Your month-by-month guide to seasonal produce

February

Vegetables Brussels sprouts, Brussels tops, salsify and shallots.

Game Feathered game now at an end, except for varieties of wild duck. Plenty of wild rabbit and hare.

Fish Lemon sole and other flat fish. Wild salmon season begins.

Cheese Farmhouse Cheddar, blue Cheshire and Cotherstone. From France - Brie de Meaux, Tomme Arlesienne and Bleu des Causses.

March

Vegetables Calabrese, purple sprouting broccoli, carrots, spring greens, spring onions.

Fruit The first rhubarb.

Game Pigeon, rabbit and hare.

Fish Mackerel, halibut and bass. Flat fish are beginning to spawn now, so their quality declines. Wild salmon and sea trout.

Cheese Cotherstone, Wensleydale, Coulommiers, Comte, Banon and Roquefort.

April

Vegetables Spring cabbages and carrots. All winter root vegetables are now on their last legs, but the first new potatoes from Jersey are in. Leeks and the first lettuces and other salad leaves. The short morel season begins.

Fruit Height of the rhubarb season.

Meat Welsh lamb.

Game Pigeon, rabbit and hare.

Fish The first crabs, salmon trout, lobster and shrimps.

Cheese Single Gloucester, Double Berkeley, Beaufort and Gapron. Fresh goats' milk cheeses.

May

Vegetables The asparagus season. The first broad beans, spinach, sorrel and primo cabbage.

Meat New-season lamb continues.

Fish Spring lobster, haddock and prawns.

Cheese English soft cheeses, Sharpham, Bonchester and Wheatland. From France - Reblochon, Bleu d'Auvergne and Chabichou.

June

Vegetables Asparagus continues its short season. New potatoes, the first courgettes and globe artichokes, green beans, salad leaves, mange-tout and watercress.

Fruit Strawberries, cherries and gooseberries.

Fish Hake, crab, lobster, prawns, sardines and whitebait.

Cheese Farmhouse Cheddar. From France - Saint-Marcellin, Sancerre and La Bouille.

July

Vegetables Broad beans, peas, green beans, garlic, cucumbers, lettuces and salad leaves, radishes and watercress.

Fruit Black, red and white currants, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, bilberries and blueberries.

Fish Grilse (young salmon), plaice just beginning and squid from Scotland. The best month for crab, lobster, prawns and shrimps.

Cheese Goats' milk cheese from Britain. From France - crottin de Chavignol, Valenay, Saint-Remy and Tomme Vaudoise.

August

Vegetables New beetroots, courgettes, peppers, potatoes such as Pink Fir Apple and Ratte, sweet corn and tomatoes.

Fruit Plums (Early Laxton, Czar and Opal), cherries, apricots, loganberries and melons.

Game Grouse from the 12th onwards.

Fish Dover sole, grey mullet, haddock, herring, pilchards and red mullet.

Cheese Farmhouse Cheddar, Chaource, Valenay and Charolles.

September

Vegetables Salad leaves continue, sweet corn and tomatoes. Wild mushroom season begins. New-season beetroots, cauliflowers and carrots.

Fruit Greengages, plums, figs, blackberries, grapes, melons. First English apples - Worcester, Pearmain and James Grieve. Wild sloes, elderberries, hawthorn and rowan.

Game Wild duck, partridge, teal, pigeon, venison and grouse.

Fish Clams, oysters, mussels, pilchards, plaice, prawns, sea bass, skate, turbot and Dover sole.

Cheese Farmhouse Cheshire, double Gloucester, Carré de l'Est, Brie de Meaux and Boulette d'Avesnes.

October

Vegetables Cèpes, chanterelles and a great range of other fungi - parasol, oyster, blewits, horse and field mushrooms. Broccoli, autumn varieties of cabbage, marrows and squashes, potatoes and young turnips.

Fruit and nuts Fresh walnuts, sweet chestnuts, hazelnuts, Kentish cobs, quinces, crab cooking and eating apples and pears.

Game Pheasant, woodcock, partridge, grouse, guinea fowl, hare and mallard.

Fish Brill, cod, Dover sole, mussels, oysters, squid and turbot.

Cheese Caerphilly, Vacherin, Gruyère and Cabrions de Macon.

November

Vegetables Parsnips, turnips, beetroots, red and Savoy cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, celeriac, celery and leeks.

Fruit and nuts Apples, pears, quinces, medlars, almonds, chestnuts, hazelnuts and walnuts.

Game Pheasant, partridge, mallard and grouse. Hare and wild rabbit.

Fish Halibut, herring, sea bream and sprats.

Cheese Ribblesdale, Saint-Nectaire and Caprice-des-Dieux.

December

Vegetables Brussels sprouts, curly kale, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, garlic, pumpkin, swedes, chard and spinach.

Fruit and nuts Much the same as November.

Game The same as November, plus goose.

Fish A whole turbot or sea bass makes a nice change from poultry over Christmas. Carp, conger eel, Dover sole, mussels, oysters and skate.

Cheese Stilton, Vacherin Mont d'Or, Tomme de Savoie and Brie de Melun.

For more on seasonal food plus information on the new industry scheme for chef training go to www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk.