These days, creme eggs are a six-month affair, typically peeping their heads on store racks not that long after New Year's Day (I've written before about holiday creep), but I think we have a bigger problem on our hands these days: season creep. The food and drinks we're eating right now are telling us that it's fall even as summer-stupefying heat attempts to rob our brains of the power to resist.
There's Oktoberfest on the shelves and pumpkin spice waffles in the freezer section. How did we get here? The food policy portion of my brain attributes it to a general loss of seasonal eating and extended growing seasons. The business side of my brain says that brand extensions are like radioactive isotopes — the half-life for a new product launch is getting shorter and shorter. The other 80 percent of my brain just wants to slather maple syrup on everything and get back to eating.
You have a few choices for fighting season creep. You can try to resist, try not to buy anything out of season. But you'll cave because the heart wants apple-cider doughnuts. So embrace that global-warmed hybrid season of summer/fall that we call fummer and the foods of half the calendar. And brace yourself for the soups of fall and winter — wall.
