The first sign of a new season in a kitchen may be a change on the vegetable cart. A familiar green disappears; another arrives in bundles too large for a single meal. Ritucharya, seasonal conduct, offers a way to read these shifts alongside classical discussions of living through the year.
A printed calendar cannot tell you what the market beside your house looks like. A coastal monsoon, a dry inland summer and a winter in the hills produce different shopping baskets. Even within one town, a refrigerator changes what a household can keep between market days.
Try recording one ingredient over three visits: its price, its condition and what the vendor says about its season. Then compare that observation with a seasonal passage in a book. Where they differ, you have found a question worth asking about geography, trade or weather. There is no need to invent a health benefit to explain why fresh produce tastes good.
Further reading: Indian perspectives on Ayurveda (NEIAH)