With supermarkets stocked with produce from all over the world, it’s easy to forget that India is also home to a wide range of vegetables. Including seasonal vegetables in your diet is an excellent way to meet your nutritional needs. It benefits local farmers while also lowering your carbon footprint.
Another interesting fact regarding consuming different seasonal vegetables is that they contain the appropriate amount of vitamins and nutrients to keep you healthy throughout the season. Consuming fruits and vegetables during the winter season is an excellent way to keep your finances in check.
see also : root vegetables
Summer
There are innumerable summer fruits and veggies to select from. Summer vegetables keep you hydrated while also providing an abundance of minerals and vitamins to help you survive the summer heat. Tomatoes, aubergine, cucumber, bell peppers, black beans, green peas, bitter gourd, and bottle gourd are a few seasonal vegetables.
see also: Stem Vegetables
Spring
There is no shortage of spring vegetables. In the spring, there will be plenty of leafy greens that are ideal for a light salad. Here are a few of the most prevalent spring vegetables. Coriander, cauliflower, pepper plant, green gram, cucumber, and pumpkin are among the vegetables.
see all about: Carrot Grass
Monsoon
Heavy rain during the monsoon season gives birth to a variety of infections. We are at high risk of contracting water-borne diseases. During the monsoon, we must take extra precautions to protect our health. All of the rainy season vegetables and fruits strengthen your immune systems and help one another survive the rain. A few vegetables you should certainly include within your diet are pumpkin, broccoli, lettuce, sweet potatoes, and corn.
See also: All about India’s National Tree- Banyan
Winter
Seasonal vegetables are grown in the winter to assist your body to acclimatise throughout those chilly and bitterly cold nights. Winter vegetables are an excellent way to strengthen your immunity during the cold and flu season. Cabbage, beets, cauliflowers, and winter squash are some winter vegetables that provide protection against a variety of illnesses.
See also: Vegetables Of Summer
Seasonal vegetables: How to grow
Spring
- Cultivate: Beetroot, broad chickpeas, salad greens, rocket, vegetables, carrots, turnip, veggies, green onions, and cauliflower can all be sown outside, but if it’s really cold, wait until the soil has heated up a bit later in the spring. Sow tomatoes, celery root, greenhouse courgettes, eggplants and bell pepper, butternut squash, and French beans indoors to give them a head start.
- Harvest: Compelled rhubarb, spreading broccoli, Swiss chard, and rooted cuttings of spring onions. You may be extracting the first lettuces, radishes, and ballistic missiles sown sooner in the growing season by the spring’s end and the start of summer.
- Asparagus is a seasonal star. Lance can be trimmed from semi to midsummer (end of May), but it is a tight series, with May becoming the best time. Expanding your own asparagus necessitates plenty of space; it is a perennial, so once established, it should provide spears year after year; however, it may take 3 years to resolve your veg bug fix before delivering a better crop.
Summer
- Sow: Once frost danger has passed, immediately seed delicate vegetables outside during June, such as French and runner beans, sweetcorn, squashes, and courgettes. Throughout the summer, cultivate lettuce leaves, vegetables, swedes, sweetcorn, and Chinese bok choy. Plant youthful blueberry crops in August or September so that they will be ready to harvest the following summer.
- Fruit, strawberry, spring berries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, salad greens, baby beetroot, Cavalcanti, red onion, parsnips, and herbal remedies such as mint, thyme, and sage can all be harvested. French and runner beans, as well as the first open-air tomatoes, sweet corn, and pencil leeks, will be ready by the end of summer.
- Globe artichokes are a seasonal standout. These fantastically ornamental vegetables can reach 1.5m in height and look equally at home in a landscaped garden as they do in a vegetable patch.
Autumn
- Sow: Sow winter salad and Asian greens under glass in a soil border. Vegetate autumn onion sets and baby spinach as plantlings.
- Harvest: At the start of autumn, proceed to extract runner and climbing beans. Forage for deep-coloured blackberries in verges, assemble apples and pears to eat healthy food off the leaf or shop in boxes wrapped in foil, and produce sprouts, autumn cabbages, important member potatoes, carrots, and parsnips – root vegetables can be lifted as needed.
- Autumn-fruiting raspberries are a seasonal showstopper. They are very expensive in stores, but they are relatively simple to grow unless you sprout the batons in a sunny, protected location in moist, fertile ground enhanced with a lot of organic matter. Plant canes when they are stagnant in autumn or winter.
Winter
- Sow: Roosting peas and broad beans outdoors, and winter salads such as purple pak choi undercoat, but you can develop garlic by purchasing bulbs marketed for plantation and then seeding personal cloves outdoors, giving you a kickstart for spring. Chit seed potatoes in January so they can spring up on your window ledge before planting.
- Harvested vegetables include leeks, carrots, parsnips, beetroot salad, winter cabbage, and cauliflower. Indoor grapes should be ready to be picked as well.
- Brussels sprouts are a seasonal show-stopper. Whether you like them or not, why pay a premium for fancy stalks encased in cotyledons at the grocery store when you can quickly develop them yourself? You don’t even have to trim the entire stalk. Simply pull the plantlets from the bottom of the plant as needed.
Source: Pinterest
See Also: Know more about the bitter gourd plant
Seasonal vegetables: How to maintain
- It is important to understand that fruiting plants require more light, moisture, and nutrient-rich than decorative or flowering plants.
- These natural elements are transformed into the harvest that we so desperately desire. So, the improved soil quality and bright daylight, the better the product, and the usually obtained fertilisers increase the likelihood of this.
- To prevent root rot, the soil should be rich in natural issues but light sufficient to not become waterlogged and soggy. It should be a great blend of topsoil (approx. 55-60%), organic material (30%), and soilless growing mixes (approx. 10%), such as coco peat or vermiculite.
- If you are unsure about trying to prepare your own soil mixtures or dependable sourcing components, you might use fully prepared mixes such as organic veggie mix. Every time guarantee that your carton or soil bed has adequate drainage for excess water.
- When the saplings are translocated to the bed after the recommended time, they should be adequately spaced and planted based on their light requirements. Plants such as beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes require a proper support system or agreement for climbing vines. It is essential to shield freshly planted saplings from straightforward rain to thwart them from being washed away.
Seasonal vegetables: Preservation methods
Learning about the procedure can make sure that you have a flourishing garden and fresh vegetables at all times of the year. However, there are different solutions for preserving fresh vegetable products so that you can pull them out and appreciate them at your leisure.
The following are the best alternatives:
- Canning
- Dehydrating
- Freezing
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Canning
Canning necessitates a lengthy procedure. You must prepare your vegetables and prepare the canning jars. The vegetables will then be prepared as needed and either pressure canned or water bath canned.
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Dehydrating
A dehydrator is the most effective method for achieving dehydration. With this tool, you can prepare your item, place it in your dehydrator, and leave it alone for several hours. You merely need to check in on them on a regular basis. Dehydration tends to dry the vegetable, conserving it and making it ready for you to eat whenever you want.
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Freezing
Another great way to keep your vegetables fresh all year is to freeze them. Freezing does require preparation, such as blanching your veggies, but it can usually keep them for up to a year. This allows you to enjoy those delectable festive vegetables all year long.
Seasonal vegetables: Benefits
- Elevated nutritional value: In different seasons, fruits and vegetables that ripen naturally in the sun are juicier, have better texture and flavour, and contain the most nutrition, antioxidants, and phytonutrients. Produce, on the other hand, loses nutrient benefits the longer it is saved or sits while being transferred. Consuming seasonal produce nearer to harvesting time offers the most nutrition.
- Cheaper: Aside from the nutritional benefits, seasonal foods have a number of other advantages, one of which is that they are very cost-effective. When something is produced in an area during the season, the cost of the food automatically decreases because the farmer does not spend money on storage and transportation. Furthermore, when foods are transported from distant locations, the cost of storage and transportation is passed on to the customers, who end up paying more.
- Better taste: Produce that is in season is crisper and tastes much better, sweeter and flawlessly ripe. Fruits and vegetables that have been innately matured on the vine or tree and gathered at the appropriate time will have significantly more taste and nutrition.
FAQs
What are the advantages of using seasonal vegetables?
By using ingredients that are normally in the season, you will get crisper, sweeter, and more perfectly ripe produce. This improves the quality of your meals and prevents you from receiving spoiled or damaged products that have been refrigerated for months while being transferred from country to country.
What are the health benefits of seasonal fruits?
Eating fresh fruits and vegetables when they are in autumn is full of flavour and nutritionally balanced since the fruits and vegetables are not manufactured or preserved. Out-of-season fruits and vegetables are typically less flavorful, but they lose nutrient benefits once cultivated.
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