Full, oh so full, of the joys...

I challenge anyone not to feel a deep but gentle joy at the way the seasons change in the UK. The starlings who have been scavenging on my bird table all winter are now raising a brood in the rafters of Corner Cottage, My tomato plants have gone from being puny little filaments to strong vibrant shafts of green, as thick as my little finger, reaching for the trellis (although last Monday, when there was frost on the ground, they did look at me as if to say "Really? Are you sure it's May?").

I have written before of my love of September but right now, for just a few weeks, the English diet is turned upside down. We are justifiably proud of our meat in this country and many of us are excited by the quality and variety of seafood found around our coasts but right now for just a brief month or so it is the vegetables of this green and pleasant land which take centre stage.

Asparagus is with here from late April to late June (strictly speaking the season is from St Georges day to Midsummer day) and we must gorge ourselves whilst we can. A bundle should be in every shopping basket, veg box and hessian bag (for farmers' markets, of course). There are many beautiful things you can do with this delicious (if slightly bizarre) vegetable. It is a friend to butter for simplicity and a friend to egg - poached, fried, boiled, hen, duck or goose - it matters not. Best for me, however, is to combine the two and make an hollandaise sauce. I am aware that this turns a very healthy vegetable into a heart attack on a plate but its only around for such a short period of time and we do need to live a little.

If we lived in a world, and I shudder at the thought, that did not have asparagus in it, then the king of this time of year would surely be Purple Sprouting Broccoli. This evening I made a perfectly pleasant cottage pie for dinner but it was completely upstaged by the lovely stems that I had quickly blanched and placed on our plates as an afterthought. A flavour that just screams "Spring!" at the top of its voice, demanding attention from all the other foods in the kitchen. Rich and subtle, a hint of iron in the taste and just enough cruch to assure one of its freshness - a true monarch of the vegetable kingdom.

What are you waiting for people?