While having a garden can be a nice little hobby and some savings in the long-run, what do you do when all of a sudden you have an over-abundant crop of an item? Aside from sharing with every family member, friend and neighbor you know, how about taking another approach—planning ahead and finding some new recipes. (and of course, still share your abundant crops of food, too!)

The first step is to know what’s in season when. And since you are all from various locations, I thought that a map would be the best place to send you for a resource. After doing a Google search, I found a nice one on Epicurious. You just select your state and then whatever month you want at the top, and it will tell you what fruits/veggies are in season. Once you know what fruits/veggies to expect to ripen soon, you can plan some new recipes around them. This also works for those of you that don’t have gardens, too, in that typically what’s in season will also be at a discount in the grocery stores.

Some resources for recipes?

I’ve mentioned before a book that I found called Simply in Season (World Community Cookbook). They have a lot of nice recipes that are color coded by season and such.

Last year, I enjoyed following Tammy’s Recipes for her “In-Season Recipe Swap.” I’m not sure if she’s going to continue or not but you can always go back to her older postings for ideas. Just don’t visit her site on an empty stomach or you might want to eat your computer monitor. She has fabulous pictures of food! I can’t get the grilled asparagus out of my head and I’m sure I’ll be buying some soon now to get rid of the craving!

Keeping current on what’s coming up in-season is a great way to save money if you plan your meals around some of those items. I’m getting anxious for the warmer weather so my garden can start growing and we can start picking those veggies!

Be sure to check out Teresa’s posting from this last week. She has some more pictures from her garden and a little bit about square foot gardening.