Seasonal Eating: A Month-by-Month Guide We Actually Follow
Seasonal eating charts online are often generic. We built ours around what's actually cheap and abundant locally, month by month.
4 May 2026 · 9 min read
Chetanya Goel · Founder & Editor
Chetanya started Annam Naturals after two years of keeping a household waste diary. Chetanya writes about the boring, repeatable habits that hold up in a real week.
Generic seasonal produce charts don't always match what's actually cheap and available locally. We rebuilt ours by watching prices and stock at our regular market for a year.
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Responsive display unit — placed after the introduction
How we use it
Rather than memorising a full chart, we check three questions before shopping: what's currently cheapest per kilo, what's been in stock consistently for the last few weeks (a sign of local abundance, not an import spike), and what we've cooked with recently, to keep variety up.
The pattern that emerged
- Root vegetables and brassicas dominate the colder months
- Soft fruit and salad vegetables peak for a shorter window than most charts suggest
- Preserved and stored produce (onions, potatoes, squash) bridge the gaps between seasons far more than fresh imports need to
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In-article unit — placed mid-content
Eating seasonally saved us money more reliably than it reduced environmental impact in any way we could measure precisely — but both moved in the right direction together.
For more of this kind of testing, the sustainable kitchen & food hub collects everything we've tried in that area.
Frequently asked
Do I need to buy anything to get started?
No. Every method here begins with what is already in your cupboards. We only recommend a purchase when something has genuinely worn out, and we say what it should cost.
How do you test the things you write about?
Minimum four weeks of ordinary household use, with notes. For anything involving energy or money we use a plug-in meter and record the readings before and after.
Are your recommendations paid for?
Never. Brands cannot buy placement. Some outbound links are affiliate links, which we mark, and they do not change what makes the list.
What if a method doesn't work in my home?
Write to us. A surprising amount of our best material comes from readers explaining why something failed in a flat, a shared house or a very cold winter.
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