What happens when the food we have always assumed will be there simply isn’t?

For decades, Britain has become accustomed to supermarket shelves filled with food from across the world, whatever the season. Tomatoes in January. Asparagus in autumn. Strawberries almost whenever we fancy them. We have built a food system around the assumption that those supply lines will simply keep moving.

But suddenly, that assumption feels rather less certain.

Conflict and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have highlighted just how vulnerable global supply chains can be, including those supplying fertiliser. At the same time, extreme heat, drought, flooding and increasingly unpredictable weather are threatening harvests in many of the countries from which Britain imports food.

Food security is no longer something that happens somewhere else. It is about what happens when the systems we rely upon to feed us come under pressure.

And that is why what happens in our own fields, farms and market gardens matters.

At The Jericho Kitchen, we are a tiny part of that picture. We aren’t going to change Britain’s food system, but we can make choices about which food system we choose to support.

Increasingly, that means looking closer to home.

We work with Worthy Earth at Dummer Down Farm, where vegetables are grown using regenerative, no-dig methods with enormous care for the soil and surrounding ecosystem. We use produce from North Aston Farm, part of our Oxfordshire farming community, and speciality mushrooms grown locally by Tumblebug Mushrooms.

These relationships are beginning to change the way we plan our cookery classes.

Rather than starting with a recipe and then finding the ingredients, we increasingly ask a different question:

What is growing here now?

If our local growers have an abundance of courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes, beans or squash, how can we put those ingredients at the centre of what we cook and teach?

Because when we choose locally grown, seasonal food, we are doing something much more important than simply reducing food miles.

We are helping to keep growers growing, farmers farming, skills alive and productive land producing food. We are also reconnecting ourselves with something we have perhaps lost along the way: an understanding that food has a season, a place and a person behind it.

So perhaps the next time you pick up a piece of fruit or a vegetable in the supermarket, stop for just a moment.

Is it in season? Where has it come from? How was it grown? How far has it travelled to reach me?

And then ask one more question:

Could I change my habits, just a little?

Could I leave the out-of-season ingredient on the shelf and choose something being grown locally instead? Could I enjoy British asparagus for the few glorious weeks it is here, rather than expecting it all year round? Could I visit a local farm shop or market and discover what is actually coming out of the ground this week?

This isn’t about being perfect, and it certainly isn’t about never buying imported food. It is simply about becoming a little more conscious of the choices we make.

Because if enough of us make those small changes, we create demand for the people growing food closer to home.

And every time we support them, we make our local food system just a little stronger.

Perhaps that is where food security really begins.