The world is getting smaller and we take it for granted that we can eat walnuts from America, apricots from Italy or local, hothouse cultivated strawberries all year round. Alas, there is a heavy environmental price to pay.

Demanding fruit and vegetables out of season means we use more energy to produce them, more chemicals, more energy in heating, cooling and most importantly, more food miles; transporting, and storing, food all costs money and uses energy. Besides, until you’ve tasted a tomato fresh off the vine at the right time of the year you won’t appreciate just how much better it tastes. Fruit and vegetables should be grown for their taste, not shelf life!

There’s a lot of romance attached to eating foods only at certain times of the year. They taste better when they’re local and in season and they are considerably cheaper. It’s a win-win situation. It’s nice to mark the passing of the seasons with different foods. Eating seasonally actually increases the variety of food items we consume as we are forced to look at what else might be available.

With the onset of winter we’re close to the end of the apple season, so make sure you get your fill while they’re still crunchy and fresh. Then it’s time to move into pears, citrus and globe artichokes. You should find plenty of Peckham and Nashi pears on the shelves and varieties like Corella, Boskop and D’Anjou are worth seeking out. Perry, a drink originating in the UK is made from pear juice and is mostly slightly alcoholic. Globe artichokes are an acquired taste but they are a good way to expand your taste knowledge.

Winter is all about warming flavours and heavier food, but it’s citrus that brings us the summery, zesty flavours that brighten our days. Pink grapefruit are a marvellous addition to breakfast and add another dimension to cocktails, while mandarins have a plethora of uses, from eating the fruit and drinking the juice to using the skin in master stocks and meat sauces. Oranges give our bodies a much-needed boost of Vitamin C and Pomelos add zest and texture to many savoury dishes.