Eating seasonally – with help from Walwick Hall.

With the winter chills finally behind us, spring has officially sprung at Walwick Hall. And with a new season comes new ingredients. Our kitchen garden is starting to fill with fresh seasonal produce such as colourful tomatoes, heritage carrots, salad leaves, kale, radishes, leeks and rhubarb, just in time for our brand new menu.

Each plant food has a season in which it grows naturally so at Walwick Hall we always aim to be in touch with what’s happening outside the kitchen when it comes to the ever-changing seasons. We regularly refresh our menus in The Dining Room because we believe that as the seasons change, so should your food choices.

Eating seasonally is a simple way to make sure you’re always getting the best foods available throughout the year. While most fruit and vegetables can be bought frozen year-round, nothing quite matches the freshness of foods produced in their respective seasons.

There are a huge number of benefits to enjoy from eating seasonally. For many, it’s a great way to introduce a broader variety of foods to their diet and expose them to ingredients they may not have otherwise explored. Adapting to the changing seasons means you won’t get stuck in a rut with your food choices, keeping your meals fresh and exciting instead.

Another great reason to choose fruit and vegetables grown in-season is simply how much tastier they are. Their flavours are stronger and more developed, and the textures are just as they should be. Some foods stay in-season for more than six months, while others only hit their peak for a matter of weeks, so it’s best you do some research first (although in-season fruit and vegetables can also be quite easy to spot on the shelves as they tend to be very bright and colourful, rather than limp and dried up).

As seasonal foods are fresher, they are often a lot more nutritious, too. The moment a plant food is picked it begins to lose its nutritional value, so it’s also important that it’s sourced locally; the more local it is, the less time it has spent being transported, and the more nutrients and vitamins it’s likely to have retained. That’s why, with our kitchen garden on our restaurant’s doorstep, we can guarantee maximum freshness and flavour in all of our dishes. And, even better, the very short journey also means that no energy is used in during transportation, making it great for the environment.

While it’s good to be mindful of the food choices you make, you could actually already be eating seasonally without realising it. Perhaps in the spring and summer, you eat berries and tomatoes, but as autumn and winter arrive you begin to turn your attention to apples and squash. This is partly because they’re ingrained in our culture, but also because they’re seasonal and therefore plentiful. However, making a conscious effort to choose foods that are in-season is a great way to enjoy delicious fresh dishes year-round that are great for your health, your taste buds and the environment. What’s not to love?

To view our latest seasonal dishes, view our menus on our website: https://walwickhall.com/dine/the-dining-room/