How do you know what's in season?

Eating seasonally is less a rule than a habit of noticing. Most produce is available all year somewhere, so the question isn't what exists but what is at its best near you right now. When you know that, food tastes better, costs less, and menus almost plan themselves.

Why it is worth knowing

Altroconsumo's seasonal calendar frames it simply: fruit and vegetables have a natural period when they grow, ripen and are harvested, and that is when they taste their best. It also makes a fair point: greenhouse-grown or imported produce has no major drawbacks, beyond the effect on your budget. So this is about flavour and value, not virtue. Frozen and tinned vegetables are a perfectly good part of any season, too; see are frozen vegetables cheating.

Reading the market

The market tells you more than any chart:

• Abundance. When a stall is piled up with one thing, it is in season. Crates of courgettes, mountains of tomatoes.
• Price. In-season produce gets cheaper as the harvest peaks. When cherries suddenly cost half what they did, it's their moment.
• Origin labels. Local or national produce on the label usually means in season locally.
• Smell and look. Ripe tomatoes and peaches smell of themselves. Bright, firm, perky produce with fresh-cut stems is a good sign. More on that in picking ripe tomatoes.
• What the stallholder pushes. Ask what is best this week. They know.

Supermarkets flatten the seasons, but the same cues work there: look at offers, origin and smell.

Regional differences

Seasons move with climate. The south of a country often gets strawberries, tomatoes and peppers weeks before the north. A warm spring brings asparagus early; a cool summer delays tomatoes. Mountains run later than coasts. So calendars are a guide, not a timetable. If your local market disagrees with a chart, believe the market.

A summer-first seasonal compass

Altroconsumo's calendar lists, for the Italian summer, among others: tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, potatoes, garlic and chard, with apricots, peaches, plums, figs, melons, watermelons and berries. By August and September it adds grapes, pears, apples and squash.

What we do with that:

• Early summer: broad beans, peas and the last asparagus with the first courgettes and cherries. Pasta with peas and beans, raw broad beans with pecorino.
• Peak season, July and August: tomatoes every way, courgettes and their flowers, aubergines, peppers and stone fruit. Panzanella, caponata, grilled vegetables, peaches with burrata.
• Late summer into autumn: figs, grapes, the first squash and the glut of tomatoes worth preserving.

Beyond summer, the shape is familiar: autumn brings squash, mushrooms, apples, pears and chestnuts; winter belongs to citrus, cabbage, cavolo nero, cauliflower, fennel and root vegetables; spring to artichokes, asparagus, peas and young greens.

Cooking with the seasons

The easiest approach: decide what to cook at the market, not before. Buy what looks best, then pick a method. Ripe summer produce needs very little: salt, good oil, maybe heat. Winter vegetables reward slow roasting and braising.