fruits in winter

[ApatheticNoMore]

Do you eat fruits in winter? Nothing is in season. Well ok citrus is in season! But not much else. And tropical fruits (bananas, mangos, pineapple) are coming a long way, though I do love them.

I was reading about what the French eat for breakfast, which isn't much (and I haven't been able to get myself to eat nothing for breakfast - being an american and therefore a pig or soemthing ) And one webpages said "In winter, the French prefer to eat preserved fruits for the extra sugar that they need. Fruits are not wholly consumed. In fact, 3-4 slices of peaches are enough for every single serving of a traditional French breakfast"

For the extra sugar they need, oh I love that. Excuse me I must go get a chocolate bar now, the extra sugar I *need* you know! But preserved fruit is one way to go (though I don't know if the french or anyone really do it), and maybe makes a lot more sense than fresh mango. I remember the sugar syrup home preserved apricots of my childhood.

[frugal-one]

We still eat fruit in winter. Granted, not the variety when everything is in season but do bananas, pineapple, oranges, apples, kiwi, blueberries, and pears and, occasionally, grapes and grapefruit. We eat some fruits frozen (ie blueberries), and also, get our fill of dried fruits in granola and bars, plus muesli. Can't imagine not eating any fruit.

[Rosemary]

We eat a huge quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables year-round but we try to buy seasonally.
For part of the winter, domestic kiwi and pomegranates are available. Citrus is great from about December through March. Apples and pears keep well in cold storage and so are available from domestic sources for most of winter. I usually buy organic apples until the quality is decreasing - which hasn't happened yet this year. We also use frozen wild blueberries (from Maine).

When we're low on fruits, we eat more vegetables. I eat vegetables for breakfast just about every day, topped with 1/2 avocado. OK, the avocado is from Mexico.

[Kestra]

Yep, also huge amount of fruit year round. But in the winter it's more likely the usual trio of bananas, apples and oranges. There's more variety in the summer. It's mostly fresh fruit as well. Dried is too easy to eat too much, and I just don't think about frozen that often. Though we do use a lot of applesauce, and some raisins.

[razz]

I freeze fruit in the summer to enjoy in the winter and then supplement with other fresh items as they are available. Three fruits a day for certain.

[redfox]

We have apples & pears, which are local & stored in sheds, for distribution all winter. Yummm! The only tropical fruit we buy is a few bananas every week. Otherwise it's pippin fruits & preserves till spring. We eat a ton of root crops during the winter, roasted veggies at least three times a week.

[RosieTR]

We preserve fruit as jam whenever we can, but also buy apples, oranges, occasional bananas (only DH likes those) and some tropical fruits like pineapple. Tropical fruits do also have a season, for example in Central America, mango season is what we'd call spring here. Some, like bananas, are available year-round. Citrus season as well is in winter and some places, such as the desert SW, have difficulty with fruit in late summer because it's too hot and dry for most things to fruit then.

[Glo]

In winter we eat apples, oranges, kiwi, bananas, grapes, and pineapple. I'm not giving these up.

[Miss Cellane]

Fruit is a big problem for me when it comes to eating local. New England doesn't produce fruit in the winter.

Thanks to cousins who are blueberry fanatics with their own blueberry bushes, I usually have 4-5 quarts of frozen blueberries in the freezer.

Everything else I have to buy. And I'm just not willing to have just apples and pears all winter long--pretty much the major fruit crops that are grown locally that can over-winter. I don't like jams and jellies. So, yes, I buy bananas and oranges and tangerines and avocados and occasionally splurge on grapes when they are on sale.

And I'm glad that I live now, when I can have fresh fruit all winter long.

[razz]

This thread made me look up the value of dried vs fresh fruit. I was surprised to find that 1/4 cup of dried is generally as good as 1 cup of fresh. Neat to know.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/...rticle9843229/