One of the few up-sides to the recession is that lots of us will be trying to reduce our household bills by growing some of our own food. Urban dwellers will be sowing seeds of edible plants from window boxes and pots in high-rise flats to allotments, this month, and country-dwellers will be thinking of expanding their vegetable plots. This is totally good news, as it is one step on the long, long road to reconnecting us with our food supply, a connection that was broken for most Britons a long time ago, following the Industrial Revolution.

Since then few of us have much to do with the soil and labour that puts the food on our family's table. We have become reliant on others - at first, smallholders, but increasingly in the modern age, agribusiness and importers - for our supply of food. Indeed, in the last few years, when people have been concerned about this question, and tried to reconnect with the soil by becoming self-sufficient for food, we've found it funny. Remember the TV programme "The Good Life"?

But if we keep a sense of proportion about things, we can make a genuine contribution to our family's food budget, and eat better and fresher vegetables and fruit. Unless global warming goes berserk, we'll always have to buy lemons, bananas and pineapples from a shop - and sometimes it has to be admitted (as in the case of some exotic vegetables) that we have to balance the carbon emissions of the extra food miles involved importing them against the carbon footprint of growing them in this country in heated glasshouses.

However, we can make a huge contribution by growing our own fruit, from soft fruit to apples, pears and plums, tomatoes, salads and herbs, tomatoes, potatoes and root vegetables, onions, garlic and leeks, peas and beans, squashes and courgettes, cucumbers and the very seasonal treats, such as asparagus.

This is not just hot air - I really do know all this is possible, for we grow them all, and more, in the garden at Le Manoir. In our seriously large vegetable garden we trial varieties of vegetables and salads to find what grows best and tastes best for the kitchens of Le Manoir. Now is the time to sow the seeds for most of our crops, and in the next few blogs I'll be telling you about the varieties we think would do well in your own vegetable garden, allotment or even window box. It's an adventure we can undertake together - so don't forget to check here for new postings.