At time of writing – early February, temperature hovering around zero and snow forecast – it is hard to imagine the first buds of spring searching blindly for the low sun on a crisp March day. Hopefully, by the time you read this, just such a scenario will be taking place, equally you could be ankle deep in slush and hailstones the size of gobstoppers. For with the advent of global warming the seasons are nothing if not unpredictable. Spring lamb, daffodils and crocuses in January? Snow in May? All have occurred recently.

Indeed, step into a supermarket and your seasonal awareness will invariably be scrambled further. The same February I write you will find – I won’t even try to track the provenance – strawberries, asparagus, runner beans and chestnut mushrooms on the shelves.

Whatever happened to the first strawberries appearing in time for Wimbledon fortnight? Those precious 8 weeks, from late April onwards, that used to mark the asparagus season? Full grown mushrooms used to usher in that time of year when the leaves turn burnished gold and red, now they are cultivated all year round. And lovely, crisp, runner beans, redolent of late summer and the Festival coming to an end, why are they still available, flaccid and speckled brown?

Flavour of course is sacrificed…the asparagus is woody and utterly devoid of any taste, good only for stir-fry. Strawberries are preternaturally red and appear to be made of foam rubber. Mushrooms are full of water and chalky. The bosky earthiness that makes a mushroom, well…a mushroom, is entirely absent. And the beans are stringy and armour plated. 

The message is, stick with stuff that is actually in season this month. Blood oranges would make a lovely salad with chicory and goat’s curd (also a very nice sorbet). Leave clams out of the spaghetti vongole and replace with nutty, sweet, Barra cockles. Ditch the farmed salmon and replace with ruby red wild sea trout, much more flavoursome; you could serve with young leeks and early season wild garlic. A plump, marbled tranche of hake would sit nicely on a celeriac, spring onion and potato cake. Serve stiff, silver sardines with buttered radishes and rock salt. All, heaven forfend, actually in season now.

Incidentally, if as I did, you spot summer berry crumble advertised on a blackboard outside a restaurant in January, avoid.