Seasonal eating has never been more important. More and more we’re asking questions about where our produce comes from and how many miles it’s travelled.
Gill Meller, best known for being group head chef at River Cottage, says he thinks attitudes are shifting to shopping and eating more responsibility. “Now with global warming and the threats to our environment, you can see why the new chapter of how we eat is going to change – and we’ve all got to be a part of that and make it happen.
“Sometimes it feels like what you do won’t make a difference, but actually it will. If lots of people are whispering, it makes quite a lot of noise.”
His latest book, Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower: How To Cook With Vegetables And Other Plants, really champions home-grown fruit, veg and herbs, seeking to show the versatility of each one.
Seasonal fruit and vegetables to try this summer
We caught up with him to find out about what seasonal ingredients we should be looking out for this summer.
1. Gooseberries
“I think gooseberries are underrated. I’d definitely encourage people to go and get a few punnets of gooseberries and see what they can do with them. There’s lots of recipes out there but they’re not as popular as the strawberry, but they’re definitely in the same realms of deliciousness.”
2. Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is a fantastic vegetable we should celebrate more often. It can be raw or cooked, but it’s wonderful in salads.
3. Lovage
“Lovage is such a great herb – hunt it down, look out for it – it’s so delicious in flavour and I think people would really love it if they tried it. You can buy lovage seeds and grow it yourself in pots on your windowsill. Delicious, although you might not get it in the supermarket.”
4. Loganberries
“If you can find loganberries you’re on to a soft fruit winner really. They are a sort of cross between a raspberry and a blackberry and they are sensational – they knock the socks off raspberries.
“You’d be able to find them at your local ‘pick your own’ fruit farm, or from specialist online suppliers. If you’re into raspberries and you want to take it to the next level, then look out for loganberries.
“They’re far more aromatic and floral, they’re sort of juicy in the way they burst in the mouth, they are deeper in flavour. To look at, they’re sort of a longer, less red berry.”
5. Runner beans
“I know for a lot of people they are a sort of staple. Or for the younger generation perhaps there’s a little bit of resistance to the runner bean, and I think that is ill-founded really and they should speak to their grandfather about it and get down to the allotment and get a basket of freshly picked runner beans because they should be a lot trendier than they are.”
Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower: How To Cook With Vegetables And Other Plants by Gill Meller, photography by Andrew Montgomery, is published by Quadrille.
Try Gill Meller’s seared skirt steak salad recipe with roast celeriac, red onions and herbs.
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