Some food enthusiasts at chowhound.com alerted me to a fantastic Seattle-area website called Seasonal Cornucopia.  The site lists what locally-produced ingredients are available in any given time period, and offers recipes, links, and sources for ingredients.  It’s a nice resource for planning ahead and getting ideas for a meal of local ingredients any time during the year.  The Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance website also has a nice list of what’s available each week and each month here.

Keep in mind that sites like these by definition can’t be perfectly comprehensive, and the disclaimer on Seasonal Cornucopia is pretty upfront about that.  Unexpected weather can change what’s available, as we learned a few weeks ago during the giant snowstorm, when potatoes were literally the only vegetable available at the University District farmers market.  There are also always new vendors, growers introducing new items, and items that are no longer produced.

I like these websites for getting ideas, but my favorite way to discover what’s available is to go out and see for myself.  I checked out the Ballard market yesterday for the first time in a few weeks and saw, in addition to a lot of familiar merchants, a fish vendor I hadn’t noticed previously, someone selling pasture-raised veal and other meats, some hand-shelled walnuts, and some nice-looking apples.  The discovery process, even when the weather is cold and wet, is part of the fun.

I’m curious for those of you beyond Washington State or outside the U.S.: do you have websites that list local food availability specific to your region?  I know about some of the good nationwide ones, like Local Harvest, but I’m interested in other small, regional projects too.

Thanks to carmyarmyofme for the flickr CC photo.