Tis the Season — Not!

As a food editor, you are constantly looking ahead to the next season and the next holiday. That’s because you have to work ahead so that stories with seasonal recipes and holiday foods are published in time for readers to use them.

But I had a cardinal rule to never publish stories about Christmas before Thanksgiving was over. I had my pages ready to go to press; but readers didn’t see them until that last piece of pumpkin pie was eaten. I didn’t publish back-to-school stories in July, Halloween stories in August, when people are still enjoying their summer grilling season and the farmers’ market corn and tomatoes.

I believe in the Biblical adage (probably better known by The Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn.”  There is a season to every thing. This is why corn, tomatoes and watermelon tastes better in August, and asparagus tastes better in spring.

When a friend posted on her Facebook page that she was bugged that Halloween decorations are already up in the grocery store, I had to agreed. I was annoyed to  walk into Costco in mid-August and see rows of Halloween costumes on display.

I don’t like Thanksgiving getting shoved aside in the crush of Christmas shopping, either. Please, let us live in the moment a little!

Let us enjoy the last few days of summer no thought of  trick-or-treating!

Let us enjoy Valentine’s Day with no thought of the Easter baskets already in the grocery store aisles.

To every thing, there is a season. Am I the only one who wants to slow down, live in the moment?