A-Guide-to-Seasonal-Winter-Vegetables
December 27, 2011
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Orlando
• 0 Comments
A Guide to Seasonal Winter Vegetables
Depending upon where you live in the country, finding quality, seasonal produce in the winter can be a difficult task. Sure your local mega-grocery and schools for cooking will have stocks of tomatoes and strawberries even in the depths of December and January, but those will mostly be flown in from Mexico or Chile. What they lack in flavor, they’ll more than make up for in high prices.
So how will you find fresh, local vegetables and fruits in the heart of winter? For Florida culinary arts aficionados, it’s easy. We just head over to our local farmer’s markets and enjoy the bounty of our year-round growing season. For those of you not from here, the job is a little harder but not impossible. The key again is Florida.
Florida’s sub-tropical climate permits a year-round growing season that provides fresh, native produce to much of the country during those dark and cold winter months.
Florida Seasonal Winter Vegetables and Fruits
To enjoy fresh and delicious seasonal produce in the winter, look for these items. Chances are they will have been grown in Florida. Many of the well-known dishes of the Florida culinary arts are based on this local and seasonally available produce.
- Avocados
- Broccoli
- Broccoli Raab
- Brussells Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Celery Root
- Coconuts
- Collard Greens
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
- Grapefruit
- Green Beans
- Green Onions
- Green Peppers
- Kale
- Guava
- Leeks
- Lettuce
- Limes
- Mandarin Oranges
- Valencia Oranges
- Radishes
- Zucchini
- And many more …
This is a list of only some of the delicious winter produce that you can find at your local grocery store. As you can see there is a great variety of healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables available from Florida. If you look for these items when the snow is flying you can save money by purchasing more locally grown produce as well as save the environment by choosing foods that are grown much closer to home.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Orlando. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Orlando offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in Orlando, Florida. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Orlando for more information.
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