Winter is Coming: The Most Vibrant Produce for the Coldest Season
As winter sets in, here are the most surprising, delicious and colorful local produce items to keep you warm.
Chefs and home cooks alike know that the lush, vibrant produce of the warmer seasons — cherries, watermelon, asparagus and the like — becomes fairly extinct, locally speaking, once the cold begins to set in. But winter in colder climates isn’t just the season of potatoes and hearty stew: there is a ton of oft-forgotten — though equally delectable, interesting and adaptable — local produce to work with. And even though strawberries and rhubarb are out, there are lots of bright, colorful ingredients to spruce up the drabbest of winter plates.
Here are our picks for the most unexpected, most delightful winter produce:
Graffiti Cauliflower
Though cauliflower season typically ends in November, unheated greenhouses allow farmers to extend that season into winter, along with various other winter-unfriendly vegetables. Graffiti cauliflower is a vegetable that’s absolutely worth that late-season growth effort. Its psychedelic purple color is so vibrant many diners will think it’s dyed, but graffiti cauliflower is just naturally brilliant. Its color fades slightly when it’s cooked, but the purple is still striking and unexpected even if it’s slightly less vivid.
Backhouse Restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake is currently serving a stunning wood-fired vegetable dish on their lunch menu that features graffiti cauliflower along with ricotta, rosewood honey, and several other delicious vegetables.
The Cold Snap is developed and marketed specifically for winter.
Cold Snap Pears
Pears are often considered strictly a fall fruit, but they are often in season well into winter. Never to be outdone when it comes to cold-weather ingredients, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has come up with their own native pear variety in conjunction with the Vineland Growers’ Cooperative in Jordan, ON: the “Cold Snap” pear. The Cold Snap is developed and marketed specifically for winter, and though its harvest season ends in October, atmosphere-modified warehouses will help maintain its sweet flavor and bright green color well into late winter.
Rainbow Carrots
Although people around the world have been eating orange carrots since the 1500s, orange is over when it comes to the carrot. Colorful rainbow carrots are everywhere nowadays, appearing in farmers’ markets and grocery stores and on restaurant menus in colors ranging from purple to red to yellow to white. Given that carrots are a winter stalwart, it’s refreshing to see some unexpected color in the long, tapered form we’re used to associating with unwavering orange.
Red Russian Kale becomes sweeter and more flavorful in the frost, making it the perfect winter treat.
Red Russian Kale
Despite its name, Red Russian kale is not actually red. In fact, it’s a grey-green leaf that turns a deep purple in the cold. It also becomes sweeter and more flavorful in the frost, making it the perfect winter treat. Though its flat, tender leaves are certainly tasty raw, Red Russian kale cooks incredibly well, and retains that sweet burst of flavor when cooked. In addition to being an ultra-healthy superfood, kale is still as hot as ever this winter season, making it a worthy addition to your winter menu.
