Our local food wheel sees three more months of winter (click for larger version).

According to the wheel, from now on only the following will be available, and not in peak (i.e., in storage). According to the wheel, this condition lasts through March:

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Cabbage
• Beets
• Carrots
• Rutabaga, Turnips
• Parsnips
• Shallots
• Winter Squash
• Sweet Potatoes
• Apples (the lone fruit!)

Luckily for us our greenmarket has a wide variety of winter vegetables, although they still fall more or less into the buckets above (see yesterday’s post on watermelon radishes and golden turnips).

Also, we have plenty of access throughout the winter to local beef, poultry, lamb, bison, dairy, cheese, and grains. We’ve been eating largely vegetarian for 9 months. That’s about to change!

Where to Find a Food Wheel
We got our food wheel a few years ago for free at the greenmarket. They don’t seem to give them away anymore. It’s from Chew on this and they are available online for $11. They only appear to have a wheel for the Northeast .

We like this wheel because it is specific, by food, by week. The downside is that it’s not an exact a science. Seasons vary from year to year. If the spring thaw comes early, it will shift the whole wheel by a few weeks. That’s just something to keep in mind.

Another option is localfoodswheel.com, which has wheels for “New York”, “San Francisco”, and “Upper Midwest” for $12.95. These are a less specific and can really only be interpreted by month, but in some ways that’s more accurate.

These wheels use pictures, which is nice. However, they tell you only when a food comes into season, and not when it goes out of season or how long you might find it in storage. On the plus side, the back of these wheels feature a very complete index of foods, when they are freshly harvested, and when they are available via storage. It’s not in wheel format, but it will do in a pinch.

If you live elsewhere, try a location-specific Google search. I can’t guarantee results, but if you find others, please let us know.

Good hunting!