{"id":1356,"date":"2011-10-31T14:48:53","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T14:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2011-10-31T14:48:53","modified_gmt":"2011-10-31T14:48:53","slug":"summertimeand-the-eatin-was-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/golf\/1356\/summertimeand-the-eatin-was-easy","title":{"rendered":"Summertime….and the Eatin’ Was Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Summer's bounty...freeze or can it for the long winter months.<\/p><\/div>\n

The golf season is waning, Daylight Savings Time is trudging up the 18th<\/sup> hole, and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) will begin kicking in due to decreased sunlight up here in the northern climates.\u00a0 We\u2019ll want to eat\u2026.and eat\u2026.and eat.\u00a0 It is natural to crave more food in the winter so don\u2019t beat yourself up for following the natural instinct\u00a0to chow down;\u00a0 after all, many animals go into hibernation but before they do, they gorge themselves to pep up their reserves and body fat to last through the long winter.\u00a0 We may cocoon ourselves inside our homes to deal with cold and harsh weather, but don\u2019t fall into the trap of eating as if you are hibernating:\u00a0 the bears eat nothing<\/em> when they are asleep.\u00a0 We eat every day…..and don’t play much golf in the winter, walking and carrying our bag of course, to use up the calories.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve come off of a great harvest of wonderful fruits and vegetables from a Michigan summer.\u00a0 Heavy rains in June and September made for a strange growing season but when the produce started to arrive, it poured in all at once.\u00a0\u00a0 As much as we would like to continue using fresh fruits and veggies over the winter, unless you have canned or frozen your fresh food bounty, there isn\u2019t much available.\u00a0 Now, you may say, \u2018What, Janina, have you gone batty?\u00a0 There is fresh produce all over the supermarkets!\u2019\u00a0 True.\u00a0 However, most of those fruits and vegetables are grown out of country and brought in from who-knows-where.\u00a0\u00a0 And, it is simply not optimal to eat certain foods out of season \u2013 nor justify the cost of transporting them all over the country.<\/p>\n

Mother Nature has her reasons for ripening food as she does;\u00a0 we are supposed to eat a variety of foods at different times of the year, not force-feed ourselves whatever we want whenever we want.\u00a0 Most of you remember a time when we could not ever get sweet corn in February or strawberries in December.\u00a0 Some of you may even recall getting an orange for Christmas and treasuring it.\u00a0 We are spoiled \u2013 and we know it.<\/p>\n

Many countries use growing methods, unsanitary practices, and pesticides you won\u2019t like so it is best to avoid foods from these areas.\u00a0 Following is a list of foods you should never eat out of season:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fresh peas are best eaten in the spring.\u00a0 They are ripe only for about two weeks.\u00a0 After that, nutrients are lost and they get starchy.\u00a0 Buy frozen, with little or no added salt.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sweet corn is perfect in late summer when it is at its sweetest.\u00a0 Eat or freeze corn immediately before the sugar turns to starch.\u00a0 Don\u2019t overcook:\u00a0 2-3 minutes at most.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every variety of mushroom has a season: morels in the spring, truffles in the fall, others in between.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wash them \u2013 they absorb water.\u00a0\u00a0 Trim the ends and brush the dirt off.\u00a0 Saute them in some butter and garlic for a little piece of \u2018shroom heaven.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Early spring and summer is best for lettuces when they are crisp, sweet, and more nutritious; otherwise, experiment with other greens like kale, Swiss chard, spinach, and cabbages for salads.\u00a0 Bagged lettuces are treated with preservatives you don\u2019t need.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peach season is short: late August.\u00a0 Romeo, Michigan has an entire weekend devoted to the golden orbs.\u00a0 Eat them fresh or make no-sugar-added peach butters or preserves.\u00a0 Frozen?\u00a0 Forget it, they taste like cardboard.\u00a0 Jarred peaches are acceptable.<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wax beans become fibrous and tough in early fall; use green beans, which have a longer season.\u00a0 Buy frozen, never canned:\u00a0 those have the highest levels of BPA.<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Asparagus is best only in spring, before stalks become woody.\u00a0 You can pickle them for a nice crunch but if you freeze it, only use it in cooked dishes.<\/p>\n

8)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tomatoes are great fresh and full of lycopene (the heart protector) from August through October.\u00a0 Otherwise, forget those tasteless and pale impostors.\u00a0 Instead, buy crushed, in jars.\u00a0 If you have ever seen the rocky, sandy soil in which \u2018hothouse\u2019 tomatoes are grown, you\u2019ll wonder how anything nutritious grows in such conditions.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering what you can<\/em> eat, remember that certain vegetables do have a longer holding life:\u00a0 potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, other root vegetables like rutabaga, turnips, beets, carrots, and celery root, and all varieties of gourds like squash and pumpkins.<\/p>\n

The key to good health is to eat a variety of foods.\u00a0 There are enough around to offer choices for all 365 days of the year.\u00a0 And, when you travel to play golf, don\u2019t hesitate to ask about fresh and local specialties \u2013 you\u2019ll often be pleasantly surprised by the great taste and textures of foods you\u2019ve never heard of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The golf season is waning, Daylight Savings Time is trudging up the 18th hole, and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) will… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1496,9,18],"tags":[113421,113422,113423,113424],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-fun-and-fitness","category-golf","category-lifestyle","tag-fresh-produce","tag-seasonal-foods","tag-seasonal-affective-disorder","tag-hibernation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2011\/10\/Seasonal-produce.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}