seasonal devotion

So the other day when I picked up my current breakfast fav from my office's rocking cafeteria (eggs + avocado on toast), I stumbled upon this week's absolute BEST surprise.

Can you find it in this photo?

Maybe you need a closer look:

PERSIMMONS!!!!

As you know, I am positively obsessed with these little balls of joy, but they've been out of season since the calendar stuck 2012.  After three months of 2 persimmons a day, I've been in withdrawal mode for the past three and a half weeks.  I immediately snatched one up and took a big, huge, decadent bite finishing it off before the egg man even started on my eggs.  It was unreal.

As the man scrambled, I began to think about this unique obsession of mine.  It really was unfortunate that my absolute favorite food in the entire world only had a 3-month time window for eating.  Why couldn't I be obsessed with something I could get any time of year, which - in today's day and age - is just about anything?

But then I got to thinking: maybe it wasn't just the actual fruit that led to my love, maybe it was their impermanence, their scarcity, their ephemerality that kept me always coming back for more.  Maybe the fact that I couldn't have them all the time whenever I wanted was the thing that made them so delicious.   

Perhaps that's another reason why it makes sense to eat seasonally - not only are we saving the world from unnecessary carbon and dollars wasted in transporting produce all around the world, but we're also learning to appreciate those items when we do have access, not taking for gratitude their constantly available nature.

So in that spirit, I decided to look up what would count as "in season" here and then attempt to eat (mostly) that.  For fruits, my choices are limited: cherimojas, grapefruit, guavas, kumquats, mandarins, oranges, pears, and pomelos. 

A Cherimoja (I had no idea either)

I'll try one and report back

Fortunately, January is a bit more generous with its vegetables.  Avocados, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, kale, mushrooms, and spinach were just my favorites of the many.  While challenging, I'm excited to give this little experiment a shot.

Do the same for your locale here.

BUT while persimmons aren't technically in season here, I didn't squander the opportunity that was presented before me.

Yep, that's right: all 17.

xoxo
KK