Jun 10, 2026 · 23 min · 12 segments
In this episode of *The Mindful Table*, hosts Jessie and Sasha dive deep into the vibrant world of seasonal eating and celebrate the very best of British summer produce. From the fields straight to…
Jessie KempnerHost
Sasha WatkinsHost
Like my first job was as a private chef for a family who had the most beautiful kitchen garden.
I've honestly never since then seen a privately owned garden as beautiful as this.
They had a team of fantastic gardeners who were also really kind and they kind of taught me Not that I know a huge amount, but everything I do know about, you know, how to grow these seasonal vegetables kind of throughout the whole of summer.
But like when the family used to go away for summer, you know, I'd be left as their chef at home.
And I used to spend most of my time out with the gardeners picking all the seasonal veg.
The variety of different ways you can cook these different types of fruit and veg, but also how much better they are picked fresh.
And when they're in season and they've been growing outside under the sun rather than a greenhouse, I don't know, there was just something that... made them so much better and i don't know sasha maybe this is where you can help a little bit because you know from my perspective they taste better they're riper their sugars have really ripened um you know kind of throughout their growing time um you can smell it when you pick it.
I don't know when you, when you pick it and you get the, you know, red stain on your fingers, you, I don't know.
And a question that I often get asked is whether seasonal fruit and veg are in fact more nutritious.
So yes, in some cases, you know, there was a study certainly done on broccoli, which showed that when you harvested the broccoli at the time at which it was supposed to be harvested, it was almost twice the amount of vitamin C in it versus other times.
But there is also something about seasonality being a proxy for freshness because you're actually, you know, enjoying produce that has been grown closer to you, that has travelled, you know, shorter distances and is perhaps fresher, hasn't been stored as long.
And we do know that when produced is sort of like picked up, unripe and then sort of travels these large distances before it hits the supermarkets and then it may sit in the supermarket a little while, certain micronutrients like vitamin C do degrade, you know, with heat and light, they're just not as stable.
So it's not a straight answer to say that, you know, everything seasonal is naturally always going to be higher in nutrition because science is a little bit complicated like that.
One of my favourite, happiest childhood memories was going to pick my own strawberries.
Like my first job was as a private chef for a family who had the most beautiful kitchen garden.
I've honestly never since then seen a privately owned garden as beautiful as this.
They had a team of fantastic gardeners who were also really kind and they kind of taught me Not that I know a huge amount, but everything I do know about, you know, how to grow these seasonal vegetables kind of throughout the whole of summer.
But like when the family used to go away for summer, you know, I'd be left as their chef at home.
And I used to spend most of my time out with the gardeners picking all the seasonal veg.
The variety of different ways you can cook these different types of fruit and veg, but also how much better they are picked fresh.
And when they're in season and they've been growing outside under the sun rather than a greenhouse, I don't know, there was just something that... made them so much better and i don't know sasha maybe this is where you can help a little bit because you know from my perspective they taste better they're riper their sugars have really ripened um you know kind of throughout their growing time um you can smell it when you pick it.
I don't know when you, when you pick it and you get the, you know, red stain on your fingers, you, I don't know.
And a question that I often get asked is whether seasonal fruit and veg are in fact more nutritious.
So yes, in some cases, you know, there was a study certainly done on broccoli, which showed that when you harvested the broccoli at the time at which it was supposed to be harvested, it was almost twice the amount of vitamin C in it versus other times.
But there is also something about seasonality being a proxy for freshness because you're actually, you know, enjoying produce that has been grown closer to you, that has travelled, you know, shorter distances and is perhaps fresher, hasn't been stored as long.
And we do know that when produced is sort of like picked up, unripe and then sort of travels these large distances before it hits the supermarkets and then it may sit in the supermarket a little while, certain micronutrients like vitamin C do degrade, you know, with heat and light, they're just not as stable.
So it's not a straight answer to say that, you know, everything seasonal is naturally always going to be higher in nutrition because science is a little bit complicated like that.
One of my favourite, happiest childhood memories was going to pick my own strawberries.
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