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Buy Local and Seasonal Food
Locally produced food grown in sync with the seasons is fresher and requires less energy to produce and transport to you.
Eating local and seasonal food supports local producers and the production of crops that are appropriate to our environment. It alleviates the reliance on long-distance transport and refrigeration of foods that are grown thousands of kilometres away.
Foods grown in sync with the seasons are more in tune with our intuitive nutritional needs: after all, who wants a cucumber sandwich in the middle of winter?
How to do it now!
Buy & eat local and seasonal food!
Farmers markets are the best place to buy locally produced food and a great directory is available from the Australian Farmers Markets Association.
Download and check out the seasonal produce guides developed by Council:
- Seasonal produce guide for Summer (PDF File, 436kb)
- Seasonal produce guide for Autumn (PDF File, 373kb)
- Seasonal produce guide for Winter (PDF File, 434kb)
- Seasonal produce guide for Spring (PDF File, 406kb)
Local farmers markets and other providers of seasonal produce include:
- The Entrance Farmers & Craft Market
- Avoca Beach Growers Markets
- Gosford City Growers Market
- Join the Food Integrity Group to find out more about sourcing seasonal organic produce
Email fig.centralcoast@gmail.com for more details. - Peninsula Environment Centre
Foods in season throughout the year:
| Summer | Autumn | Winter | Spring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apricots | Avocado (Fuerte) | Beetroots | Asparagus |
| Beans | Cabbage (& Brussels Sprouts) | Broccoli | Avocado (Hass) |
| Berries & Currants | Cauliflower | Cabbage (& Brussels Sprouts) | Beetroots |
| Celery | Celery | Cauliflowers | Berries & currants |
| Cherries | Chestnuts | Celery | Broccoli |
| Corn | Cumquats | Cumquats | Cabbage (& Brussels Sprouts) |
| Cucumber | Figs | Fennel | Corn |
| Eggplants | Ginger | Ginger | Cucumbers |
| Figs | Leeks | Jerusalem Artichokes | Fennel |
| Green pea | Melons | Lemons & Limes | Green, Snap & Snow pea, |
| Leeks | Olives | Olives | Leeks |
| Melon | Parsnips | Parsnips | Lemon & Lime |
| Pears | Pears | Rhubarb | Peppers & chillies |
| Peppers (& Chillies) | Quinces | Sweet Potatoes | Rhubarb |
| Tomatoes | Sweet Potatoes | Turnips & swedes | Zucchini & Squash |
| Zucchini & Squash | Tomatoes |
(Southern Australian emphasis)
Grow your own food - The best way to get local and seasonal is to use your own backyard! You can have a veggie garden all year round with seasonal vegetables. See our Grow your own Food action.
Why this action is important?
Reconfiguring our eating habits so as to have the lightest impact on the environment is a simple way to address climate change (via reduced transport and industrial energy) and support local communities and farmers. You'll also get an interesting and diverse diet all year round! In addition, organisations like the Australian Farmers' Markets Association advocate for low-impact farming and produce diversity.
Environment
Local and seasonal produce creates less energy and water being embedded in our foods (through growing, transport and refrigeration), with a corresponding lightening of the contribution to climate change. Seasonal crops are more likely to work with, rather than against, local biological and environmental systems and species, minimising the requirement for pesticides, glasshouses, etc.
Wellbeing
The good sense of eating seasonally aligned (local) food is a well-developed tenet of preventative medical traditions (such as traditional Chinese medicine). Even without applying hard science, intuition and tradition tell us to eat root vegies in winter, sprouting veggies in spring and cooling vegies in summer.