As the first frosts nip our green and pleasant land, each year autumn allows us the chance to gorge on British seasonal food at its best.

Summer strawberries and picnics in the park give way to October oysters and warming winter vegetables. Light sandwiches are sidelined in favour of hearty stews – food to stick in the ribs and send you out into the frost-bitten months.

These are the days of mega supermarkets where we can buy virtually any food at any time of the year. On the surface, there is little need to eat seasonally when you can recreate Wimbledon in your back garden providing you have enough outdoor heaters. Champagne and strawberries in November. Easy.

But if you want asparagus in January, you will have to pay a premium for it. Unseasonal food is flown in from far-flung places around the world. The cost of transport is reflected at the till and it won’t taste nearly as fresh as something grown or caught closer to home. Eating seasonally makes environmental and economic sense. It’s good for the planet and the pocket.

The plump pears and buxom blackberries you pick in September can be made into juicy jams or preserved for deep midwinter fruit pies. The walnuts and chestnuts that fall from the trees provide protein-packed winter snacks that will see you through the cold, grey months ahead.

The pumpkins and marrows you harvest in October not only make colourful Halloween displays but can be used for filling and stocky meals as the game season opens. Although the shooting season officially opens on 12 August, the best of the birds don’t come out until the weather turns for the worse. Plump grouse and slow-cooked pheasant are the perfect culinary cold weather scene-setters to be accompanied by wild mushrooms and hearty root vegetables.

The quintessential turkey and Brussels sprouts team up with the sweetest parsnips served with tender Jerusalem artichokes to herald quality time spent indoors with family and friends. For those who prefer a more exotic flavour on their palate, a lamb and root vegetable tagine is a simple, affordable and filling feast.

An exotic menu
Eating through the seasons doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice more exotic cuisines. Something you probably didn’t know is that the aubergine (in season) is a berry. Originally from the warmer climes of India, we’ve learned to cultivate it for more temperate climes. Known to Americans as the eggplant, it’s meaty, versatile and can be used in a variety of recipes. It also contains more nicotine than any other foodstuff (though you’d have to work through a lot in one sitting to equal one cigarette).

The harvest months of September and October mean we can stock our larders with apples, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, courgettes, marrow, parsnips, potatoes, squash, tomatoes and more.

The meat and seafood on offer ranges from guinea fowl, partridge, mussels, grouse, oysters, sea bass, goose, venison, wood pigeon, brown trout…The list is endless. And a quick hunt on the internet can offer up list upon list of recipe ideas for a bountiful dinner spread.

The grape to match
What do you wash down this gastronomic feast with? There is no doubt that certain wines suit certain seasons and the changing weather. When it’s beating down with heat, few of us want to neck back a robust Merlot and a sparkling rosé isn’t what you’d be after on a day in December when you’re turning your collars up against the cold.

To accompany the comfort food of roasts and casseroles, full-bodied reds or oaked whites go well with richer flavours. Coming into their own are fine clarets, Burgundies, Cabernets or Pinot Noirs. Port and Madiera wines as well as an aged Oloroso or Amontillado sherry offer an alcoholic duvet set against roaring fires and the smell of wood smoke.

Britain’s regional ales also show their finest textures if beer is your thing. Almost every independent brewery produces their own Christmas ale to sip away the flurries. And the time-honoured standby Guinness, or indeed any stout, is the ideal pint to fend off the dropping temperatures.

You don’t have to be Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or live the Good Life to eat the good life. Although having a small herb patch or a bit of garden to grow food in is useful (and all the rage), it isn’t always possible or practical depending on where you live.

Seasonal fare isn’t exclusive to the countryside. The birth of the farmers’ market brings the variety of hill and vale to the concrete jungles of the city. A stroll through my local church parking lot brought forth produce and meats from surrounding farms.

Standard chicken and gammon lay alongside freshly shot wood pigeon, partridge and pheasant. Venison sausages gave a gamey twist to an afternoon’s sausage sandwich. The meats on offer could easily have made simple pies, casseroles and roasts.

A mouth-watering array of fruits and vegetables added colour to a windswept display. At least half a dozen varieties of apple – as solid apples, as juice or as a warming hot drink mixed with spices – chased away the light drizzle and greying skies. The market also gave me a chance to pick up some sloes to stick in a bottle of gin at home.

It was reassuring seeing my neighbours filling their bags with food produced a stone’s throw away from their front doors. Two supermarkets are located on a nearby main road. I asked a friend why he chose to go to the market to stock up instead of heading to the fluorescent lights of the superstore.

“It’s all local and it’s cheaper. You can drive a bargain here and it’s great meeting the people who serve you because they’re the ones who produce your food. And it tastes so much better when it’s fresh. The cauliflower I bought was picked within the past twenty-four hours and my eggs were collected by the same man who sold them to me.”

Market vendors were adamant that the produce they offered was of higher quality than what you can buy at even the most costly supermarkets. “The customer knows where the food comes from,” was often repeated when I asked why they’d decided to pitch up in an east London parking lot on a blustery day.

Food traceability is important. It gives consumers confidence in the food they buy. The popularity of farmers’ markets means a customer can be assured not only that the food they buy is produced locally and seasonally, but that its quality is guaranteed. The person you’re buying your food from is more than likely the very person who produced it.

From field to fork or pig to pork, knowing where your food comes from is paramount. Changes in food law now mean that all food businesses must have traceability and recall systems in place for the food they sell. This is necessary to ensure food safety, and to assist in the removal of unsafe food from sale. Buying locally produced fare takes out the rigmarole of supermarket storage houses and the heavy carbon footprint of flying in food. And it can give a human face to the meals you make because you develop a relationship with the woman who bakes your bread, the man who slaughters the pigs for your sausages and the family who harvests the apples for your pies.

Because the majority of the UK population is based in urban areas, there is little or no awareness of how and where foods are produced. Imports from around the world homogenise supermarket shelves – you can be forgiven to believe food, unlike weather, has no seasons.

But that’s silly. Just as you’ll never find tomatoes growing naturally in January, you’ll not find mussels in May. In nature, that is.

The reasons to eat seasonally are simple. You can reduce the energy and associated CO2 emissions needed to grow and transport your food, you avoid paying a premium for food that’s travelled from the other side of the world, you’re supporting a local economy and you’re feeding yourself and your family food that is fresher, tastier and more nutritious.

So instead of trudging through the cold guiltily piling up the calories, think about it this way. You’ll have to jog off the winter fat once spring sets in to tee up skimpy summer outfits. By eating through the seasons, you have helped save the planet, boosted the economy, and taken on a tasty health kick. Don’t feel too smug though. You still have to do the washing up.