I’m specifically asking why certain foods only ripen certain times of the year “organically”. My assumption is that food was put on this earth to feed us/animals and each food to provide specific nutritional advantage based on the time or weather of that season. For example a tomato - grows only in warm weather, therefore what about a tomato helps humans specifically in hot weather? Does it help us regulate heat better? or help our skin from the sun? And citrus, high in vitamin C, would they ripen in winter to help our immunity during cold months? Thanks
you don‘t get special buffs from eating local/seasonal produce in its biome. Nearly all cultivated plants today are the result of extensive selective breeding and globalization, they weren‘t just put on earth like this.
The farther you go to the poles the more any plant is affected by changing daylight hours during the year, which caused them to evolve seasonality. Around the world people just figured out what to plant when to sustain themselves.
eg here you would traditionally harvest hardy stuff like carrots, beets and any cabbage in late fall to last over the winter with your stored grain from summer.