The constant cold weather we have right now came in so fast that even I didn't get all my fall projects done. A few weeks back I purchased some fall bulbs to plant for spring and they are still sitting in my laundry room waiting to be planted. Looks like I will be putting them into storage until next spring when I can get them in the ground. They probably won't bloom because they really need to get planted in the fall, but I can wait an extra year to see blooms. But just because our season has come to an end doesn't mean gardening ends, it just moves south. 

When my wife and I go to Florida to visit my mom in the winter, strawberries are just coming into season as they thrive in Florida during the winter months. Strawberries are actually an annual crop in Florida as the fields have to be replanted every year because the weather is simply too hot in the summer for the strawberries to survive. So those crops get planted in October when the weather cools and by late December fresh Florida strawberries are at every farmers market. Strawberries just happen to be my wife's favorite, so she is in her glory with fresh berries every morning for breakfast. The winter months are also the best months for Florida citrus with December and January offering the greatest variety. Even the grocery stores in our area have a wide variety of fresh Florida citrus right now. 

The citrus that you find in the stores in the summer months typically comes from South America as their season is opposite ours. Raspberries are my favorite berry, and even this time of the year, I can usually find them shipped up from South America. They also have a very long growing season in southern California, but most of our produce this time of year comes from south of the border. It is convenient to have produce available year-round but fresh-picked always tastes better. That is why the oranges and grapefruit always taste better in the winter than the summer. For items shipped from South America up to our grocery stores, the produce has to be picked before it is ripe or else it will spoil before it makes it on to the shelves at the grocery store. Best case scenario, an item picked could make it to market in as little as seven days, but typically it takes fourteen days or more. So, in the case of citrus, Florida produce can hit the shelves up north much faster, sometimes in as little as three days, so it is picked closer to being fully ripe. As a result, the fruit is generally juicier and more flavorful. Now, chances are unless you tried a Florida navel orange side by side with a South American navel orange, you would not be able to tell the difference. 

Some produce from South and Central America, tastes better than that from the U.S. One example is pineapple, once the crown jewel of Hawaii. The best pineapples used to come from Hawaii back in the day, but as tourism grew in the islands, farmland was converted into resorts. Hawaii produces today only ten percent of the amount of pineapples they once produced compared to the nineteen sixties. Today, the best pineapples that you will find in the grocery stores come from Costa Rica. I toured a pineapple plantation in Costa Rica some years ago and like Hawaii, the flavor of the pineapple comes from the volcanic sands that they are grown in. Costa Rica has active volcanos and most of the best pineapple fields are near ancient lava flows. I'll let you in on one trick that I learned on that trip. When picking a pineapple in the store, if a leaf comes out easily when you pull it, it is overripe and will taste acidic. Pick a pineapple that is greenish, not golden, golden is the color pineapples turn right before they go into the garbage. I can remember as a kid always being told just the opposite, but that was by commercials looking to sell pineapples.