I love summer (the season and my daughter)! You get so many fresh vegetables which are always best. Oregon summers have a great showing of tomatoes, green beans, corn and peppers. These can be eaten in many different ways such as fresh, grilled, sauteed, pickled or dried. By mixing up how they are prepared you can create amazing meals. A salad with fresh tomatoes, sauteed green beans, grilled corn and pickled peppers makes for a flavor explosion. There are so many reasons to eat in-season vegetables including:
Freshness: When you eat in-season vegetables they tend to come from local sources meaning you eat them closer to harvest. An added benefit if that local produce doesn't require the same level of transportation so it is often better for the environment to eat in-season.
Taste: In-season, local vegetables taste better than their shipped counterparts because the produce is picked much closer to harvest. The closer the fruit or vegetable is picked to harvest the riper it is and that leads to more flavor.
Nutrition: Fruits and vegetables which can ripen naturally on the plant contain more nutrients than those harvested prematurely.
Check out the Seasonal Food Guide to see what’s in season in your area!