Asparagus should be eaten within 2 hours of being picked as all the sugars turn to starch. This is why, even before we think of Carbon emissions, we shouldn’t eat out of season products that have been flown half way round the world. To find your local supplier click on ‘Product search’ in the box above and follow the instructions.

To make the best of your local bounty don’t just boil it, try baking in the oven or even clicking on our recipe section for a few ideas.

By Ed Haigh

Terry Leahy is right. The CEO of Tesco is a brilliant businessman who has achieved phenomenal success, and when he defends that success by saying that he is ‘just giving customers what they want’, he is spot on. People are panic-buying 24 hours a day at Tesco because they do what they do so incredibly well. Have you been in there recently and seen some of their deals? They’re amazing. Seriously.

His detractors level just about every accusation under the sun at him, to which he responds with eloquent, rational arguments. Some accusations are trickier to explain away than others, but virtually none can trump the ‘giving customers what they want’ response, and he knows it. Even the accusation that has been designed specifically to trump his trump card, that ‘customers don’t have a choice’ doesn’t really hold as much water as people pretend it does. There is choice. You have to look a bit harder in some areas than you used to, but if you’re willing to put in even a little bit of effort, the choice is there. BigBarn now lists 7,400 other choices on this website. The fact of the matter is that people are shopping at Tesco because they want to. They’re shopping at Tesco because they like it.

And that tends to be where the argument fizzles out a bit. At the hard end of the debate, at precisely the moment it should get interesting, all the politicians, all the campaigners, all the journalists and all the business people step down from their soap-box and quietly disappear. Why? Because nobody from any organisation, especially not businesses, political parties or the media, dare make the obvious next statement in the argument for fear of committing commercial, political or social suicide. Nobody dares to say that the customer, especially when that customer is a third of the British population, is wrong.

One third of the people in this country are wrong. In fact, now that we’re saying it, let’s go one step further. One third of the people in this country aren’t just wrong – they’re not even intelligent enough to know that they’re wrong. And all of those people are in the palm of Mr Leahy’s hand. He just has to fill his shelves with the things they want, at the price they want, and trot out little adverts about every little helping, and people think he’s on their side. That he understands. Which, of course, he does. He understands so well, in fact, that he has just announced profits of £2.55 billion for the last year. All from giving the customer what they want.

Well, perhaps the vast majority of customers shouldn’t be allowed what they want. What they want destroys themselves and their children. It cripples the health service, the countryside and the planet. It’s just an idea, but perhaps they should be stopped from doing that. Perhaps it would be better for everybody if Mr Leahy stopped giving customers what they want.

There are signs that he is starting to see things differently. The NFU has done some fantastic campaigning on behalf of dairy farmers, and Tesco has responded by raising its milk prices. It’s safe to assume that’s not what most customers would want, but it has been done anyway. Is it an indication that Tesco is starting to accept the fact that with power comes responsibility? We hope so. That’s what we want.

There seemed to be two major trends in the Easter egg market this year. The first, which is an ongoing and increasing trend really, was for eggs that were wrapped in more packaging than you’d find in an average Post Office sorting depot. If you bought one of them then you’ve probably been trying to get into it since Easter Day, and won’t strike chocolate for another month or so. What’s more, your carbon footprint will be the size of Brazil and your eco-friendly friends will have stopped inviting you round for dinner.

The other trend seemed to be for the posh egg. Oh yes, none of your common-or-garden milk chocolate egg for your average punter any more. Not when you can have an organic, hand-painted, diamond-encrusted Belgian egg! If you went down that road then there’s every chance that your first book ‘the connoisseurs guide to chocolate’ will be out soon and that you’re hoping it will sell well because you’re penniless.

So, let’s get back to the basics here, with what might be a bit of surprising news. Which is that this isn’t just the season for over-priced and over-packaged chocolate eggs, but for normal eggs too. That’s right, folks, eggs have a season! In natural conditions, a hen’s egg production slows right down, or even stops, over the winter months and then kicks in again when the longer spring days arrive. Spring also brings lots of new things for free-range chickens to eat – and that means tastier eggs with golden yolks.

Why not have a little seasonal egg-hunt on BigBarn? There’s bound to be a productive hen knocking out some free-range beauties in your area. Then, once you’ve found one, it’s soldiers to the ready for the big toasty dunk fest.

Of course if you’ve been reading this and thinking ‘Well hit me over the head with a big stick and call me Jemima – our Ginger has been keeping us in omelettes right through the winter!’ then tell us all about it. Especially if you’ve got some spare. Perhaps we’ll start a BigBarn eggschange scheme! Oh dear, that’s terrible. Sorry.

Winter is a wonderful time for walking. There are times when it can feel as if you have the whole country to yourself. Up hill and down dale you wander, lonely as a cloud, without sight or sound of another human being. You’ve heard that there are 60 million people on our little island, but you can’t, for the life of you, work out where they all are.
But then the end of March comes around, the clocks leap forward and out they all come. Suddenly, with a sprinkle of blossom, a splash of sunshine and a light, warm wind, everyone professes their undying love for the great outdoors again. For the hardy winter walker, this can be rather irritating. ‘Where were you when there was horizontal sleet, knee-deep mud and a wind-chill factor of minus 50?’ you think. ‘Part-timers!’
So, here’s some good news for full-time nature-lovers. While most people are reacquainting themselves with the colour of grass, you can be one step ahead of the masses by venturing into the woods to seek out one of nature’s spring-time treasures. Wild garlic is abundant at this time of year, especially in Wales and England, and is a delicious addition to the spring kitchen. You’ll find it in damp, shady places and will do as well to follow your nose as your eyes when looking for it.
You can use any part of the plant, including the flower, but you’ll serve yourself in future years if you don’t dig up too many of the bulbs. The best idea is to cut the leaves at their base and use them at home, raw, in salads.
Oh, and if you find a part-timer wandering towards your wild garlic spot, the recommended procedure is to jump up and down making scary noises to shoo them off. Or, better still, have a quick emergency chew on your garlic, and breathe on them.