The holidays often get out of synch here at Taste of Home - in 'real life' we just celebrated Easter complete with ham, asparagus and lemon pie for dessert but the test kitchen staff is decorating Christmas cookies, baking pumpkin pies and roasting turkeys for our October/November and December/January issues.
It can be tricky to find out-of-season produce or specialty items, like prepared eggnog in the spring, but we always seem to make due. In the case of the eggnog, we simply make it from scratch and use the same volume as what's available in the dairy section during the holidays. Sometimes we have to contact specialty produce suppliers to find out if a fruit or vegetable we need is in season somewhere else in the world; typically we only do that if we need it in large quantities.
Testing recipes out of season can also confuse our taste buds. I've been known to crave pumpkin muffins just as daffodils start to decorate our landscape and whip up a pot of chili in the middle of a summer heat wave!