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Details:
Eating seasonally has dramatic and far-reaching implications. For a start,
the food is less likely to have travelled as far to meet demand. Think of apples - in season for a very short time, September
and October - yet they appear on our supermarket shelves day in, day out. These apples have been flown over from the USA,
South America, New Zealand... By only eating food when it is in season in our own country, we are helping to contribute to
a greener environment by saving food miles.
Eating seasonal food also means that we begin to understand our food better,
and appreciate the fruits of each season. It is, if you think about it, completely natural to enjoy sweet and fruity tomatoes
and strawberries in August; and the more dense and earthy root vegetables such as turnips and squash in January. To eat seasonally
is to eat the food we should crave naturally!
It is really tough to get used to eating seasonally, as we have all become
used to eating what we want, when we want it, irrespective of seasonality. Here is a month-by-month guide to seasonal food
in the UK to get you going:
SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Is it practical to eat only seasonal
food? Here's our three-point plan to eating/buying and cooking food with a clear conscience as far as the seasons are concerned...
1) You can eat an awful lot more seasonal food. You can eat salad leaves
in summer and through to early autumn and we can eat British asparagus, strawberries and tomatoes in summer; new potatoes
in early summer; and cabbage in autumn. It's tasty, nutritious and it saves fuel for transporting vegetables.
2) You can try cutting out some imported food. For example, stick to
traditional British apples, rather than foreign varieties. Have a go at preserving more food through traditional methods such as pickling (ideal for onion or red cabbage), by using
seasonal produce in chutneys and jams or by freezing (great for Bramley apple pies, apple sauces, vegetable soups etc).
3) Finally you can realise that non seasonal foods should be seen as
an occasional treat, rather than part of everyday cooking. Those Kenyan mange tout may be just what you want to give a bit
of variety to your diet in the middle of winter, but it seems wrong to eat them during the rest of year when there are excellent
seasonal alternatives, grown in this country.
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WHATS IN SEASON:
- New vegetables crops will be available, such as beetroot, broad beans, fennel and lettuce.
New potatoes are tender and sweet, boiled in their skins with a sprig of mint.
- Fruit and Vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, broad beans, carrots, cauliflower, cherries,
elderflowers, jersey royal new potatoes, new potatoes, mint, parsley, radishes, rhubarb, rocket, samphire, sorrel, spinach,
spring onions, watercress
Meat, Poultry, Game: lamb, duck, wood pigeon
Fish: sardines, sea bass, sea trout
VEGETABLES
- Continue to sow Lettuces, Radishes and Spring Onions in the soil
- In the north, sow Runner Beans under glass
- Sow French Beans, Runner Beans and Long Rooted Beetroot towards the end of the month
- Plant out Late Summer Cauliflowers
- In the north, plant out Brussels Sprouts
- Plant out Cucumbers, Marrows, Pumpkins and Squashes towards the end of the month
FRUIT:
-
Everything is beginning to grow, which means you need to keep a careful watch. Over-zealous apples and
pears can be lightly pruned to ensure they concentrate on fruiting. You can also prune plum and cherry trees, and later in
the month remove protective coverings from nectarine and peach trees. Watch out for raspberry and strawberry runners –
if these plants start making new seedlings between rows, there will be too much competition for light and water, so remove
them straight away. If you’d like some extra strawberry plants, leave a few runners in the ground – pin them gently
and let them take root.
Lawn care Spring:
- As the grass starts to grow you will need to prepare your lawnmower prior to starting to mow your lawn. It
is very important in early spring that you set the mowing height of the lawnmowers blade quite high, taking no more that one
quarter of the length of the grass off at a time, otherwise the lawn will become stressed. A little and often approach is
better when lawn mowing in spring. As the grass grows faster as we move further into spring you can increase the mowing frequency
and gradually reduce the height of cut of the mower to give the desired finish.
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