A January tomato is a sad object. It looks like a tomato and weighs like a tomato but it tastes like nothing in particular, because it was bred to ship from a greenhouse to a truck to a shelf. A July tomato from a farm twenty miles away is something else entirely. The skin pops, the juice runs, the flavor is closer to sugar than acid.

Eating seasonally is not a moral position. It is a flavor decision. The peach in June is unmatched. The cabbage in November is sweet enough to braise into a side dish. Squash in October is a different vegetable from squash in May. Cooking with the calendar means your ingredient does most of the work for you.

You do not have to be strict. Buy what is on the front table at the market. Build your week around what is loud and cheap. Lean into the gluts -- the tomato week, the apple week, the asparagus week. The cooking gets easier and the food gets better.

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