Eating well and sustainably, or simply economically, is already eating "in season". Globalization has accustomed us to find everything in any season, with a high price to pay for our environment and the quality of our food:
- fruits and vegetables are produced in greenhouses, forced, flooded with fertilizers, pesticides…
- varieties are selected for criteria other than their taste: what is the point of eating tomatoes in the middle of winter if they are tasteless and full of water?
- transport from one country to another takes time, fruit and vegetables are picked well before they are ripe and arrive on our plates without having been able to "fill up" on vitamins, flavours, etc.
- The carbon footprint of a local rose in May or June [yes, we also use roses in the kitchen], or in January, when it comes from Kenya, is not the same!
Eating local and seasonal food
In Morocco, because of the price, imported fruit and vegetables are easy to spot: they will cost, depending on the case, between 10 and 30 dirhams more per kilo than the local variety.
On the other hand, as Morocco is an exporter of fruit and vegetables, particularly tomatoes and oranges, it is easy to find "local" fruit and vegetables, grown in greenhouses, which are not necessarily very good, in any season.
For what is not exported or less so, whether it is mallow, small pickles or pomegranates, the season is important again: I have rediscovered my "preserving" reflexes and buy kilos of beans, peas, pomegranates… in the right season, which I prepare and freeze or store as pickles!
Seasons in Morocco
Calendar is different "in the North, in France" and in Morocco, the seasons are not the same, the summer fruits arrive earlier, there is really a season — rather short — for pomegranates, okra… the first years, I was fooled, today I learned the good periods to buy such or such ingredient and I share them here, with the recipes that use them.