Walk the aisles of most local grocery stores and you'll still find tomatoes, green beans and big heads of lettuce—all the summer season foods you love. Only this time of year, they taste more like starchy, watery cardboard.
Not so with tender beets, robust cauliflowers and spicy kales. This time of year, these foods and many others are just reaching their prime in places like the Willamette Valley, Washington and California, all within a few hundred-mile radius of Bend. While not exactly local, eating these seasonal foods keeps you connected to the wheel of the year and offer up earthy, comforting flavors.
Vegetables
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Parsnips
Beets
Brussel sprouts
Carrots
turnips
Leeks
Potatoes
Squash
Greens
Kale
Swiss Chard
Beet Greens
Turnip Greens
Fruits
Apples
Pears
Pomegranate
Grapefruit- they peak in late fall or early winter
Clementines
Proteins
Clams
Crabs
oysters
Scallops