:31 PM

    That is hilarious! When we were first married, my husband and I went to the Ventura County Fair. Ventura County is pretty rural, and it was very similar to the county fairs in Missouri that I was used to. I took him to see the 4-H and FFA steers, as we stood looking at the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion, my husband (who is from Missouri but had never been to a county fair and did NOT have a dad who owned a farm supply store) asked me what happened to the steer after the fair. I told him it would either be sent for processing by whomever bought it or sold at market. He said, "Wouldn't you want to breed a Grand Champion steer?" I looked carefully at him to see if he were kidding (he wasn't), then asked him if he knew what "steer" meant? He. Did. Not. Family joke has always been how my husband was going to become a steer breeder...

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  3. NancyJanuary 9, 2014 at 5:27 PM

    Grast video!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marisa BJanuary 11, 2014 at 6:49 AM

    hysterical ...hey I'm from new york born in brooklyn reared in queens (another city boro) spent my summers and weekends in the catskills (country) now living in suburbia ....hysterical from a true city gal!!!!

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2014 at 6:27 PM

    Oh how funny. So true, though, that people don't know enough about where food comes from, etc. I've learned so much about that in the last almost two years and I can't imagine how I go along NOT knowing what I know now.

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