What’s more delicious than local produce in season?

From Snore and Guzzle (found via the awesome and inspiring mind behind OrganicNation.tv)

The Growing Season for New York State

Asparagus: May 5th – May 15th
Rhubarb: May 1st – June 15th
Strawberries: June 10th – 30th
Sweet Cherries: July 4th – Aug. 1st
Sour Cherries: July 15th – Aug. 10th
Blueberries: July 4th – Sept. 1st
Red Raspberries: July 5th – Oct. 10th
Purple Raspberries: July
Black Raspberries: July
Currants Red, White and Black: July 5-August 5
Peaches-Yellow and White: mid July – early Sept.
Blackberries: August
Plums: mid August through mid-September
Apples: September-November 1

Although rhubarb is just past, I saw some delicious-looking rhubarb the other day at Eat Records, where I had perhaps the most delicious juice of my life, fresh apricot juice from a nearby farm in New York.

Thinking about the growing season reminds me of En Los Campos, the photography/oral history I worked on with my mom and Pam LeBlanc about the lives of teenage migrant farmworkers in the Midwest. It was amazing to travel around the fields of Indiana and Michigan – among the corn, cukes and cantaloupe, interviewing young people – some as young as 10 or 12, others my age (17/18 at the time) with kids of their own.

I learned that every piece of produce that I pick with my hands at a grocers was picked by hand in a field or orchard. It taught me that I want to know when a fruit is ripe, so that I can eat in season with the place where I live. I learned that I want to know who helped get the food from the field to my belly – and to know they were treated fairly along the way.

“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.” – Cesar Chavez