What’s in Season? Winter Fruit & Vegetable Shopping at Your Local Farmer’s Market

by Anne Kupillas.

Ah, the holiday season! Nothing warms the heart and makes it feel like winter more than a cup of hot chocolate, roasted chestnuts or a slice of persimmon pie.  Though you might not think of the winter as the optimal season to eat fresh fruit and vegetables, we all have winter memories that involve seasonal foods, from apple cider to the ubiquitous Christmas fruitcake!

Shopping for seasonal produce is easy here in SoCal, where our weather supports a variety of foods,  the growing season is relatively long, and farms are plentiful.  But you can find delicious and healthy produce all over the country and around the world.

Local farmer’s markets offer fruits and vegetables that were often picked just hours before the market opens, and have traveled less than fruits and vegetables traveling through the conventional wholesale channel to the grocery stores. Talk about an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint!

The fruit offered at farmers' markets is sweeter —  tree-ripened fruits carry a higher sugar content versus truck/train or shelf-ripened items, and vegetables have more flavor, too.   There’s an abundance of organic options (ask your favorite farmers at their stands about the techniques they use, which produce is organic, and what’s most plentiful and at its peak of ripeness. 

The produce offered may not be as conventionally “good looking” as what you see on the shelf at the supermarket, but you can feel good knowing you’re participating in rescuing food that might have otherwise gone to waste.  

Eating with the seasons also makes financial sense. When produce is in season, there is an abundance—thus it’s available at a lower price.

What’s in Season:

• Apples! Of all kinds, and Crabapples

• Persimmons

• Pomegranates

• Cherries

• Chesnuts

• Dates

• Winter Squash (Spaghetti Squash, Butternut Squash, Acorn Squash)

• Root Vegetables (Carrots, Beets, Celery)

• Avocado - year-round growing in California

• Kale & Chard

• Brussels Sprouts

• Kohlrabi

• Broccoli

• Carambola (Star Fruit)

• Citrus - including my favorites blood oranges, grapefruit and kumquats

• Garlic & Onions

• Pears

• Pumpkin

Winter fruits like grapefruits, oranges, lemons, and others are a welcome boost of sunshine - and necessary Vitamin C - throughout the often gray winter months. Citrus pairs well with warming herbs like ginger and cinnamon, which are flavor-packed and loaded with antioxidants to boost your immune system (key as temps drop).” Eaten fresh, you’ll get that zing! Sweet, sour and often with notes of bitter, that only citrus carries. But consider cooking your citrus this winter: roasted lemons, for example, are a delicious compote and complement to fish, chicken and chickpea dishes. Or add them on their own to pastry dough for a very interesting appetizer or dessert, that you can pair with goat or feta cheese fillings.

Likewise, persimmons can be enjoyed ripe and uncooked, such as in salads, or baked into puddings and preserved in jams. Their growing season in short, so make sure you get them while you can! Epicurious has some mouth-watering recipe ideas that will warm your oven. Who else has excellent advice for cooking seasonally? Ask your local farmers at the market!  Often, they’re happy to share their favorite family recipes, passed down through generations along with heirloom seeds.

Another treat at many farmers markets this winter will be homemade preserves, with interesting seasonal ingredients, both sweet and savory. Enjoying canned and dried fruits and jams and jellies throughout the winter, rather than importing tropical fruits, will also reduce your carbon footprint, while at the same time supporting your local growers.

Here’s a favorite dish of mine, which is different, warming and reminds me of winter’s bounty. I hope you will enjoy it!

Roasted Lemon Chicken

Serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients

5-6 medium lemons, thin skin preferred

1 whole chicken or parts equivalent, skin on

3-4 Tbsp virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 large shallot or onion

1/3 cup dry white wine

Salt & pepper

2 Tbsps capers

1 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

• First, roast the lemons. Trim excess rind if your rind isn’t thin. Too much rind will result in a very bitter recipe. Cut lemons in half and remove any exposed pits. Put lemons in a covered casserole or baking dish and roast with 2 Tbsp water, for 1.5 hours. Lemon skins should be slightly carmelized and be broken down into mostly liquid. Let cool and then pick or strain out all the pits.

• Clean the chicken and then rub with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

• Heat rest of oil in a skillet with a cover. Slice or rough chop shallots or onions and peel and smash the garlic cloves. Add to the skillet and sauté on medium heat, stirring often, until onions are translucent. Let cool slightly, and then transfer to a bowl. Fish out any pits you missed the first time.

• Heat olive oil in the same skillet, and then add the chicken, skin side down. Sauté until skin is nicely browned. Flip over and then add back in the skillet, the onion mixture and the roasted lemons — juice and skins — along with capers, white wine, thyme and bay leaves and cover. Simmer on low for about 30-40 minutes until chicken is fork tender on the inside but juices run clear, or 165 – 175 degrees F using an instant read thermometer. *The last part of this recipe can also be done in the oven, in a roasting pan. If you use the oven, heat to 400F and then turn down to 350 after ten minutes. Baste occasionally with pan juices.

• Remove from the heat, and then add salt and pepper to taste. If you would like a less bitter flavor, then you can add 1-2 tsps of honey to sweeten the gravy up.

• Serve hot, with rice or potatoes and a side of dark winter greens, like kale — or a persimmon salad!

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