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At the Farmer's Market
A Guide To What's Growing, Seasonally, Around Iowa
EATINGIowa
FOODLinks
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Eating Locally Grown Food is a delicious option to buying your meat and vegetables at the grocery store. But it takes some planning. Use the chart at right to determine what you can find at the Farmers' Market before heading out the door. Although it is improving, many of the state's markets don't require vendors to limit the food they sell to that which is grown in Iowa. Know that if you are finding sweet corn in late May or early June, it's probably seen as much of the United States in the last week as you.
If you intend on committing to a local food diet, find a vendor at the market who you trust. Look for the guy with dirt under his fingernails and a sunburned nose: he's out there working the crops and so he knows what's available. Ask him or her what's coming on-line regionally in the next few weeks. Forge a friendship and a business relationship and then ask him which vendors he frequents.
Start with a good, basic chart. A simple seasonality chart is a great place to start. Wikipedia has a small one, and I like BBC Good Food’s more thorough version because it includes fruits, vegetables, seafood, and meats. You can take a chart with you to the store, or just look over it a few times before you shop.
FarmersMarket.com is a good place to search for a market near you in the US, and the Open Air Market Network provides a list of markets in countries all over the world.
With time, your knowledge of seasonality will grow until you don’t have to think about it anymore.
APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT.
Spinach
Squash
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Raspberries
Radishes
Strawberries
Onions
Peaches
Pears
Peas
Peppers
Plums
Apples
Asparagus
Beans
Beets
Blueberries
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Cucumbers
Cherries
Sweet Corn
Eggplant
Grapes
Lettuce
Melons
