But for most of us it’s not just our actual footprints that get bigger in the winter – it’s also our ecological ones. We choose to travel more by car in the inclement weather, go on skiing or sun holidays to try to beat the onset of S.A.D, and above all, carry on eating the same fruit and vegetables that we eat in the summer – only at this time of year, they have to be grown in energy intensive greenhouses or imported from halfway across the world.

Blueberries come from South America, grapes are grown in Chile, peaches come from Argentina or Thailand and sugar snap peas get shipped from Peru, whilst green beans are exported from Kenya. Do we really want our food to travel that far to reach our dinner table? On the other hand, it is not better, and in some cases worse to grow these fruits and vegetables in our greenhouses, simply because the amount of heat and electricity required to produce decent results will outweigh the benefits of importing them from kingdoms far far away. So what is the alternative?

The truth is that we’ve forgotten about the seasonality of vegetables. What is in season right now is … well… it’s cabbage (not a terribly exciting word to be honest).

A friend of mind signed up for a monthly seasonable vegetable box delivery this year. Now that cabbage is in season she gets varieties she has never heard of before, let alone cooked for a family dinner. To help her deal with the huge piles of kale and brussel sprouts that were being delivered to her door and to those of you that choose to eat what is in season, we have picked out a few delicious recipes. Check out:

• Brussel sprouts – Jamie Oliver’s Brussels with hustle

• Chinese Cabbage – Yotam Ottolenghi’s Chinese cabbage, fennel and mixed leaf salad

• Broccoli – Nigel Slater’s broccoli and bacon soup

• Kohlrabi – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Kohlrabi and spinach gratin

• Kale – Gordon Ramsay’s Beef meatballs with orecchiett, kale and pine nuts

Image Source: Spamily (some rights reserved). Image has been altered.