Apr 7th, 2021, 04:00 PM

Produce in Season for April

By Isabella Bosco
Image credit: Unsplash/Nikos Kavvadas
Here are some tips to grocery shop responsibly this month.

It’s spring in Paris! The flowers are beginning to bloom and there are more fruits and vegetables that are ripe this season. Why is it important to eat what’s in season you may ask? Well, the fruits vegetables that are available in supermarkets year-round or often not naturally ripe, or they have been imported from other parts of the world, giving them large ecological footprints. Seasonal foods are fresher, more nutritious, and tastier than foods that have been ripened unnaturally. Seasonal fruits and vegetables are oftentimes produced on local farms and do not need to travel long distances to enter your grocery bag.

Not only is eating what is in season important but eating local produce holds equal importance. Buying locally can contribute to the local economy while supporting local farms. Local growers also know exactly how their produce is grown and their consumers can be aware of exactly how the farms raise and harvest the crops.

Despite the new measures to control the coronavirus, essential businesses such as supermarkets or open-air markets are still available. Here is a shopping list of what fruits and vegetables are in season in Paris this month.

Image credit: Isabella Bosco
 

If you do not have time to visit your local market, Too Good to Go and Les Panier Colibris are both sustainable options for purchasing fruits and vegetables that are in season. Too Good To Go is an app that creates baskets of produce that are close to their expiration date, but not yet expired. Local produce vendors create surprise baskets full of produce for a reasonable price. This will stock your pantry full of produce and vendors avoid throwing away perfectly good produce.

Maddie Czarnik, an avid Too Good to Go user has even dabbled in pickling certain vegetables and drying certain leaves to use as spices for her cooking. Les Panier Colibris is a delivery service that provides surprise baskets of locally grown produce that must be at least 200km from Paris, giving you fresh produce at your doorstep in an ecological way. 

There are many recipes that show how to make delicious meals from produce in season. Here are some for you to try out this month!