Parenting

9 Simple (and Free) Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Fall

The first day of fall, or the autumnal equinox, is September 23 in the Northern Hemisphere. On this day, the sun hovers above the equator, and most of the world enjoys nearly equal amounts of light and darkness.

In traditional agricultural societies, the harvest season was drawing to a close, and people were working overtime to prepare stores for the winter months. The equinox was a time to relax, celebrate, and enjoy the bounty of the harvest, while people anticipated more scarcity or monotony in their winter diet. In modern times, autumn is a time for new beginnings – a new school year, new clothes, new friends, or a new outlook.

Cultures around the world celebrate the first day of fall.

Asian Moon Festivals

Asians have been celebrating the equinox with Moon Festivals, or Mid-Autumn Festivals, for 3000 years. In China, families and friends gather to admire the mid-autumn harvest moon, light lanterns, burn incense, and plant trees. They prepare mooncakes – noodle-like dough filled with bean or lotus seed paste and duck egg yolks or other fillings, which are steamed, baked, or fried.

Japanese Autumnal Equinox Day

In Japan, the fall equinox is a national holiday. The seven days starting three days before the equinox until three days after is called Higan. During Higan, families hold reunions and visit graves, offering flowers, cleaning tombstones, burning incense, and praying. Ohagi, sticky rice covered with adzuki-bean paste or soybean flour, is a popular offering to the deceased.

Jewish New Year – Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is a two-day holiday that falls on the first and second day of the month of Tishri on the Jewish calendar – usually between September 5 and October 5 on our calendar. Rosh Hashanah is the “day of judgment” in the Torah. Observers abstain from work and spend the day in the synagogue. A shofar (ram’s horn) is blown many times to awaken listeners to the coming judgment. People reflect on mistakes made in the last year and plan changes for the new year. Many observers also practice Tashlikh, or “casting off” on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah. They fill their pockets with pieces of bread, walk to a natural body of water, and empty the bread into the water, symbolically casting off the previous year’s sins. Apples or bread dipped in honey is common Rosh Hashanah fare.

Native American Harvest Ceremonies

Many tribes once celebrated the end of the harvest with equinox ceremonies. The Cherokee gave thanks to all living things at a Nuwati Egwa festival and the Chumash of southern California held a sun ceremony at the end of September. The Miwok of Northern California still celebrate the acorn harvest with a Big Time Festival on the last weekend of September. Traditionally, the Miwok relied on the acorn for food. In the fall, they harvested the fruits, cracked them, ground the meat into meal, rinsed the meal to remove its bitter tannins, and made acorn mush, bread, or soap. At modern Big Time festivals, Miwok and other California tribes perform traditional dances, play hand games, and tell stories.

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Create some autumn traditions

Seasonal celebrations can be fun and simple. Why not pick some activities you enjoy to celebrate the first day of fall? Here are a few ideas:

Make a seasonal display

Include leaves, ornamental corn, gourds, jack-o-lanterns, acorns, pine cones, or whatever symbolizes fall in your family.

Read books about fall

Gather books about the season at the library. Fall picture-books include: Leaves by David Ezra Stein; Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall; Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson; Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White; Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert; Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelly; and It’s Fall! by Linda Glaser. The Autumn Equinox by Ellen Jackson is a fun book to read aloud this time of year. Adults can celebrate fall’s cooler weather by grabbing an anticipated fall release.

Make Chinese lanterns

Hang them in the house or on the porch. Click here for a how-to.

Visit a local orchard

Pick apples, and make apple cider, sauce, or pie.

Prepare a harvest feast

Invite friends over and make foods from your garden or the farmer’s market. Traditional autumn foods include: pears, squash, pumpkin, apples, stews, and mulled ciders. Pumpkin bread is a delicious fall treat, and if you use this real-food recipe, it’s healthy too.

Tell stories

Bring a pile of blankets out to the porch, yard, or park and share stories about your best or worst back-to-school memories.

Go on a nature hike

What better way to enjoy the crisp air and colorful leaves?

Talk about balance

Day and night are equal, so it’s the perfect time to talk, as a family, about the importance of balance and how to create more of it in our lives.

Star gaze

After the sun sets, grab a pair of binoculars, cuddle under blankets, and look for constellations. Taurus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and Ursa Minor reappear in the night sky around the equinox.

No matter how you celebrate, I hope you a have a happy first day of fall.

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

(Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a post originally published September 15, 2010)

Are you planning to celebrate the first day of fall this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

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20 Ways to Slow Down Your Summer

By Abby Quillen

It’s summer time and the living’s easy.

Or is it?

For many people, summer looks just like the rest of the year. Same schedule. Same commute. Same cubicle. Even for entrepreneurs, summer can bring the same deadlines and to-do lists as any other season.

Remember those impossibly long summers as a child, when making mud pies, reading novels, and riding bikes up and down the street filled every afternoon? Even with a job and mortgage, you can bring a little slow living back into your life. Here’s your ultimate lazy summer living checklist.

Exit the Fast Lane

Pencil in down time this summer for these leisurely activities:

1. Walk barefoot

Wake your feet up this summer by stripping off your shoes and socks and walking barefoot as much as possible. Walking barefoot not only feels great; it improves your balance and posture and may prevent shin splints, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, and other injuries. Each of your feet contains 20,000 nerve endings, and grass, sand, stones, and water are all sensory delights for your feet. (Learn more about the benefits of going barefoot and discover how to turn your yard into a barefoot garden here.)

2. Go on a picnic

Parenting pro tip: “Let’s go on a picnic!” is sure to garner more excitement from toddlers and preschoolers than “Let’s go for a walk!” That’s how I ended up turning nearly every lunch into a picnic for several years in my quest to get my boys to walk with me. Grab a blanket, pack some sandwiches or Mason-jar meals, and head to a scenic spot or nearby park. Pinterest-worthy picnic food not required.

3. Take a nap

How can you enjoy cool early summer mornings and late evenings, skip the sweltering afternoon heat, and get enough sleep in the process? Meet the summer nap a.k.a siesta. Aim to enjoy at least a few of these summer delights, especially on days you know you’ll be staying up later than usual. A nap can interfere with nighttime sleep if you take it too late in the day. But it can also boost alertness and improve work performance. I say, indulge every once in a while!

4. Sleep with the windows open

If you live in a safe, quiet neighborhood, nothing beats sleeping with a soft breeze and the sound of crickets outside. And as a bonus, you may sleep better.

5. Watch a meteor shower

Mark your calendars, the Perseid meteor shower peaks from August 11 to August 13. Depending on where you live and how dark it is, you’ll see a falling star every minute. Don’t forget to make some wishes!

6. Go camping

Spending time away from man-made lights resets the body’s circadian rhythm and improves quality of sleep, according to recent research. That may partly explain why camping can feel so restorative. Find a beautiful spot and leave the demands of your busy life for a few days.

7. Read a summer novel

If your nightstand’s stacked with business or personal development tomes, put them aside for a few weeks and indulge in some fun summer reading. Yes, reading can be an avenue to learning and growth. And it can also help you bring magic, imagination, and leisure back into your life. Looking for some indulgent summer reads? Check out this list.

8. Play a yard game

Nothing says summer like a rousing game of horseshoes, croquet, bocce ball, ladder toss, cornhole, badminton, or lawn bowling. Frisbee, softball, or kickball are also sure crowd-pleasers.

9. Make iced tea or coffee

Icy beverages are some of the true delights of the hottest months. But when you add ice to a hot beverage, you end up with a watered-down, weak drink. Up your iced tea and coffee game this summer by making cold-water extract. To make cold-water iced tea, add 3 to 4 tea bags per quart of cold water. Leave at room temperature for an hour and then refrigerate overnight. To make cold-water coffee, combine one cup of finely ground coffee beans with 4 cups of water, and refrigerate overnight. Serve over ice and enjoy.

10. Swim in a waterhole

Want to take a dip in a natural paradise? No matter where you live, chances are there’s a beautiful, secluded, natural swimming area nearby. Go to swimminghole.org to find one, and follow the common-sense precautions on the website to stay safe and healthy while you swim.

11. Play a board game

When’s the last time you wiled away an afternoon over a game of Scrabble or checkers? If you can’t remember, bring on the lemonade and board games. Our 10-year-old loves board games, so we play a lot of them. Some of our current favorites include the Ticket to Ride games, Battleship, and Clue. If you’re children fight when board games come out, try a cooperative board game, where everyone works together and everyone wins. My kids love Wildcraft: An Herbal Adventure Game, and they’ve learned a lot about plants while playing it. Go here for a list of other cooperative board games.

12. Go to a movie

Whether you’re watching a summer blockbuster or an art film, the movie theater is the perfect place to spend a sweltering summer afternoon.

13. Make a bouquet of summer flowers

Bring the color of summer indoors by gathering sunflowers, daisies, coneflowers, dahlias, zinnias, or whatever blooms are growing near you..

14. Go to a farmer’s market

Stock up on summer’s bounty and support local farmers, then whip together a fresh, flavorful (and preferably simple) summer feast.

15. Lie in a hammock

Forget your to-do list and kick back in your backyard hammock. Want to combine a nap and hammock session? Follow these tips for ultimate comfort: Make sure the hammock isn’t hung too tightly, position yourself diagonally, and arrange a pillow under your head.

16. Go out for ice cream

It’s summer. What better excuse to try one of the season’s new ice cream flavors, such as banana peanut butter chip, blackberry hibiscus, or brown butter bourbon truffle? Or go with classic vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.

17. Eat watermelon

Watermelon is a summer superstar. It not only tastes delicious. It’s full of antioxidants and other nutrients and it’s one of the most hydrating summer fruits. Plus, you could always hold a seed-spitting competition to wile away some boredom.

18. Pick berries

Whether you find them on the side of a mountain trail or growing in your backyard, enjoy summer’s berries while you can. Come January, you’ll miss nature’s sweet treats … unless you head to a you-pick farm and pick enough to store in your freezer. Find a farm at pickyourown.org.

19. Roast marshmallows

Remember perfectly toasted, caramelized marshmallows from childhood camping trips? Me neither. Mine usually turned out to be deflated, charred, and shriveled messes. But now that we’re adults with real culinary skills, we can almost certainly do better — or at least have fun trying. Don’t forget to pack graham crackers and chocolate bars.

20. Host a barbecue

Fire up the barbecue and move the party outside. Remember, the point here is leisure. You have my permission to skip the Martha Stewart-worthy menu and table decor and aim for a relaxed grill-and-chill.

Mission: Enjoy Summer

You may never experience summer the way you did as a child. Mud pies and lemonade stands probably don’t hold the same appeal these days. But that doesn’t mean summer can’t bring a little magic. Before the season slips away, take back your time for some good old-fashioned summer leisure.

[Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a post originally published on July 30, 2018]

12 Simple (and Free) Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Summer

By Abby Quillen

Summer solstice, or Midsummer’s Day, is June 21. It’s the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere when we enjoy the most sunlight and the shortest night.

The sun rises to its maximum height, bathing the Arctic Circle – including parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and all of Iceland – in twenty-four hours of daylight. Ancient monuments – including Stonehenge, England; Callanish, Scotland; Macchu Picchu, Peru; Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; and Monk’s Mound in southern Illinois – align with the sun. And people around the world celebrate.

How did people historically celebrate the solstice?

Bonfires. In several countries, including Germany, bonfires were offered to the sun to promote fertility and bring bountiful harvests. Men would leap the flames and run across the embers when the fire died down.

Staying awake. People in Japan, Britain, and Norway stayed awake until midnight or throughout the shortest night of the year to welcome the longest day at dawn. According to a British folk tale, spirits of those who would die the next year roamed on this night. Thus, people stayed awake to keep their spirits from wandering.

Sun Dances. The Native American plains tribes, including the Arapahoe, Sioux, Ute, and Blackfoot tribes, threw elaborate religious ceremonies around the time of the solstice. The celebrations lasted from four to eight days. Many honored the buffalo and included singing, drumming, and dancing, and often fasting, prayer, visions, and acts of self-torture.

Gathering plants. In Denmark, women gathered herbs on the solstice, including St. John’s Wort, which got its name because it flowers around the time of St. John’s Day (June 24). If St. John’s Wort was picked and dried at Midsummer, it was said to chase away the winter blues when ingested later in the year.

St. John’s Eve festivals. Many countries, including Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Finland, and Sweden have traditionally celebrated Midsummer two days after the solstice on St. John’s Eve. Near Helsinki, Finland, modern people gather on this day to watch Finnish folk dances, listen to traditional songs, light bonfires, and participate in rowing races.

What are the benefits of celebrating the first day of each season?

Seasonal celebrations give you and your family the opportunity to:

Note the cyclical changes in the soil, sky, trees, plants, and wildlife.
Reflect on the uniqueness of each season.
Reflect on the lessons each season imparts. The bounties of summer are endless – light, warmth, and lush crops. Nature is at her peak, but the solstice also brings the returning darkness.
Read about different celebrations around the world.
Celebrate! Seasonal celebrations are affordable, nature-based, and as easy or elaborate as you want them to be.

Create some summer traditions this year!

The first day of summer is a great time to start some new family traditions. Pick activities that you’ll want to do year after year, and ones that will make the day relaxing and special for you and your family. Here are a few ideas:

1. Establish a table-top, shelf, or mantel to display seasonal items. On the first day of summer, replace the spring decorations with seashells, sand dollars, flowers, a baseball, photographs from summer trips, or whatever symbolizes summer in your family.

2. Collect books about the seasons. Choose a special basket or shelf for them, and change them out on the first day of each season. Some classic picture books about summer include:

- Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure
- Boris Goes Camping by Carrie Weston
- The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
- Before the Storm by Jan Yolen
- Summertime Waltz by Nina Payne
- Canoe Days by Gary Paulsen
- Sun Dance Water Dance by Jonathan London
- Summer is Summer by Phillis and David Gershator
- Under Alaska’s Midnight Sun by Deb Venasse.

Adults, check out this list for some of the season’s most anticipated summer reads.

3. Place a bouquet of roses, lilies, or daisies in your family members’ bedrooms while they sleep, so they wake up to fresh summer flowers.

4. Find a special place outside to observe the sunrise and sunset. You can find out what time the sun will rise and set where you live here.

5. Eat breakfast outside after the sun rises.

6. Go on a nature hike. Bring along guidebooks to help you identify birds, butterflies, mushrooms, or wildflowers.

7. Gather plants. Traditionally Europeans harvested Saint John’s Wort on the first day of summer, dried it, and made it into tea on the first day of winter. The tea is a traditional remedy for seasonal depression, and it’s said to bring the summer sunshine into the dark winter days. It’s a weedy plant and you can probably find some growing in a sunny open area near you. Find out more here.

8. Visit a U-pick farm to harvest strawberries, snap peas, or whatever’s in season where you live. Find a nearby “pick your own” farm here.

9. Make a summer feast. Eat exclusively from your garden or the farmer’s market to celebrate the bounties of summer in your area.

10. Host a “locavore” potluck.

11. Turn off all the indoor lights, light candles, and eat dinner outside.

12. Play outside, watercolor, or decorate the sidewalks with chalk until the sun sets.

Or create your own traditions to welcome summer this June 21. Hopefully you’ll be celebrating for years to come.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

Do you celebrate the summer solstice? I’d love to hear how your family celebrates!

[Editor’s note: This is a refreshed and revamped version of a post originally published on June 15, 2009.]

9 Simple (and Free) Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Spring

By Abby Quillen

The spring equinox is March 20 in the northern hemisphere. The sun shines directly on the equator, and day and night are nearly equal. For centuries, people have marked the occasion with celebrations.

How Did Ancient People Celebrate?

Fires

In Iran, people purified their homes and leapt over fires.

Gathering at Monuments

The Mayans gathered around El Castillo, a ceremonial pyramid. On the day of the equinox, the sun runs down the northern staircase, giving the illusion of a snake descending. Because of this, their celebration has been called “The Return of the Sun Serpent” since ancient times.

Honoring Ancestors

The Japanese spent the day cleaning and bringing flowers to their ancestors’ graves.

Celebrating Mothers

In parts of the Middle East and Africa, people celebrate Mother’s Day on the spring equinox.

Benefits of Modern Seasonal Celebrations

The first day of each season is a great opportunity to pause and connect with nature. Seasonal celebrations are affordable, nature-based, and as easy or elaborate as you want them to be.

It’s nice to take a time-out from the clock’s relentless march forward occasionally to appreciate what’s happening in the natural world: What the sky looks like, what local wildlife are up to, which birds are hanging out at the neighborhood pond, and whether the leaves are budding, falling, or mulching the gardens.

Seasonal celebrations are also a good time to reflect on the lessons the season imparts. Fall teaches us about the inevitability of loss. Winter shows us the importance of dormancy, darkness, and stillness. Spring shows the possibility of rebirth. And the bounties of summer are endless – light, warmth, and lush crops.

Create some spring traditions this year!

What better time than spring to start some new family traditions? Pick activities that you’ll want to do year after year and ones that will make the day relaxing and special for you and your family, but not overwhelming. Here are 9 ways to celebrate:

Decorate

Collect spring flowers, cherry buds, egg shells, a bird’s nest, or whatever symbolizes springtime in your family and display them on a mantle or tabletop. Place bouquets of crocuses, daffodils, tulips, or dandelions around the house. Or surprise your family members by placing bouquets in their bedrooms while they sleep, so they wake up to fresh flowers on the first day of spring.

Observe

The days are getting longer. Go outside on the first day of spring to watch the sun rise and set. Find out what time the sun will rise and set where you live here.

Explore

Go on a walk or hike and identify wildflowers if some are already sprouting in your area. Or visit a local farm and see if you can get a glimpse of calves, lambs, or chicks in the barnyard. What better symbol of spring?

Feast

Make a spring meal with the first crops of the season. Dandelion leaves, steamed nettles, asparagus, new potatoes, dill, mint, and chives may be springing up where you live. Make your dinner more special than usual by adding something new. Eat by candlelight. Eat outside if weather permits. Or have a picnic on a blanket in the living room.

Make

Twist dandelions or clovers into chains, and wear them as spring crowns.

Plan

Gardening season is here! Spend some time planning your springtime garden.

Sow seeds

Have each family member pick a favorite flower or plant to sow in honor of the first day of spring. Designate a special garden, and make a ceremony of it.

Read

These spring picture books are great for little ones:

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart
Grandma Lena’s Big Ol Turnip by Denia Hester
Marty McGuire Digs Worms by Kate Messner
Wanda’s Roses by Pat Brisson
And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano

The Spring Equinox: Celebrating the Greening of the Earth by Ellen Jackson is fun to read aloud as a family on the first day of spring.

And cold days aren’t over yet, so adults may also want to stock up on the season’s most anticipated reads.

Craft

Decorate hard-boiled eggs with natural dyes. Try beets, cranberries, blackberries, or raspberries for red; yellow-onion skins or turmeric for yellow; parsley, spinach, or red-onion skins for green; blueberries for blue; and coffee, pecan hulls, or black-walnut hulls for brown. Or experiment by trying whatever’s coming up in your backyard.

To make a natural dye, combine:

4 cups of chopped or mashed fruits or vegetables or 4 tablespoons of spice
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons of white vinegar.

Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 30 minutes.

If these ideas don’t resonate, create your own traditions to welcome spring this March 20! I hope you’ll celebrate for years to come.

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

[Photo credit: Jeff Kubina, Marco Verch]

Simple (and Free) Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Winter

By Abby Quillen

December 21 is the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. Parts of Canada, Alaska, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Greenland, and the northern tip of Iceland will experience 24 hours of total darkness.

Winter could be a long, dark, and difficult time for many of our forebears. The solstice provided an opportunity to celebrate the return of more daylight.

How did ancient people celebrate?

Gift-giving

The ancient Romans exchanged candles and other gifts during Saturnalia, their week-long solstice celebration.

Role-switching

In Persia, the king changed places with one of his subjects on the winter solstice, and the subject was crowned during an elaborate street party.

In Rome, masters and servants switched roles; senators wore simple, rather than elaborate togas; men sometimes dressed as women; fights and grudges were forgotten; and other everyday conventions were put aside.

Candle-lighting

In England and Scandinavia, people lit a Yule log, or oak branch, which was often replaced by a large candle that burned throughout the day.

Bonfires

Japanese Shinto farmers lit fires on the mountainsides to welcome back the sun.

Mistletoe and Evergreen Trees

The British Celts put mistletoe on their altars. And the Germans and Romans decorated their houses with evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as a symbol of life and renewed fertility.

Sun Festivals

The Hopi celebrated the return of the sun with ceremonies. Priests dressed in animal skins with feathers in their headdresses to look like the rays of the sun.

Why celebrate the first day of winter?

The holiday season is busy enough for most of us. Why add anything else to the to-do list?

Celebrating the first day of each season offers the perfect opportunity to:

Note the cyclical changes in the soil, sky, trees, plants, and wildlife.
Reflect on the lessons each time of year imparts. Winter reminds us of the importance of quiet, rest, and dormancy.
Learn about different celebrations around the world.
Celebrate! Seasonal celebrations are affordable, nature-based, and as easy or elaborate as you want them to be.
Be grateful for the gifts of food, family, and friendship.

The key to celebrating the first day of winter, when most of us are busy planning other celebrations, is to keep it simple, and choose traditions that give you time to relax and reflect.

Simple (and free) ways to celebrate winter

Observe

Watch the sunrise and sunset. You probably won’t even have to set an alarm. At our house, it will rise at 7:44 and set at 4:37 on Tuesday. (The good news is longer, brighter days are coming.) You can find out what time the sun will rise and set where you live here.

Wander

Take a hike, go cross-country skiing, or go for a walk and look for signs of the season. Listen to winter’s music. Compare winter’s textures: dry bark, soggy leaves, and spongy moss. Notice winter’s distinctive scents.

Give

Find gifts for each other from nature. Exchange small handmade gifts. Make maple caramel corn for friends or neighbors. The key is to keep it simple.

Feast

Serve up your favorite winter crops: beets, winter squash, potatoes, onions, kale, cabbage, or parsnips. We’re fans of stuffed squash and homemade sauerkraut this time of the year. Lighting candles can turn an ordinary meal into a celebration.

Reflect

Spend some time relaxing together in front of the fire. Share one thing you’ve lost and one thing you’ve gained over the past year. Tell stories about your best and worst holiday memories. Make wishes for the coming year. Reflect on the lessons of winter: the importance of rest, dormancy, and stillness.

The key to seasonal celebrations is to make them simple and relaxing. The last thing most of us need is another stressful winter tradition.

What’s your favorite thing about winter? Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear about it!

(Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a post originally published December 14, 2009)

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

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Local, Seasonal Foods are Superfoods

By Abby Quillen

What should you eat for optimal health? That question has inspired wildly contradictory dietary trends from Low-fat to Raw Vegan to Paleo to Keto, each backed by health claims and scientific studies. However, nobody will ever discover a one-size-fits-all optimal human diet because we didn’t evolve to eat the same thing. Throughout most of history, whether humans hunted and gathered, raised animals, or cultivated crops, they ate a menu of local foods that shifted with the seasons. All traditional diets emphasized seasonal eating.

In the past hundred years, the industrialization of agriculture and the invention of refrigeration radically remade our diets. Today, 70 percent of the American diet is processed, and the fresh foods in your grocery store were likely imported from all over the globe. However, locavore, Farm to Table, and Farm to School movements are flourishing for good reason. Exotic superfoods may be trendy, but the foods grown near you are usually the freshest, most nutritious, healthiest, and most flavorful foods you can eat. Even a modest change to eating more local and seasonal foods can bring health, environmental, and culinary benefits.

Eating seasonally may require a mindset shift and some effort, because most modern Americans weren’t raised doing it. But the benefits are worthwhile! Keep reading to learn why local, seasonal foods are superfoods and discover ways to shift to a more seasonal diet.

The Case of the Missing Nutrients

The industrial food system has brought convenience, but the price tag is high, both for human health and the health of our ecosystems. First of all, we’ve lost an incredible amount of food diversity. In 1903, 408 types of peas were available in commercial seed catalogs; by 1983, there were 25 available pea types. More than 300 varieties of sweet corn in 1903 dwindled to 12 in 1983; 544 cabbage varieties in 1903 diminished to 28 in 1983.

Here’s the problem: Modern crops are significantly less nutritious than the crops our grandparents ate. Farmers must select crop types for yield and their ability to be transported and stored, rather than for nutrition. Moreover, soil depletion and rising carbon levels in the atmosphere may further contribute to the declining nutrient values of our food. The USDA has monitored the nutrition in crops since the late 1800s, and the data is troubling. According to one analysis, an orange today contains eight times less vitamin A than an orange your grandparent would have eaten. Broccoli contains less than half as much calcium as it did in 1950.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Exotic superfoods may be trendy, but local, seasonal foods are the real superfoods. #localfood” quote=”Exotic superfoods may be trendy, but local, seasonal foods are the real superfoods.” theme=”style1″]

To complicate the problem, nutrients degrade quickly after produce is picked. Conventional produce is often picked before it’s ripe, is shipped an average of 1494 miles, and is handled frequently and stored on shelves for days.

For obvious reasons, local produce is nearly always fresher than produce shipped from across the world. And it may contain more nutrients in the first place because farmers growing food for local markets can choose crop types for nutrition and flavor, such as antioxidant-rich purple carrots and potatoes. Moreover, there’s a less understood reason to eat seasonal foods; by doing so, we tap into nature’s wisdom about what’s best to eat when.

Tap into Nature’s Wisdom

Because of the tilt of the earth, seasons exist everywhere, except for a small tropical band near the equator, which has minimal seasonality. In some regions of the earth, seasonal changes are extreme. In parts of Alaska, summer and winter temperatures vary by 100 degrees. Flora, fauna, and weather vary widely by region and and season, and it makes sense that our diets would vary accordingly, since they were once dependent on the local environment. The bottom line? We evolved to eat certain foods at certain times. And now that we’ve lost touch with which crops grow when, we may have lost a natural way to stay healthy during each season.

Consider these examples:

Summer crops (berries, fruit, snap beans, corn, cucumbers, melons, peppers, tomatoes, and summer squash) provide energy, hydration, and antioxidants to help people deal with the potentially damaging effects of summer sunshine.
Fall and winter crops (sweet potatoes, winter squash, chard, spinach, bok choy, and kale) provide large amounts of vitamin A, a nutrient that supports the immune system, just as seasonal illnesses are circulating.
Spring crops (watercress, pea shoots, wild nettles and greens) have anti-histamine effects in the body, which helps fend off spring’s seasonal allergies. (Nettles worked better than allergy medication in one study.)

The health benefits of seasonal eating go beyond ingesting antioxidants and phytochemicals. Eating is not only about nutrients; it’s about our relationship with the natural world, the source of all real food.

Humans are wired to be outside. Spending time in nature is therapeutic, healing, and necessary for human health. Reconnecting food to its true source by hunting or gathering wild foods, gardening, or visiting farms or orchards can be a powerful step toward better health. When you adjust your diet with local conditions, you must observe and relate with the environment outside the climate-controlled homes, buildings, and cars, where Americans now spend 90 percent of the time.

Invest in Healthier Ecosystems

The industrial food system, which was developed in the decades after World War II, features enormous single-crop farms and animal production facilities and relies heavily on chemical fertilizers. The system has been successful at increasing crop yields, making food cheaper, decreasing the need for farm labor, and increasing the availability of off-season crops. Unfortunately, the environmental costs for industrial agriculture have been huge and include mass extinctions, a biodiversity crisis, contaminated water ways, the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and pesticide toxicity.

In wealthy nations, food consumption is estimated to account for 20 to 30 percent of each family’s environmental footprint. Environmental life cycle food assessments are complicated, and it’s important to factor how the food is grown and transported to market. However, many studies suggest that even a small shift to local and seasonal eating may make a difference to the environment. A research team found the conventional food distribution system emitted 5 to 17 times more CO₂and used four to 17 times more fuel than the local and regional food distribution systems in Iowa. A Canadian study estimated that replacing imported food with locally grown food in just the Waterloo, Ontario region would save transport-related emissions roughly equivalent to taking 16,191 cars off the road. According to another analysis, if everyone in the U.S. just ate one meal a week consisting of local and organic produce, we’d reduce our national oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels a week.

Step Outside of the Grocery Store

Seasonal eating goes against our always-available, fast-food culture, and it may not be intuitive if you weren’t raised doing it. Growing up in rural Colorado, nearly all of my family’s produce came from refrigerated cases at a national grocery chain. My dad grew a small vegetable garden one summer (an experience that had an enormous impact on me). Other than that, we didn’t grow food or visit farms or orchards. Most years, the apples and plums on the trees in our yard fell to the ground and rotted, as did the fruit on the trees around our neighborhood. Little of the wisdom my ancestors must have possessed about hunting or growing, storing, and gathering food was passed to me. However, I’m committed to eating more local and seasonal foods because it feels like the most nutritious, sustainable, and nourishing way to eat.

These days, my family and I garden, gather food, belong to a Community Supported Agriculture program, and regularly visit farms and orchards. We don’t stick to a 100-mile diet or eschew all imported foods. We enjoy coffee and imported oranges and bananas as much as the next family. But we do our best to heed some traditional wisdom and stay connected to our natural environment as we live our busy lives in the modern world.

Even a little local and seasonal eating may make a difference to your health, community, and local ecosystems. And it’s an amazing way to connect with the natural world and glimpse the beauty and wisdom pervasive there.

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Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a blog originally posted October 3. 2017.

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