Nature Keeps the Calendar

Walk into almost any grocery store today and you’ll find bananas, avocados, blueberries, tomatoes, peaches, salmon, and nearly every cut of beef throughout the year. We’ve grown accustomed to finding almost anything we want, almost any day of the year. It’s a remarkable convenience, and one that’s easy to take for granted. What often goes unnoticed is that every one of those foods began with a season of its own.

Wild Alaska salmon is a good example. Although we offer salmon throughout the year, every fish was harvested during a relatively short fishing season. Careful processing and freezing at peak quality allow us to enjoy a seasonal harvest long after the fishing boats have returned to port. That’s not a departure from nature. It’s simply one of the best ways to preserve an abundant harvest.

Honey reminds us that nature doesn’t always follow a predictable schedule. Customers often ask when we’ll have Ambrosia or Catclaw Acacia honey again, and the honest answer is that we don’t know. Those flowers bloom only when conditions are right, and some years they simply don’t. A favorite varietal may return the following season, or it may be several years before weather and rainfall come together in just the right way.

Beef tells a different story. Every harvest begins with a whole animal, and every animal yields a natural balance of steaks, roasts, soup bones, ground beef, and the many other cuts people enjoy. Some cuts are naturally more abundant than others, and some become customer favorites. That balance isn’t determined by demand or marketing. It’s simply part of the animal itself.

The modern food system has done an extraordinary job of making food available throughout the year. Freezing, refrigeration, transportation, and careful storage allow us to enjoy foods long after their harvest has ended. Those are genuine accomplishments. Even so, healthy soil, favorable weather, flowering plants, migrating fish, and thriving livestock continue to operate on nature’s timetable, not ours.

Perhaps that’s one of the quiet lessons good food has to offer. The foods we enjoy don’t begin on a grocery shelf or in a freezer. They begin with healthy land, healthy water, healthy animals, favorable weather, and people willing to work within those natural rhythms. We may enjoy the harvest months later, but its story always begins with a season.

We enjoy sharing these stories because understanding where our food comes from often leads to a greater appreciation for the people who produce it and the natural world that makes it possible. This is one of our favorite times of year at the Los Ranchos Growers Market. The market is brimming with locally grown fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs, flowers, meats, honey, eggs, baked goods, and countless other foods produced right here in New Mexico. If you haven’t visited in a while, we’d love to see you. Come stroll through the market, meet the people behind your food, and enjoy one of the most abundant seasons of the year.

Stay Well Fed,

Brenna & Kenny