I'm Seasonally Challenged

Hi, my name is Christina and I'm seasonally challenged.  Hi Christina.  I live in Wellington, where there weather can excompass all four seasons in one day.  Case in point: yesterday morning it was all autumnish with the clouds and wind and cool temperatures, then all of a sudden it hailed something fierce, coating the ground white and killing the temperature by a good 100 degrees.  Oh, it also thundered any lightninged (totally a word!) like it was summer tiiiiiiiiime...and the livin's easy (name that band).  Then the wind blew the storm away, and it cleared up to be a sunnyish afternoon.  And today it's gorgeous and my wool coat it totally OTT.

Hail that looks like snow.  Typical Wellington.

So I find it a wee bit hard to cook with the seasons.  Case in point: I used my slowcooker this past weekend.  Someone on Twitter mentioned the first of the season's asparagus - I'm still trying to use up all of the frozen pumpking in my freezer. 

*Disclaimer: Please excuse my redundancy today, I've caught the lurgy going around work and feel like my head is crammed full of cotton. 

Last week I did a ravioli-making class at La Bella Italia in Petone, and we filled them with concoctions of pumpkin and spinach.  Totally didn't occur to me that these ingredients were technically about to go out of season.  More on this class later though, once I actually get around to eating said ravioli, which were made to be frozen. 


Making ravioli with Chef Gabriele at La Bella Italia.


I've been to two Farmer's Markets in the past few weeks and have had zero idea what veggies to buy.  Help, I'm seasonally challenged!!  It doesn't help that I'm from the Northern Hemisphere, where the seasons are the right way around, and read a lot of North American food blogs where they are all currently rejoicing in the oncoming autumn.  One half of my brain thinks "yay, time for soups and leeks!" while the other side is all "I don't know what to eat right now!!!".  Any help on this issue is highly appreciated.  Is there a 12-step program for people like me?