Canada is a relatively young country. We have many influences from many different cultures, but Canadian cuisine doesn’t have as much depth and history as many other countries’ cuisines.

While we associate many kinds of food with different holidays, like Easter chocolate and Thanksgiving turkey, the connection between food and seasons is harder to find these days.

We’re lucky to have access to most kinds of food whenever we want, but maybe this has weakened the association between food and seasons. However, people are starting to get interested in seasonal food again, and some restaurants have menus that offer seasonal specialties, especially vegetables.

There are some associations because of limited availability, like watermelon in summer, and other associations are due to marketing, like pumpkin spice flavoured drinks in fall (thanks to Starbucks!), but for the most part, everything is available and eaten in every season. 

If I think about it, there are a few foods that I associate with summer, fall, and winter, but there’s nothing I can think of for spring! I asked this question on Facebook and was surprised by the most common answer: BBQ! For me, it’s more of a summer food, but I guess some people are eager to get outside and barbeque as soon as the weather gets nice!  

I suppose that something fresh, maybe with lemon zest, feels “springy” to me, but I’ll be interested to read what others post about this topic!