Incredible Edible Huddersfield

We in the more privileged nations have become so divorced from food production that it is difficult to remember that vegetables and fruits have a season, and outside of that season they are not available. When you can buy perfect looking strawberries for Christmas lunch it is hard to remember that in Britain this fruit is really not ready for picking until May at the very earliest and by the beginning of October will be finished for the year. Vegetables - and fruit even more so - taste better and have more of the essential vitamins and minerals our bodies need for health if they are picked when they are ready to be picked and eaten as soon afterwards as possible.

For years now I have been sowing most of my seeds in yoghurt pots and margarine tubs as I find the shallowness helps when pricking out and the soil has less tendency to get waterlogged. However, I am branching out this year into growing seedlings on in a range of reused pots, bottles and tins.

I have become rather disillusioned with recycling of late. Most of the plastic we take into our house is recyclable but almost no councils have the facilities to deal with anything other than types 1 and 2 (polyethylene), and I am left with a heap of plastic which I know will either be shoved into the ground or incinerated (neither options are very caring of the earth). So I have decided to reuse more, even some of the things that the council will take away such as milk bottles, on the basis that at least the thing will have been used over and over before it is finally cast off, and I will not need to go out and buy more pots made from plastic (I apologise to plant pot manufacturers but that is how it is!)