by Darissa Townes, contributor
What food could one possibly see as the essence of fall?
The supermarkets seem to think that pumpkins are the true foods of fall. Look down any pastry or cookie aisle and you’ll see its influence. Pumpkin pie poptarts, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin-flavored candies and the infamous pumpkin spice latte show that to these people, the orange squash is what the fall is. The pumpkin isn’t just seen as superior from its flavor either. Halloween might as well be called Pumpkin Day with all of the jack-o-lanterns being made.
Other people might believe that the apple is the true food of fall. Nothing can beat biting into a crisp apple on a cool fall day. It has its own place at pumpkin patches being served as caramel apples, and kids and adults alike have made bobbing for apples the perfect autumnal game. Though it doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than consumption, unlike the pumpkin, many people see the apple as the deserving food of the fall.
Plenty of others might claim that turkey is the food of fall. After all, it is the center of the biggest feast of the season. However, it should be noted that turkey-season tends to end after Thanksgiving.
There are other foods that people may say are number one, such as ham, corn and potatoes. There might even be a few boisterous folk claiming that beer is the food of fall. But the discussion of which food represents the meaning of fall has always been silly in my eyes. We seem to be obsessed with making foods available for a limited amount of time. Despite the fact that pumpkins, turkey and apples can be bought at any time of the year, fall is often the only time where many people care about them. By making these foods sound exclusive to a specific season, people often feel like they belong to a more elite group for buying them. By not buying one of these so-called “fall foods,” some people feel as though they’ve missed out on the season. I find this behavior ridiculous.
No food should be the symbol of fall despite what the supermarkets stock on their shelves or what is growing in the pumpkin patch. The true food of fall should be all food. Throughout history the purpose of fall has been the harvesting of crops before the winter. The successful gathering of healthy crops was worth celebrating as long as there was going to be plenty to eat, regardless of what that crop was. So rather than comparing foods this autumn, it’s better to enjoy them all.
