Most of the world has local signature produce. The stuff you just can’t get anywhere else, and even locally, only in season. Where and when should I be there to catch it in season? Can I buy it at a grocery, or roadside, or do I have to grow it myself or at least know someone?
I’ll kick off with three items: Creole tomatoes, Pearl River Blueberries, and Pontchatoula Strawberries.
Creole tomatoes are nominally any tomatoes grown in southeast Louisiana in the Mississippi river floodplain. But there are good creoles, and there are great creoles, which is why some families here put their names on the stickers. Creole tomatoes are in season right now (late May-early June) and will be again when temperatures start to cool in September or October. [Summer is bad mostly because mid summer heat makes tomatoes split!] Creoles in-season are best eaten with just a bit of salt. Available roadside, or at proudly local groceries like Rouse’s [my favorite grocery store, btw]. [Disclosure: at this point, I walked away from this post to cut up a creole tomato I bought at Rouse’s yesterday to eat it with nothing but a bit of salt.] Creole tomatoes do best with “normal” rainfall.
Pearl River Blueberries are from Pearl River county, a bit to my northeast. They are a bit sweeter than outside berries and also a bit more complex, in a good way. I usually wind up buying them from a co-worker because I can’t find them here even in a bordering parish/county. When I retire, I’ll have to make the road trip and hope there are roadside sales. These are in season about now (Early June). These do best in normal to slightly heavy rainfall. Because I haven’t heard much, I fear that the rain was too light this spring.
Pontchatoula strawberries are from a bit west of me; just really good rather sweet strawberries. Peak of their season is in April. Like most berries, they benefit from normal to slightly heavy rainfall in the months leading into the season.
Got plenty of wild rice a bit to the north of us. You can get a harvest permit, go out in your canoe and smack a whole bunch of it off the stalks. Then you find out how many nasty, bitey, little rice worms live there! Just a bit of bonus protein after the rice has been cleaned and dried.
Cajun boy, love rice of many types. I’ll put it on my bucket list - if I make the list long enough, I’ll never die, right? What time of year should I be there?
Berries of many types are special here in the PNW. I’m partial to the tart little wild red huckleberries you can find along local forest trails, but volume wise I guess wild blueberries on the slopes of the Cascades will fill up your pail. The article I linked says a black bear can eat up to 30,000 of them in a single day.
Chassell strawberries and thimbleberries. Funny thing about thimbleberries is the Wikipedia article says “It has not been commercially developed for the retail berry market, but is cultivated for landscapes.”, but I can buy thimbleberry jam in the grocery stores around here.
Likely grew, but never canned. My mother gets fresh pie pumpkins around Hallowe’en for both Thanksgiving and Christmas pies. And freezes some extra for a few pumpkin breads the next year.
Extremely local to my house is sweet corn. I can’t go more than a few feet in any direction without seeing a field of sweet corn. When it’s peak corn season (late spring - early fall) I could probably eat an entire field to myself, It’s that good. I’m sure Wisconsin grows more than corn but it’s my favorite.
Peaches here in Southern Ontario! They’re in season for the month of August. Best acquired road side from one of the many farmer stalls found that time of year.
And if you happen to be in town when its on, August 25th-27th, the Winona Peach Festival is a good time. The peach ice cream sundaes are a must!!! (And certainly worth the lineup).
