Seasonal tips and recipes: Britain's bounty of February produce

February is a month in which the winter blues can be felt most acutely here in the UK. We look longingly towards the equator, yearning for tropical sunshine and exotic fruits – and those of us who didn't cunningly plan a holiday look on our jet-setting friends with envy.

We invest in expensive SAD lamps in the hope that light therapy will lift us from our slump, and crave sugary foods and carbohydrates such as chocolate, pasta and bread. 

But don't be downcast: there may be no juicy British strawberries to be found on the roadside – but there's still plenty of comforting British produce to be sought out at this time of year. 

Much of it lends itself perfectly to warming winter soups, stews and casseroles, and is best enjoyed accompanied by a roaring open fire.

In terms of vegetables, there's the the on-trend cauliflower (just don't buy a cauliflower 'steak' in plastic packaging), purple sprouting broccoli, East Anglian mustard, rainbow chard and kale – with the promise of wild garlic, radishes and sorrel soon to follow in March.

In old English, the month of February was known as sprote-kale-monath – the month of sprouting cabbage. We can only assume that our ancestors had plenty to go around.

Admittedly, our larder is rather sparse when it comes to fruit, but for apples and pears – synonymous with homemade crumbles and cobblers. But there is also the emergence of the first tender crop of tart rhubarb to enjoy with lashings of custard.

Yorkshire's famous 'Rhubarb Triangle' is enjoying good growing conditions this year, and the ingredient is also increasingly popular in drinks: Warner Edwards created one of the first rhubarb gins three years ago and has seen sales increase 355 per cent in a year and 8,650 per cent since 2014.

Beyond the vegetable patch and the orchard, on our shores there's currently an abundance of shellfish including oysters, scallops and mussels. In our waters there's plenty of flat fish, cod and sea bass, and it's the start of wild salmon season. 

It's also the last opportunity to make the most of certain types of British wildfowl and game. During the ‘closed season’ shooting of certain species is not allowed, to protect animals when they’re breeding and rearing their young. February is the last month for hare, duck and goose. Venison, including roe deer bucks, fallow bucks, red deer and stags, is only available until the end of March. 

The exception to that is muntjac deer, which has no closed season (animals regarded as pests, such as muntjacs, rabbits and pigeons have no closed season.)

At a glance | British produce in season in February

Added bonuses to cooking up a dish with these February ingredients? Firstly, you can feel doubly smug about your decreased carbon footprint – not only did you virtuously refrain from flying out to the Maldives this half term, but neither can anyone accuse your fruit bowl of being an Air Miles Andy. 

Seasonal food often tastes better, and can be better value, too. And that's not even to mention the health benefits of such produce: cauliflower is believed to keep your brain healthy, help unclog your arteries, reduce the risk of degenerative disease, and perhaps even ward off cancer.

The new kale? Why you should be eating more cauliflower

Meanwhile, according to Taste of Game, game meat is one of the most healthiest available, since it is high in protein but low in fat and cholesterol. This is partly because game is wild and able to walk and roam freely – and therefore doesn't store so much fat as farm animals. It's also high in iron and other nutrients.

Game is also considered by many to be ethical: Louise Gray recently explored this idea in her bestselling book The Ethical Carnivore, and named venison her ultimate 'Ethical Carnivore' dish.

"Venison is perhaps the most ethical meat we can eat in Britain today," she wrote recently in The Spectator. "Because of a lack of natural predators and a warmer climate, there are as many as one million deer in the UK – the highest number since the Ice Age."

But whether you're a vegetarian, carnivore, vegan, flexitarian, pescetarian or anything in between, we've sought out the best recipes for making the most of local British produce, with seasonal ingredients as the stars of each dish. 

Vegetables

Stephen Harris' Marmite-roasted cauliflower

Kale braised in ham stock with cream and brown sugar

Diana Henry's  one pot Parmesan roast chicken and cauliflower

Adam Byatt's wild mushroom and foraged greens omelette

Chestnuts with buttered kale and nutmeg

Stephen Harris' purple sprouting broccoli with blood-orange hollandaise

Fruit

Stephen Harris's pear cobbler and the tale behind this comforting pudding

Vanilla and yogurt panna cotta with Yorkshire rhubarb ​

Stephen Harris's versatile recipe for perfect stewed apples

Fish and shellfish

Spaghetti alle vongole ​

Diana Henry's roast cod with mussels, saffron and cream

Easy crispy baked cod

Game

Tom Kerridge's venison pie with blue-cheese mash

Adam Byatt's pan-fried wood pigeon with fried goose egg

Diana Henry's duck breast with honey and vinegar

Olia Hercules' rabbit stew with marjoram

Trio of venison steaks ​

Venison sales soar: why we're all eating this healthy meat