SEASONALITY
When we say an ingredient is ‘in season’ what do we really mean?
The rise of imported food, chemical inputs, and season-extending techniques has sowed confusion around seasonality. Some seasonal crops, like tomatoes and courgettes – once the preserve of midsummer – are now available all year round.
The trouble is, produce grown out of season or transported miles to its destination just doesn’t taste like fresh, seasonal food does. If we really want to create menus bursting with flavour, we need to focus on local food that grows without agrochemical inputs. That’s what true seasonality is about – focussing on crops that thrive right here, right now – and it’s the foundation of delicious, healthful, agroecological food.
Image Credit: Matt Ankers
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Source local,
low-input produce:
Tune into real seasonality and avoid produce that relies on heavy fossil fuel usage, artificial heat and agrochemicals.
Be
flexible:
Your menus should shift with the seasons and adapt to availability.
Preserve!
Ferment, pickle, dehydrate, and jar to extend the season and reduce waste during a glut.
Start
eating weeds!
Many of the plants we call ‘weeds’ are both delicious and nutritious – and they thrive without any inputs. That’s real seasonality!
Agroecological meat
can be seasonal:
Lamb and chicken both vary seasonally. Freezing meat correctly can be a great solution.
Centring Agroecology
Most chefs think of a crop as ‘in season’ for as long as it’s available from their supplier. But many big farms artificially extend their crops’ seasons by using huge amounts of energy to heat greenhouses and run grow-lights, or agrochemicals to give crops an extra boost. Veg grown under these conditions usually lack both flavour and nutrition – we all know the disappointment of a bland, watery tomato compared to the real deal! We need to go beyond the concept of ‘availability’ and rethink seasonality.
As chefs, we need to question what it’s taken for a crop to be available: does it thrive in our climate at this time with minimal human inputs, or was it grown using artificial heat and chemicals?
True seasonality is about using local crops that are thriving right now with minimal inputs.
The bottom line is, ingredients grown in their true season with minimal inputs have the best flavour and highest nutrient density.
Some foods that fit this bill – like strawberries – have relatively short seasons, but others, such as kale, can be available virtually all year round.
Veg such as:
kale (year round)
beetroot (July-December)
peas (April-July)
broad beans (May-July)
mustard greens (October-March)
parsnips (October-March)
jerusalem artichokes (October-December)
chard (year round)
all grow really well outdoors in the UK, but talk to your suppliers to see what thrives for them with the fewest inputs – they’ll probably be delighted to grow more of it!
In terms of fruit, apples, pears, currants and raspberries are all very well suited to our climate.
Start Eating Weeds!
Sow Thistle
Water Pepper
Photo creditt: Wild Food UK
Pineapple Weed
Nettles
Fat Hen
Hairy bittercress
Chickweed
Dandelion
Ribwort Plantain
Ground Elder
Photo creditt: Wild Food UK
Photo creditt: Future Flora
Photo creditt: Wild Food UK
Many plants that grow the very best with no inputs are plants we call weeds. They are, in many ways, the best example of truly seasonal crops you can find: they grow abundantly, for free, and with no work, and most growers would be delighted to be able to sell them.
What’s more, many of the plants that we pull out to replace with annual vegetable crops are totally delicious AND some of the most highly nutritious foods available. Allowing them to grow in patches on farms can boost biodiversity, promote healthier ecosystems, and offer additional income for farmers. Read our contribution from Joshua Sparkes on the power of weeds and here’s some of his recommendations to get you started:
Flexibility is Key
For small scale agroecological suppliers, supply varies naturally from season to season and year to year; a cool year when peas and lettuces do well might be a bad year for squashes and tomatoes. To embrace real seasonality, we need to be responsive to this! Talk to your supplier and be adaptable; whilst this can be a challenge, it’s also an invitation to get creative and showcase your skill and versatility as a chef.
It also opens up the possibility of true freshness: whereas big farms typically plant in one window to grow a large quantity which is all harvested at once and stored, market-gardeners usually plant multiple successions of each crop. This creates multiple smaller harvests over a longer period of time, which means that the food you get has often been picked that day. And as we all know, you just can’t beat that kind of freshness.
Agroecological MEAT
Not all meat, particularly agroecologically produced animals, are available fresh all year round. Freezing can be a great option that can allow for all year access to each animal, but it needs to be done correctly to maintain quality (just ask Abby Allen). Below is a summary of the seasonality of each animal when produced agroeoclogically – click the links to explore each one in more detail.
Beef: Year-round *may require sourcing from multiple farms
Pigs: Year-round *may require sourcing from multiple farms
Lamb: October-February
Hogget: Year-round
Mutton: Year-round
Chicken: May-December
Eggs: March-August
Wild Venison: Season depends on location and species.
Preserve!
In a temperate climate like the UK, where most plants stop growing and producing over winter, chefs and home cooks have historically found inventive ways to ensure the gluts of summer can sustain them through the winter – both in body and in spirit, as the richness of summer flavours liven up the short winter days!
As well as prolonging storage life, and reducing waste by making use of all the produce available, many preservation techniques create interesting flavours, and can often make food more nutritious as well – particularly lacto-fermentation.
The great thing about preserving is that you can make use of produce that you might not put on a plate – lots of growers will be happy to sell holey or nibbled produce cheaper, as they would otherwise have to compost it, so it can be a win-win! Some great preserving techniques include:
Lacto-fermentation
Vinegar-based Pickling
Chutneys, Jams, and Jellies
Preserving in Oil
Preserving in Alcohol
Dehydrating
Use of Koji
There’s a wealth of amazing recipes online for all of the above, or get in touch if you’d like any book recommendations.
Edible wild food seasons are impacted by the weather (dry/wet, cold/warm) and naturally evolve as the climate and their habitats change, but they otherwise grow without human intervention, making them a brilliant way to reconnect with the seasons in their purest form.
Our goal as chefs should be to celebrate the plants that are thriving in our climate with minimal human inputs, enabling us to work with the healthiest, most flavourful produce.
Abundant
Wild Foods
How to source wild foods?
The State of Nature report found 1 in 6 species in the UK is close to extinction and that the decline in wild spaces is a major cause. We need to protect wild spaces at all costs. In some instances, commercial foraging has resulted in once-abundant species becoming rare in certain areas, due to profit being prioritised over sustainability. This has caused debate around whether commercial foraging should continue. While we lack the expertise to take a definitive stance, we believe the priority should be creating more wild spaces, with the aim of eventually increasing the presence of wild foods on menus.
The impact of foraging is highly context-dependent. Some areas in the UK can currently sustain responsible foraging, while others are negatively affected by heavy foot traffic. Our main concern is that if all chefs decided to start using wild foods now, the remaining wild spaces could be severely damaged. Whilst we support chefs getting out and foraging, until more wild spaces are created we think any wild foods for restaurants should come from an experienced forager who understands and allows the local ecology to thrive. There will be some chefs who fit this bill. Check out our guide.
Examples of wild foods that are available in the UK and full of flavour
Below are some examples of wild foods that are generally plentiful across the UK. However, it's essential to understand that their abundance may vary by region. We strongly recommend you consult with local foragers and ecological experts before sourcing any wild foods:
Wild garlic: early Feb- end May
Magnolia: Late Feb-Mid March
Sweet cicely: late March-late Sept
Elder: Flowers in May-June, Berries August-Sept
Rock samphire: april to early sept
Douglas Fir: Year round, young shoots and cones May
Common Sorrel: Year round
Hazelnuts: August
Sea Beet: Year round, young leaves in Spring
Damson: Aug- Sept
