There was a report on the BBC News yesterday that Italians are reverting to traditional recipes and homemade food in order to counter the effects of the recession. It makes sense because, if times are hard and you are strapped for cash how can you afford to spend money on dining out or creating exotic dishes at home? The town of Gioninazzo is evidently a step ahead of the rest of the country and holds an annual festival of food, set up 17 years ago by teenagers anxious to preserve traditional recipes which were in danger of being eclipsed by fast food and pre-prepared supermarket meals. The emphasis is on simpler eating and a greater use of local produce. What a great idea!

It seems to me that in this country too we have become so overly dependent upon fast food, takeaways and supermarket meals that many people have simply forgotten how to cook, even if they knew in the first place. Apart from the fact that regular consumption of fast food is clearly bad for you, full as it is of fat and salt, it is also expensive. Good healthy food is not expensive and all that is required is some imagination and failing that some education.

All state schools should feature cookery, or Domestic Science as it used to be called, in the school curriculum so that children of both sexes have the opportunity to at least learn the fundamentals of cookery. Evening classes for adults provided by the local authority would be a good idea too. It’s quite appalling that so many people are unable to even make an omelette let alone bake a loaf of bread. These basics were second nature to our grandparents and we need to bring them back (the cookery skills that is, not the grandparents!)

We need to open our eyes and as I said earlier to use our imagination. For example, last month I noticed some wild raspberries growing not far from my house. I picked the equivalent of about a dozen supermarket punnets and not only did I enjoy some delicious fruit but I also saved about £20! The amazing thing is that nobody else could be bothered to pick them whereas thirty years ago you’d be competing with about half a dozen rivals!

It is now the blackberry season but just count how few people actually pick them and how many blackberries simply die on the bushes. The same is true of apples. How many people harvest the apples in their gardens and how many people will pick the mushrooms that begin to fill our fields in September? How lazy and foolish we have become and how blind we are to the world around us.