Eat These Foods All Summer Long

The kids are out of school. The sun is up for so many glorious hours. Summer has arrived!

Here on the Gardenary blog and on my Grow Your Self podcast (listen on Spotify here), I regularly speak of the importance of doing three things: eat seasonally, buy locally, and grow naturally. We're going to focus on eating seasonally and buying locally.

Summer is the time of bounty when farmers and gardeners are pulling the most from their fields and gardens. But what should you prioritize when you head to the farmers' market or to the grocery store, or even your own backyard, this summer? 

Depending on where you live, we might experience different growing seasons this summer. Houston, Texas, where my business Rooted Garden is based, is a super hot place with temperatures regularly above 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer.

I would prioritize buying hot-season plants locally, so things like okra, eggplant, basil, and sweet potatoes.

In the Chicago area, I would focus on warm-season plants. Most gardeners will likely be in their warm season for the summer, so I'll focus on highlighting warm-season plants below.

Let's look at some plant families that are warm-season favorites to buy locally and eat all summer long.

The Solanaceae Family

This group, otherwise known as the Nightshade family, includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, and tomatillos. I consider this group the crowning jewels of the kitchen garden. Every single one of these plants must either be planted under frost protection or grown once all threat of frost has passed, making them quintessential summer crops in many places.

Now is a great time to enjoy fresh peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant when their flavor is at their peak, lightyears ahead in terms of taste of the preserved varieties.

If you're not already growing your own tomatoes, head to a farmers' market for the freshest, best-tasting tomatoes you've ever tried. Unless otherwise labeled, those tomatoes you can find at the grocery store year round have likely been trucked across the country to be made available to you.

Please say no to long-distance tomatoes whenever they're locally available. This is the perfect time to support your local farmers, most of whom are not selling to big grocery chains and rely on us to show up and buy those tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants from them at their peak ripeness.

Most of these plants taste so much better if they are eaten within a few days of harvest, so this is another great reason to be getting them from the farmers' market or from your own backyard garden. By growing your own or enjoying them in season from a local source, you get so much more for your money in terms of nutrition, flavor, and vitamins.

The Cucurbit Family

Next up is another large and long family, which we can just call the cucumber family. We're still a ways off from those autumn gourds like pumpkins and butternut squash, but things like crooked neck squash, green zucchini, and typical cucumbers are going to be coming out of the garden and the farm quite often over the next few months.

Summer is the perfect time to be growing your own and getting these from the farmers' market or from a local CSA. If you have never tasted a just-harvested cucumber, oh my goodness, you are in for a treat! Have you ever bought one of those long cucumbers wrapped in plastic for $3 from the store, only to get it home, unwrap the plastic, and find it's gone all gooey inside? I've pretty much given up on buying cucumbers from the grocery store because they just taste like water with little bit of crunchy skin. But fresh cucumbers... They're so much sweeter and more flavorful. They're just amazing.

The Fabaceae Family

The third plant family is the Fabaceae family, aka the legume or bean family. Summer is the best time to be enjoying fresh green beans. If you've never gotten to harvest beans right from the bush and eat them up, you're missing out.

If you're in a hotter climate, you can enjoy crowder peas, purple hull peas, and beans that can hang on when the weather gets really hot.

If you're not growing your own beans, when you head to the farmers' market, definitely prioritize buying beans. They're so good for you, full of protein, making them ideal for a plant-based diet. I, for one, am aiming to do way more plant-based meals this summer, and beans are going to be at the center of that diet. You can do that, too, by prioritizing eating beans all summer long.

The Lamiaceae Family

The next family that you can be enjoying all summer long is the herbs family. Think rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, mint, and, of course, the quintessential summer herb, basil.

If you live somewhere with high temperatures around 80 degrees, then your herbs are probably producing at an incredible rate right now. This is the time to be harvesting and eating as much from the plants as you can, plus storing extras for the fall and winter.

If you're not growing your own, at least buy your herbs locally. Please don't buy those plastic containers at the grocery store. They are pretty much tasteless and have traveled so far, plus you have all the waste of the plastic packaging. I highly recommend prioritizing herbs when you head to the farmers' market. Or, if you have a gardener friend, ask them if they wouldn't mind sharing whichever herbs they're growing in abundance.

Make a pledge with me: no grocery store herbs all summer long. Only fresh herbs.

Herbs are so easy to work into your everyday diet. They're filled with antioxidants and vitamins, and the smell alone, I think, is worth enjoying them and bringing them to the table, even if you're just tossing some extra oregano on your pizza. There are so many ways to enjoy herbs this season. 

The Brassica Family

Arugula, a star member of this family, is a great green to grow during the summer. Even in hotter climates like Houston, arugula can be grown year round, especially with some shade and proper watering. Try growing some arugula in your own kitchen garden and focus on buying it whenever you head to a farmers' market. Don't buy arugula that's been shipped across the country.

Kale is another brassica you can enjoy in the summer. Brassicas are known as cool-season plants, but kale and arugula can be grown in the warm season quite successfully and even in the hot season with some extra care.

The Amaryllis Family

Next up is the Amaryllidaceae family, or the onion family. Garlic planted in the fall is pulled up in the summer. Buy a ton of garlic from the farmers' market if you didn't grow your own and store it since garlic stores really well. Buying from a local farmer means you're going to have the freshest organic and natural garlic possible. 

While you're at it, buy a chives plant from a local nursery or farmer and snip from it all summer for fresh garden flavor. There's no need to buy little packets of chives from the grocery store when it's so easy and fun to grow yourself!

Amaranth Family

I'm going to finish up with the family that covers spinach, beets, and swiss chard. You won't be able to eat spinach or beets in season, but swiss chard is a biennial that can keep producing all summer. You should be enjoying loads and loads of nutrient-packed swiss chard this summer.

How to Eat Seasonally All Summer Long

Here's a list of plants to eat seasonally this summer:

• tomatoes
• eggplants
• potatoes
• peppers
• tomatillos
• cucumbers
• squash
• zucchini
• melons
• green beans
• purple beans
• crowder peas
• kale
• arugula
• herbs
• onions
• chives
• garlic
• swiss chard

This is the way we can make a simple but true difference in our communities and in the world. Every time you choose to eat food that was grown locally, every time you choose to eat seasonally, you are literally doing good for the whole planet. You are decreasing your fuel footprint and supporting your local economy—which is one of the best ways to make a long-lasting difference in our food industry. 

It's super simple—you just have to change slightly the way that you eat, the way you think about food, and the way that you source your food. 

I know that heading out to the farmers' market can sometimes be a pain. It's so much easier to schedule a grocer pickup from a big chain that's open 24 hours a day. But every time you head to your farmers' market this summer, you put money right in your local economy.

I hope that you're inspired to eat seasonally this summer. I really want you to fill up on the good stuff.

In her book Animal Vegetable Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver talks about the concept of filling up so full of certain foods when they're in season, that you don't crave them when they're not. You satiate yourself for that flavor so that, come winter or spring when that food is no longer locally available, you're okay to wait. You know you're going to stuff your face with it when it comes back in season. 

That's what I want to encourage you to do this summer: stuff your face with all the foods that are available to you seasonally. Fill your body up with good stuff literally growing right outside your back door or in your local farms.