Seasonal fruit and vegetables are the ones harvested in the period when the plant naturally produces them, in a climate close to where you buy them. They cost less, between 20% and 40% less than the same product out of season, because they need no heated greenhouse and no long-haul flight. They also taste stronger, because they are picked closer to ripeness instead of being harvested green to survive the journey.
What is in season right now in Italy?
In autumn, between September and November, the shelves fill with pumpkin, mushrooms, chestnuts, figs, pears, persimmons, pomegranate, grapes, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel and the first radicchio. In winter, oranges, clementines, mandarins, kiwi, black kale, leeks, artichokes and chard. Spring brings asparagus, broad beans, peas, radishes, cherries and loquats. Summer is tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, aubergines, green beans, cucumbers, peaches, apricots, watermelon, melon, figs and berries.
Some produce is available all year without being out of season: potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, lemons and lettuce grow or store well across the calendar.
Why does seasonal produce cost less?
Three costs disappear. Heating a greenhouse in winter can account for a large share of the final price of tomatoes. Air freight from the southern hemisphere adds transport. Long storage in controlled atmosphere adds warehousing. A tomato grown in the open field in July skips all three.
There is also simple supply and demand: when a crop peaks, the market is full and prices drop. That is the week to buy in quantity and freeze what you will not eat.
Does seasonal fruit actually have more nutrients?
Often, yes, though the effect is smaller than the marketing suggests. Vitamin C in particular degrades with time and light, so a fruit picked ripe and sold within days keeps more of it than one picked green and stored for weeks. The bigger, more reliable difference is flavour: sugars and aromatic compounds develop on the plant, not in a warehouse.
How do you recognise seasonal produce at the market?
Look at three things. The price, first: if a vegetable costs noticeably less than the week before, it is usually because its season has started. The origin label, second: produce grown in your own country or a neighbouring one in that month is almost certainly in season. The smell, third: a ripe melon or a ripe tomato smells like itself from a few centimetres away. If it smells of nothing, it was picked early.
How do you shop seasonally without thinking about it?
Build the week around two or three seasonal vegetables rather than around recipes. Buy what looks good and costs little, then decide what to cook. In Paniere the catalog puts the produce in season for the current month at the top of the list, each with its period written underneath, so the choice is made before you reach the shop.