Only eat food when it’s in season

Above: usually I call once a week at one of the many farmshops near where I live (the pies are made at the local pub).

I am struggling to keep to my resolution to only eat food when it’s in season. Broadly I have three guidelines for the weekly shop: 1) unlimited amounts of fruit and vegetables when in season and bought locally; 2) sparing amounts of exotic fruit (oranges, peaches, the occasional lemon) bought from European countries with the vague and well-meaning hope that they have been transported by train; 3) very small amounts of exotic fruit that cannot be grown in Europe (bananas, coconuts, passion fruit) - organic and fair trade wherever possible. I have stopped eating apples out of season.

Tinned produce from across the world, frozen New Zealand lamb, New Zealand butter are all in my “exempt from restriction” category.

It is a struggle to keep to these guidelines.

I would like to shop only at farmshops and family-owned stores, but this is not always possible. Sooner or later, because of time constraints, I find myself doing a big shop in one of the supermarkets. That is when the horror and madness and cruelty (in the case of meat products) of the international food trade begins to hit you.



Above: these raspberries are in season, and Tescos makes a virtue of telling us so. But courgettes are also in season, yet Tescos is importing them from half-way across the world. Artichokes are also in season, but Tescos doesn’t stock them (except tinned).



Above: although it is difficult to shop locally and in season, it is also very rewarding. I especially enjoy learning about where the food I am eating comes from, and how it has got to me. For instance, the Daily Telegraph magazine had this fabulous article, written by Dan Lepard, about Buckinghamshire cherries - but Tescos has decided we have to make do with tasteless Italian cherries, or bottled cherries from Poland.

Not sure who Dan Lepard is, but he is a very fine writer. A Google search indicates he is represented by talent agency pfd. pfd has just been bought by Andrew Neil.

PS I know I decided a couple of years ago NEVER to shop in Tescos again, but I have now fallen out with Asda and have decided to give Tescos one last chance…

More on Dan Lepard: http://www.pfd.co.uk/clients/lepardd/b-aut.html