About a year ago, I found a vintage seasonal cookbook while browsing the shelves of a local antique store. I’ll admit that I am not the world’s most enthusiastic antiquer and when I accompany friends, I usually sneak off to the cookbook section while they browse mid-century vases and vintage jewels. I may not have a soft spot for things of years past, but cookbooks certainly make my heart pitter-patter and I have found some real gems during these antiquing excursions. My first seasonal cookbook was the product of such an afternoon. The cookbook is filled with recipes divided up into month long seasons and heart-warming stories about the author’s childhood in rural France. I’m not sure whether it was the recipes that charmed me or the thought of growing up on a self-sustaining farm in the land of amore, but I was hooked. I frequently started using this seasonal cooking concept.

Seasonal cooking is a relatively foreign concept to many of us 21^st century-ers, but it was all that those living in the past knew. We have the ability to purchase fall apples in the summer and spring herbs in the fall at our grocery stores. Though forgotten for some measure of time, seasonal eating is experiencing resurgence. It is more sustainable and healthier than eating out of season produce.Fruits and veggies can have three times the nutrients when eaten in season than their off-season counterparts contain. Not to mention that the off-season variety often has to be shipped in from quite a distance, which causes the produce to lose even more nutrients during the long travel time.As an additional bonus, eating fruits and veggies that are in season is less expensive and more delicious. The price of in season produce drops because the transit time and distance is shorter. In season produce is riper than out of season, giving it its superior taste.

Seasonal produce can vary state by state, but in general here is a guide that can help you stay on track with what is in season this spring.

To see what is in season in your state, check out this awesome site! It lets you enter any month and state of choice and gives you a list of produce that is currently in season in your specific state. 

More about Laurel:

She is the voice behind Catching Seeds. A dream-seeking twenty-something self-proclaimed foodie living in the Inland Northwest. She has a passion for creating whole food recipes that not only taste amazing, but have a positive impact on our health. Check out her blog here.