Lifestyle: Why eat seasonally?

I love the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market: the vibrant fresh seasonal fruit & veg, the newborn to the elderly appreciating the beauty of our region's bounty, the lack of hurry and yet bustle at the same time, seeing so much delicious food having been just prepared with loads of love & mindfulness...oh and did I mention the sunshine and gorgeous bay water? I can't get enough. 

Heaven to me is the SF Farmer's Market with a loved one. 

This weekend, I bough radish flowers (so pretty, can't wait to put them on a salad) and rainbow chard, which after I paid the nice man at Heirloom Organics he said "here's a bonus" and gave me a second bunch! :) I love this city.  

 
Learning to eat seasonally is absolutely crucial in Ayurveda. Each dosha (constitution) has a season where the qualities in nature are most similar to those of the dosha therefore creating a higher likelihood for that dosha to become aggravated. For instance, Kapha season is Spring which is wet and cool, and with too much wet & cool in our bodies, we get the very common springtime cold. Nature, quite ingeniously, provides fruits & vegetables in each season that naturally balance the dosha most effected by the weather. With Spring, there are bitter & astringent vegetables (dark leafy greens, beans) to dry out wet heavy Kapha. With Summer, there are sweet fruits to cool the fiery Pitta. And in Winter, there are root vegetables to ground the flighty Vata. If we eat within the season, we are naturally taking care to avoid dosha aggravation. When we start eating out of season, like sweet fruit salads in the winter, we accumulate the dosha of the season in excess, the first step towards aggravation and illness. Eat what's in season and get nature's natural preventative medicine.

So, moral of the story is: eat in season! Hit your local Farmers Market: support local farmers, support your health! Of course, you can also get a Community Supported Agriculture box, but I'll save that for another entry. ;) stay tuned...

Farmer's Markets in SF (not including the ferry bldg): http://www.pcfma.com/marketlistc.php (scroll down for San Francisco)