Here in the cold, dark, horrible nub end months of the year, I jam clementines into my mouth like it's my job. Two, four, six at a sitting, I'll dig the edge of my least-ragged nail into the rind and claw away the loose skin to reveal the dewy, seedless segments inside. Rinds pile up in pungent heaps on every flat surface around me - exoskeletons shed by sweet-blooded alien insects that have come to Earth to lift me from my seasonal funk.

I'd stop and take them to a trash bin, but that would mean precious seconds not spent stuffing oranges into my face in the manner of a crazed bonobo. I will set upon a cheap, plywood crate or red net sack full of clementines and dispatch quarters, thirds, halves at a time until there is nothing left but a fine mist of citrus oil coating all nearby surfaces like a cheery arterial spray.

I am certain it is horrifying to watch, and it is in the best interest of all my personal and professional relationships that these little fruits are only available for a brief period each winter.
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The Wall Street Journal labeled it a “Halloween horror story.” The Internet called it something else: a “pumpkin panic.”

During the first week of October, the Journal reported that Starbucks stores around the country were running out of the syrup used to make its Pumpkin Spice Latte — one of several fall drinks the chain releases seasonally, for a limited time.

Customers, like those who frequent StarbucksGossip.com, were shocked.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” wrote one user.

The answer is simple.
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Scorpacciata is a term that means consuming large amounts of a particular local ingredient while it's in season. It's a good way to eat. David LeFevre is the executive chef and co-owner of Manhattan Beach Post in Manhattan Beach, California.

Like Garrison Keillor said, “Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn."

Sweet corn evokes memories of my summers on the East Coast with my grandfather and the wonderful meals that my grandmother would make with the corn that my grandfather and I had picked, shucked and cooked.

When corn season comes around, it is always an exciting time in the restaurant. We focus on a few key things when we are cooking with corn: the best quality product, a fresh product, minimal cooking time so as to not lose the fresh sweet flavor, proper technique, and making sure to remember it’s a fun, down-and-dirty experience to eat it.
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More from CNN Health

Previously - Take a trip to the market, it might turnip a surprise, Lick the Screen – a blueberry picking bonanza and Clarified: farm-to-table

Wynn Westmoreland is Georgia born and bred, and she knows from Vidalia onions. And yes, she does say "y'all" a lot.

Hey y’all, it’s Vidalia onion time. And that is big time. What other onion has its own museum, state and federal law of protection, festival, YouTube channel, website, Facebook page and Twitter account?

The Vidalia actually started as a fluke as farmers in the Depression tried different crops. In a small section of Georgia with the right soil contents, an onion grew that wasn’t hot but very sweet. Folks flipped over them and soon word of those sweet onions from Georgia got out.
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Scorpacciata is a term that means consuming large amounts of a particular local ingredient while it's in season. It's a good way to eat.

In theory, it's spring. Not that you'd be able to tell it from the weather, which seems unable to decide between parboiling and deep-freezing various chunks of the country, but I'm clinging on to a few telltale signs at the farmers market and in produce aisles.

While summer's sumptuous heirloom tomatoes and versatile, velvety okra are undeniably wonderful, spring's unique bounty feeds my senses and my soul. After a season of hearty, dense, nourishing and occasionally dull root vegetables, the earth is coming to life again in a riot of color and flavor. Might as well celebrate over dinner.
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

(Left to right: Christophe Hille is the Chief Operating Officer, Hadley Schmitt  is the Executive Chef, and Chris Ronis is the Managing Partner of Northern Spy Food Co. in New York, New York.)

There’s much high-minded talk in the food world about eating “mostly plants” (per Mr. Michael Pollan’s counsel), but judging from the slick of animal grease on our collective food biz lips, we’re deep in the throes of a meat moment. Meatballs, meatopias, and meat weeks; the cottage industry of top-ten burger lists (as a college professor once said to me in a different context, “I think we’ve taken enough rides on that pony”); and around every corner, another young cook with tattoos of cleavers, solemnly cutting up a pig (note to the non-cook reader: it’s not that hard.)

Our mid-winter redemption for editorial and gustatory carno-chauvinism lies in greenery. Dark, sulfurous, bitter greens, to excise the sins of the flesh and remind ourselves that while any shoemaker with salt, a Boston butt and an oven can make a passable pulled pork sandwich, it is through vegetables that cooks show intelligence and intuition.

To wit: five different ways to eat your greens this winter (not necessarily vegetarian, mind you). The methods are adapted from things currently or recently on our menu at Northern Spy, which in no way means that they’re inviolable. Mess ‘em up. Put the kale where the chard goes and vice versa.

Five Ways to Cook and Eat Dark Greens in Winter
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Now's the time to heap your plate full of beets, broccoli, apples, chestnuts, kale, potatoes, pumpkin, winter squash, cabbage, citrus and artichokes while they're in peak season. Why? It's just more delicious that way.

Don't like broccoli? Give it a roast

How to roast butternut squash

Make the most of fall squash

Pumpkin beyond the pie

5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

In case you couldn't tell by our recent tomato sandwich and okra benders, the time is ripe to enjoy the waning days of the summer garden's bounty - and you can bet your (and Mario Batali's) bottom dollar we're going to take advantage of it.

So - how can you tell if that peach really is a perfect pick without taking a bite? Chris Mittelstaedt, founder and CEO of The FruitGuys, has squeezed his way into the 5@5 hot seat with a few produce pointers.

Five Tips on How to Eat Fruit at the Peak of Ripeness: Chris Mittelstaedt
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Scorpacciata is a term that means consuming large amounts of a particular local ingredient while it's in season. It's a good way to eat. Let Mario Batali pronounce it for you.

You're clicking around on the internet, so you're probably not eating a Caprese salad right now. That's too bad. Let's fix it.

Yes, it's summertime and plenty of fresh vegetables are in season and surely salad-worthy. Fine. No one ever said a grown man or woman couldn't have two (2) separate and unrelated salads at a meal. Just make sure one of them doesn't have any basil, mozzarella or tomatoes in it, because you'll need all of that for this dish.
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