In season
January
22 things in season at the market, 16 at their best.
At their best
This is when they taste best and cost least.
- OrangeNov–MayOranges don't ripen once picked: what you buy is what you get. So it pays to know how to choose them.
- MandarinOct–MarThe fruit you peel without a knife that leaves your hands smelling of winter. Almost all the ones sold here are clementines, a type of mandarin.
- Lemonall yearLemon trees flower and fruit almost all year round, which is why they're never missing. More a seasoning than a fruit.
- KiwiNov–AprIt comes from China, where it was called the Chinese gooseberry. New Zealand exporters renamed it after the brown, fuzzy bird.
- CalçotDec–AprAn onion made to grow twice: the bulb is replanted and earthed up until it sends out long white shoots. You eat them charred black outside, wearing a bib and standing up.
- CabbageOct–MarA vegetable that gets better in the cold: after a few frosts cabbage turns sweeter. One head will feed you all week without repeating a dish.
- CauliflowerOct–MarWhat you eat is a mass of flowers that never got round to opening. Its bad name comes from the smell of overboiling it; roasted, it's a different vegetable.
- BroccoliOct–AprIt's a bunch of unopened flowers: leave it too long in the fridge and it yellows because it's starting to bloom. Peeled, the stalk is the sweetest part.
- SpinachOct–AprYou buy a huge bag, tip it into the pan and end up with a handful. Allow about 250 g raw per person if it's the main event.
- ChardSept–JunTwo vegetables in one: the leaf, which cooks in no time, and the stalk, which needs longer. In Catalan, calling someone a «bleda» (chard) means they're a wet blanket.
- LeekOct–MarAn onion that never forms a bulb and tastes milder. The white part comes from earthing it up as it grows: the higher the soil, the longer the white.
- EndiveOct–MarBitter outside and almost sweet at the heart, which is yellow because the outer leaves keep the light off it. Cold weather makes it more tender.
- CarrotSept–MayIt's around most of the year, but winter carrots, from cold ground, are the sweetest. If one still has its tuft of leaves, you know it hasn't spent months in cold storage.
- BeetrootOct–AprIt stains everything it touches, chopping board and pride included. But roasted, it turns sweeter than almost any vegetable.
- FennelOct–AprIt tastes of aniseed, and that splits families. Raw and thinly sliced it's crunchier than almost anything; roasted it turns sweet and mellow, and even the other side starts to waver.
- CardoonNov–FebIt's prickly, it browns the moment you cut it and you have to strip its strings one by one. And still, in some homes it isn't Christmas without it.
Arriving
The first ones: still pricey, but here.
Last weeks
Gone next month. Enjoy them or put some by.
- Sweet potatoSept–JanIt looks like a potato with ambitions, but in the oven it turns almost into a pudding: slow heat converts some of its starch into sugar.
- Yellow footNov–JanSmall, hollow, with a yellow stem and a brown cap: a little trumpet hiding in the moss. It turns up when the other mushrooms have gone, just in time for Christmas.
Also around
- AppleAug–FebIt's harvested in late summer and autumn, but cold stores keep it on sale all year. In season, freshly picked, it crunches differently.
- ArtichokeNov–MayIt's a flower bud eaten before it opens. It also leaves a sweet aftertaste that makes water, or wine, taste different straight afterwards.
- PumpkinSept–FebIt's harvested in autumn and, whole, keeps for months without a fridge: it was the vegetable that lasted till February. In Spanish, «giving someone pumpkins» means turning them down.
- Onionall yearIt's around all year because, once dried, it keeps for months. But the freshly pulled summer onion is juicy and sweet, and makes you cry a little less. Only a little.
Arriving in February
Nothing new arrives next month: more of the same.
- Broad beanFeb–MayYou buy a kilo and end up with a handful: the pod weighs more than the beans. The first small, tender ones can even be eaten raw.
- PeaFeb–MayAs soon as it leaves the plant, its sugar starts turning into starch. That's why a freshly shelled one tastes of something else: sweet, almost like fruit.
- Green garlicFeb–MayIt's garlic before it forms a bulb: the young plant, pulled while it still looks like a skinny leek. It tastes of garlic, but politely.
- RadishFeb–Jun · Sept–NovA bit peppery, very crunchy and grown in a month: the vegetable for the impatient. Spring ones, small and red, are the finest.
- PersimmonOct–DecThere are two kinds: the old-fashioned one, eaten with a spoon when it's soft as jelly, and the «persimon», eaten firm like an apple. Bite a soft-type one too early and your mouth turns to sandpaper.
- PomegranateSept–DecA jewel box with hundreds of seeds. There's a trick to getting them out, and once you know it you won't stain your shirt again.
- ChestnutOct–DecBefore potatoes, chestnuts were winter bread in many European mountains. Today they mostly mean smoke in the street and hot newspaper cones in your hands.
- QuinceSept–NovRaw it's hard and harsh, but it smells so good it used to go in wardrobes to scent the clothes. Cooked, it turns pink and sweet.
- PearJul–DecPears ripen from the inside out: by the time the whole skin gives, the middle has gone. Check the neck, not the belly.
- GrapeAug–OctGrapes don't ripen once picked: the bunch you take home won't get any sweeter. You choose well at the stall or not at all.
- FigJun · Aug–SeptFig trees crop twice: brebas (early figs) at the start of summer, on last year's wood, and the true figs at the end. That's why figs take a break in July.
- StrawberryMar–JunStrawberries don't ripen after picking: if the shoulders are white, white they'll stay. Follow your nose: the ones you can smell from across the stall are the ones to buy.
- LoquatApr–JunIt's the first stone fruit of the year and one of the briefest: a few weeks between April and June and it's gone. Inside are huge glossy seeds that take up half the fruit.
- CherryMay–JulThe cherry is the fruit you eat standing at the stall, «just one more». The season is short and cherries don't ripen after picking, so what you buy is what you get.
- ApricotMay–JulA good apricot splits with your fingers and lets go of its stone on its own. The season is short, late May to July, and a cold-stored one is nothing like one from the tree.
- PeachJun–OctPeach, nectarine and flat peach are the same species: a nectarine is a peach without fuzz, and the flat peach a squashed one. The one you can peel with your hands, dripping down to your elbow, is the one that was perfect.
- PlumJun–SeptPlums come in every colour, from the green of greengages to purple so dark it's nearly black. The white dust on the skin is the plum's own bloom, not a spray: if it's intact, the fruit has barely been handled.
- WatermelonJun–SeptOver 90% of a watermelon is water, and it's still a struggle to carry one home. Once cut it won't ripen any further: what you see is what you get.
- MelonJun–SeptPicking a melon is famously a lottery, and there's some truth in that. But they don't all behave alike: cantaloupes keep ripening at home, while piel de sapo barely does.
- AlmondAug–OctHalf the Catalan recipe book has almonds in it, even when you can't see them: they're hiding in the picada, the sauce and the pudding. In the shell, they keep for almost a year without asking for anything.
- HazelnutSept–NovThe hazelnut is the almond's quieter cousin: less famous, more fragrant. Toast a few and the whole kitchen smells of autumn.
- WalnutSept–NovIt comes in its own safe, brain-shaped and all. Freshly picked, with the skin still soft, it tastes milky; once dried, it tastes of winter.
- BlackberryAug–SeptSummer's freest fruit, if you don't mind a few scratches. You'll know you've been blackberrying by your purple fingers and your T-shirt, which is beyond saving.
- RaspberryJun–SeptIt's hollow inside, which is why it squashes if you so much as look at it. In return it smells so good that a handful perfumes a whole pudding.
- AsparagusMar–JunWhite and green asparagus are the same plant: the white kind grows buried in soil and never sees the sun. The thin, bitter one that pops up wild along field edges is another species.
- LettuceMar–Jul · Sept–NovIt's nearly all water, which is why local lettuce wins: freshly picked, it crunches, while one that spends days in a lorry arrives tired. It hates strong heat: in August it bolts and turns bitter.
- CourgetteMay–SeptAnyone with a plant in the garden knows: one day it's a finger, three days later a baseball bat. The small ones are the good ones; the giants are water and seeds.
- Green beanJun–SeptIt's the same plant that gives dried beans, only the pod is picked before the beans swell. The test of a good one: it snaps cleanly.
- CucumberJun–SeptBotanically it's a fruit, like its cousin the melon. What it tells you most is about cold: it likes being cool, but in a very cold fridge it goes soft and pitted.
- TomatoJun–OctAn August tomato and a January one only share the colour. And a good tomato's worst enemy isn't winter: it's your fridge.
- AubergineJun–OctIt's a sponge: it soaks up all the oil you give it. Charred whole over a flame it becomes something else, creamy and smoky, without a drop extra.
- PepperJul–OctGreen and red are usually the same pepper at two stages: the red one was left to ripen on the plant. That's why it's sweeter and dearer.
- New potatoMay–AugYou can tell a new potato because the skin rubs off with your thumb. It's the spring and summer one; the all-year potato is something else, and it's been waiting for you in a store for months.
- Saffron milk capSept–DecCut it and it bleeds orange milk; handle it too much and it bruises green. Both are normal, and both help you recognise it.
- PorciniSept–NovPlump, with a toasted-bun cap and a barrel of a stem: the porcini looks like a child drew it. It's the mushroom that brings the most joy, and the one with the most grubs to share it with.
- ChanterelleJul–NovEgg-yolk yellow, with ridges instead of gills and a faint smell of apricot. It's one of the most obliging mushrooms: it travels well in the basket and keeps well in the fridge.
Seasonal · seasonal.joedoe.dev