Best Season for Food?

[markf424]

A conversation with a friend this afternoon got me thinking - which season is my favorite for food? Is it the freshness of primavera, baby vegetables and greens with a delicious spring crop of strawberries? Do I prefer the flavor bursting from sun baked tomatoes and bell peppers with the spice of jalapeno and scotch bonnets that are the product of a hot summer? Perhaps the swallow of a warm pumpkin bisque on a cool autumn night, reminding me of the summer just past is truly my favorite. Or is it the comfort and warmth I receive from a hearty meat sauce poured over pasta in the middle of the winter after shoveling the driveway? (OK, so maybe in Austin that doesn't happen, but you get my drift) .

To be honest, I love them all. If I absolutely must choose, and since this is my thread, I'm guessing it would be completely unfair not to do so, I think autumn would be my favorite. I can still throw fresh fish and meat on the grill on some nights, but cook a hearty supper on others without disobeying the natural order of weather and food.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

-Mark

Edited September 3, 2003 by markf424 (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

To be honest, I love them all.  If I absolutely must choose, and since this is my thread, I'm guessing it would be completely unfair not to do so, I think autumn would be my favorite.

I have very frequently contemplated just that idea with virtually similar results ... I try to run a "seasonal kitchen" myself .... ersatz Alice Waters, to be sure ....

I positively treasure those first thin asparagus spears and fragrantly sweet new strawberries of spring ... the availability of juicy, sun-ripened fruits in summer, and a steaming bowl of thick sausage-lentil soup with crusty sourdough bread in winter .. or even a steaming cassoulet ...

but, like you, I have a thing about the coming of autumn and the food I serve on those first cool, crisp days .... the marvelous apple dishes ... and my acorn squash brimming with its ruby, tart-sweet, cranberry-orange, jewel-like filling (looks superb on my Thanksgiving table!) ...

Like you who lives in Austin, I live in a fairly "clumid" climate (hot, damp long summers) here in Atlanta ... and long for the snows of winter, but not the attendant shovelling and layered clothes ...

thanks for this topic thread!

Edited September 3, 2003 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Al_Dente]

What a great topic.

I'm hard pressed, however, to come up with an answer. I must mull.... mull... mull...

Stilll mulling...

[Alex]

Two favorites... the confluence of asparagus, morels, and raspberries in the spring, and of tomatoes, corn, and nectarines in late summer.

[pattimw]

autumn for me. I can actually spend time in the kitchen (summer is too hot) and there is still good fresh produce around.

Plus, you can start to make the good cozy foods - breads, cakes, stews that might be too heavy in the summer and/or are too hot to cook.

Spring in New England isn't fantastic for produce, as it is in many other areas of the country, and I like summer for all the fresh fruit....but fall is my favorite season all around.

Good topic!

[babyluck]

I second that. October, to be specific. As soon as I can find some good celery root for bisque, perfect farmstand Yellow Delicious apples for Tarte Tatin, braise and stew and bake to my heart's content. This summer I tried to get into that whole salad-as-a-meal thing, and I learned some things about dressings and combining flavors, but it's not me. I have the appetite of a Viking.

I can't wait until my apartment is filled with the good smells of homemade pumpernickel, limpa, oatmeal bread, goulash, sausage or pork chops & sauerkraut, sour cream coffeecake, apple cake, anything au gratin, soups & stocks simmering on the stove, pot au feu, coq au vin, sauerbraten, chicken and dumplings...

[marie-louise]

Well, I like them all, but I'd have to say my favorite is winter. It doesn't start getting cold here until late November (September/ October are our warmest months), and by mid-March it's spring again, so that leaves just a few short months to eat hearty soups and stews.

The real answer is whatever seasonal food I haven't had for 11 months. At the moment I am craving winter squash. And apples and pears. I am starting to get just a little sick of corn, something I could not have imagined a few months ago. If you asked me this question in May I would say summer, with tomatoes, corn, and green beans!

[=Mark]

Yes.

[Basilgirl]

I love summer for the produce, but fall/football season/winter is best for cooking. Looking forward to Sunday afternoons in the kitchen - French onion soup, homemade bread, chili, stews, the game on my little 5" b&w tv...GO SKINS

The Redskins kick off the season tomorrow night. I am SO NOT going to see Britney.

[Jinmyo]

Seasonality is meaningless in most of Canada for most of the year.

[fifi]

I will have to agree with autumn. It just starts to cool off in Houston and I can get back to my "pots of stuff" that I love so well. But there is also, I think, this conditioned response. The first cold front and crisp days of fall bring me back to returning to school. This was before the kiddies went back in August. This feeling lasted into college. The expectation of new adventures was in the air. The acorns were crunching under my feet. New worlds were ahead to be conquered. That feeling seems to spill over into my cooking in later years.

[markf424]

Interesting responses. I was thinking we'd have a more varied group, but it seems that the autumn crowd has it - or could it be that we all feel this way because it's right around the corner and we've mentally prepared for it? What if I had posed this question in early March? Would everyone say spring? Great responses, though. You're all making me very, very hungry.

-Mark

[pattimw]

Interesting responses.  I was thinking we'd have a more varied group, but it seems that the autumn crowd has it - or could it be that we all feel this way because it's right around the corner and we've mentally prepared for it?  What if I had posed this question in early March?  Would everyone say spring?  Great responses, though.  You're all making me very, very hungry.

-Mark

good point- but I think I'd still say fall - it's my favorite season and the ingredients that are seasonal just appeal to me all around- mushrooms, pumpkins, apples, butternut squash.

that reminds me.....butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter. mmmmmmm

[pattimw]

I can't wait until my apartment is filled with the good smells of homemade pumpernickel, limpa, oatmeal bread, goulash, sausage or pork chops & sauerkraut, sour cream coffeecake, apple cake, anything au gratin, soups & stocks simmering on the stove, pot au feu, coq au vin, sauerbraten, chicken and dumplings...

now that is what I am talking about.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Interesting responses.  I was thinking we'd have a more varied group, but it seems that the autumn crowd has it - or could it be that we all feel this way because it's right around the corner and we've mentally prepared for it?  What if I had posed this question in early March?  Would everyone say spring?  Great responses, though.  You're all making me very, very hungry.

-Mark

In my humble opinion, you might have gotten pretty much the same response had you asked it in any other season as well.

I really think many of us foodies are programmed to enjoy fall cuisine which then culminates in Thanksgiving (the high point of gustatory excess...think "home", "family") and then moves into Christmas/New Years with their unique culinary delights, joys, festivities revolving around food ...

Perhaps it is primarily a feeling of nostalgia and longing for "warmth and comfort" that makes autumn so popular ... or, from a more practical standpoint and ignoring "emotional response", perhaps nothing more than the fact that it is more pleasant not to add heat to the house by cooking for long lengths of time during the summer ... and running up a huge airconditioning bill (told you I live in Hotlanta!)

[Gifted Gourmet]

I can't wait until my apartment is filled with the good smells of homemade pumpernickel, limpa, oatmeal bread, goulash, sausage or pork chops & sauerkraut, sour cream coffeecake, apple cake, anything au gratin, soups & stocks simmering on the stove, pot au feu, coq au vin, sauerbraten, chicken and dumplings...

so, do you give directions to your place? or must I rely on Mapquest?

this all sounds too divine and I am sincerely hoping that you make this all on one day ... I'll be there! Delicious!

[Toliver]

Definitely Summer for me. I treasure the Summertime when the days are long and full of fresh tomatoes, champagne peaches and so many possibilities.

[Brit]

I love all of the messages in this topic - you are all really inspiring and I feel like a bit of a fraud offering up my opinion but I have to say that when autumn is in full swing and it is cooler I crave english sausages from my local butcher, heaps of mashed potatoes, hot mustard and thick onion gravy that I make with Marsala. It is actually a lovely, sunny day in London today and I am lunching on a salad, but oh for those sausages...

[browniebaker]

Autumn's definitely the best for food, and I am not saying that just because autumn is coming or because autumn is my favorite season in all other respects. Like other animals, in autumn we start to put on a layer of fat for the winter, no bathing suits to worry about. It starts with Halloween candy, and the eating continues through the Thanksgiving feast to the non-stop eating of the winter holidays. As an amateur baker, I love how the weather cools in autumn and I can once again fire up the stove with the added bonus of heating the house. Come autumn, I simply do more cooking and baking than I have all the hot summer long. Long braising and long roasting are a joy in the cool seasons. Some foods I refuse to cook at other times of the year, just to keep the autumnal favorites true to season in my family's taste-memories: apple pie, pumpkin pie, fruitcake, gingerbread, chestnuts, and butternut squash. I won't even buy apples or pears in spring or summer, even though modern technology makes them available in grocery stores year-round.

[babyluck]

I can't wait until my apartment is filled with the good smells of homemade pumpernickel, limpa, oatmeal bread, goulash, sausage or pork chops & sauerkraut, sour cream coffeecake, apple cake, anything au gratin, soups & stocks simmering on the stove, pot au feu, coq au vin, sauerbraten, chicken and dumplings...

so, do you give directions to your place? or must I rely on Mapquest?

this all sounds too divine and I am sincerely hoping that you make this all on one day ... I'll be there! Delicious!

Right now, my volume is low -- with one gas burner that works properly and a tiny oven that's 50 degrees hot with room for one medium cookie sheet -- you'd probably have to pick your favorite 3 or 4. When I have my lake house with the big rustic kitchen (maybe a Tulikivi?), I promise I'll have you all over for a real autumn feast. I aspire to be the perfect earth-mother/Samantha Stevens/Dorothy Parker hostess in a home where the doors are always open and everything from the lighting fixtures to the sauerkraut is handcrafted by me or someone I know.

As for me, my answer would be autumn no matter when you asked me -- you can ask my mom; it's always been my favorite! It's a natural choice for the moodier types.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I love all of the messages in this topic - you are all really inspiring and I feel like a bit of a fraud offering up my opinion but I have to say that when autumn is in full swing and it is cooler I crave english sausages from my local butcher, heaps of mashed potatoes, hot mustard and thick onion gravy  that I make with Marsala. It is actually a lovely, sunny day in London today and I am lunching on a salad, but oh for those sausages...

Sadist! How I long to hear the intonations of the automated "Mind the gap" once again .... and then chow down on some frosty morning on a typical British breakfast? Oh for the bangers and baked beans and eggs and grilled "tomahtoes", thick oatmeal toast with a bit of marmalade and a cuppa hot, steaming English Breakfast tea! But, not a chance, here I am stuck in the hot and humid climes of Atlanta, Georgia, and becoming all misty longing for the home I so desire... but isn't autumn so divine for the creative cook?

[elmo]

The best seasoning I think is just your plain ol Salt and Pepper.

[fresco]

What I find is that in each season in turn I look forward eagerly to the next season, because there is always something (or several things) that cannot be fully enjoyed at the time.

The trove of fresh tomatoes, corn and other vegetables right now is wonderful, but even in Canada it isn't cool enough yet for stuff that is simmered or roasted for hours. But it's getting there.

[Jinmyo]

I love all of the messages in this topic - you are all really inspiring and I feel like a bit of a fraud offering up my opinion but I have to say that when autumn is in full swing and it is cooler I crave english sausages from my local butcher, heaps of mashed potatoes, hot mustard and thick onion gravy  that I make with Marsala. It is actually a lovely, sunny day in London today and I am lunching on a salad, but oh for those sausages...

Nothing like a good plate of bangers and mash.

[pastramionrye]

while i like a good stew or osso bucco or braised lamb shank as much as anyone...no season can match summer with its bounty of corn, tomatoes, potatoes, fresh herbs, garlic, melons, zucchini etc...

the raw ingredients are so naturally sweet and delicious, preparation is just so easy, just show off their natural flavors...