In a world where consumer choice is almost exhaustive, there’s a strong push to return to local and seasonal eating. It may sound like a daunting prospect but here in Wales, we’ve an absolute wealth of absolutely delicious local produce and resources, so what better time to try to eat seasonal and eat locally? Read on for some top tips….

The word “seasonal” may be the most over-used word in cookery and ingredients trends in the last five years. Chefs and food writers the world over seem to have gone seasonal crazy. It was once considered extremely wondrous and extravagant to eat fresh strawberries on Christmas Eve, but now, buying fruit and veggies flown in from exotic locations around the world seems to be a dirty habit that most chefs urge you to kick.

The fashionable focus these days is on local, organic and seasonal wholesome and hearty food. If it isn’t covered in soil and mud when you pick it up from the local farm shop, then it’s not very cool.

So, we all know we should eat seasonally, but why should we? Well, there are loads of reasons, and here are some of the most important:

• Seasonal food means local and UK based food, which means that the miles it’s travelled to get to you are fewer and so are the CO2 emissions from planes, boats, trains and vans. All very good news for the environment and the polar bears.
• Sourcing food from the UK and locally means that the money you spend on food is more likely to go directly to the farmer or grower, rather than being split a hundred different ways and eventually the producer ends up with a teeny percentage.
•  I love eating seasonally because it means I appreciate the food I’m eating more. I am dizzy with excitement at the thought of the first juicy British strawberries of the summer time, and the delicious new potatoes of spring.
• Eating seasonally means a hugely varied diet. Rather than sticking to the same old fruit and veggies month in and month out, eating in synch with what’s growing means you will encounter so much more variety, and probably a whole load of fruit and veggies you’ve never even heard of!
• It’s a really efficient way of producing food because it means that everything that can be grown effectively at a certain time, is grown, picked, eaten and enjoyed. It requires much lower levels of artificial growing aids like heating, lighting and pesticides.
• Buying seasonal fruit and veg is usually cheaper because it has travelled less, and used less energy (as the point above), so it’s more economical for you too!
• It means that you are more in tune with nature and the seasons, and encourages a back-to-basics philosophy of living, rather than an unmindful “I want it so I’ll have it” attitude.
• And last, but certainly not least, it always tastes better. A blackberry that has been picked when it’s still a little red around the edges, wedged into a plastic container, flown 4,000 miles and then almost frozen to preserve it until it falls into a supermarket basket is never ever going to taste as good as one that the local farm has just picked from the hedgerows that morning.

Of course, it isn’t always possible to find all the food we need so locally. I have never heard of bananas being grown in the farmlands of middle England, or orange groves thriving in Wales. But, this type of produce is generally shipped in (rather than flown) so the pollution caused in transit is much, much less. In winter months, when fruit supply in the UK is somewhat short, then supplementing your diet with fruit from other countries isn’t considered a heinous food crime, but where possible, try to keep it organic and/or fairly traded.

For more information on what’s in season and when, check out

www.eattheseasons.co.uk and www.eatseasonably.co.uk