To complement this foodie festival, the Scottish Government's “Eat in Season” is a campaign to encourage chefs, shops and households across Scotland to source locally nurtured meat, fish and home-grown fruit and vegetables. Freshly prepared food is good for a healthy diet and assists Scottish farmers and producers.  

The initiative, launched by Rural Affairs Minister, Richard Lochhead, is based on research that shows most people have become accustomed to foods being readily available all year round, and few know which foods are in season.

Strawberries in summer, leeks and turnips in winter – most of us eat seasonal food without realising it. Not only does it tastes better, it’s often cheaper because it’s sourced locally and not flown thousands of miles.

Seasonal fruit, vegetables, meat and fish simply means that this is when they’re naturally ready to eat, at their ripest, freshest best time for consumption. Eating fresh, in season food gives you the vitamins and minerals you need, offering a varied diet all year round. 

So what’s in season in April and May?  There is a huge variety of Scottish foods that are currently at their peak flavour level, or are about to come into their own, including rhubarb, sprouting broccoli, wild garlic and mushrooms, Spring lamb, new potatoes, asparagus, and wood pigeon.

In 1783 Sir Alexander Dick, Baron of Prestonfield was noted as being the first to produce “good medicinal rhubarb in Scotland” having brought rhubarb seeds back to Scotland from China and he received a medal from the Royal Society for his endeavour. He proudly gave a handful of seeds to the eminent Scottish traveller Dr. Johnson.

At Prestonfield Hotel, Edinburgh Rhubarb Restaurant is so named to celebrate the achievement of Sir Alexander Dick and rhubarb still grows at Prestonfield today. 

Some of the Rhubarb that features on the menu is currently sprouting under the terracotta rhubarb forcers but from April the kitchen gardeners will be cropping their own outdoor grown rhubarb crowns.  Just cropping now is wonderful wild garlic, swathes of it harvested in the woodland around Prestonfield. 

The first new potatoes are likely to be sourced from Ayrshire and many of the green vegetables and salad leaves are grown for Prestonfield by Phantassie in East Lothian.

Imported lamb from New Zealand may be available all year round, but in season Scottish lamb is of excellent quality, juicy taste and texture. 

In late May and June, lamb is at its most tender, but as the season progresses the flavour develops. Spring lamb is fantastic for roasting simply with garlic.

Early spring lamb has a delicate, pale and tender meat with a fine grain and white crumbly fat to keep it succulent. Allow the joint to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving to allow the meat to relax and the juices to disperse.

At a Dinner hosted by Andrew Carnegie in the Arlington Hotel in 1890, The New York Times reported

“This was one of the most elegant affairs of its type ever given in Washington. The bill of fare included oysters on the shell, clear turtle soup and Roasted Spring lamb from Scotland.”

The April to May menu will surely get your taste buds working with a feast of good food including,  Rack of Cairnhill Lamb, Organic Sea Trout, Fregola Pasta, Garden Peas & Spinach Cream, Eassie Farm Asparagus, Morel Mushroom & Poached Duck Egg, and St Brides Spring Chicken, Wild Garlic & Liver Stuffing, Truffle Bread Sauce.  

For pudding, a speciality “Rhubarb & Custard.”

The Scottish climate offers ideal conditions for wild mushrooms to grow. Morel mushrooms are one of the wild mushrooms which should not be eaten raw as they can cause stomach upsets. When cooked, morel mushrooms have a distinctive aromatic taste. They can be found in various red, brown, black colours growing in forests and orchards at the start of the Spring season. 

Scottish wild mushrooms are so good that some visitors come to Scotland to gather them – and you may meet Italians travelling to Aberdeenshire in search of Porcini (ceps), (available in the Autumn), the king of all mushrooms, they are meaty, rich and versatile.

To give an insight into some of the dishes which will be served throughout Springtime, the focus is on garden peas, lamb, beef, rhubarb, and asparagus, such as Veloute of Garden Pea with Free Range Poached Egg with Broad Beans.

Greywalls is blessed with a wonderful garden in which there is an abundance of fresh produce to use throughout the Spring and Summer months: Free Range Eggs, collected daily from their own chickens, and peas and broad beans will be available in a few weeks.

A perennial with aromatic foliage used as a salad herb, the leaves have a flavour rather like Anise with a scent like Lovage. Rather like Hemlock with a fresh green colour, the fruit is large, dark brown and well flavoured.

The leaves taste as if sugar had been sprinkled over them.  Add fresh leaves to salads, soups and stews and cook with sour fruits such as rhubarb or gooseberries which will add natural sweetening, rather than using sugar.

“Lamb is usually Laikenbuie, organic which is fantastic. We buy the whole lamb so we would serve say a piece of quick cooked saddle with slow poached shoulder, tongue, wild garlic puree, new potatoes, and wild garlic flower fritters.

“Wood Pigeon is served as a starter, the breast is taken off the bone rolled in angelica leaves then poached at 65 degrees and served with lentils and asparagus shavings. 

The Wood Pigeon comes from Cawdor estate, and the asparagus and new potatoes from Hardmuir Farm just half a mile up the road.

There is a thriving asparagus industry in Scotland and many top chefs at Connoisseurs Scotland hotels are passionate and enthusiastic about cooking with this fresh spring vegetable in a diverse range of dishes.  Scotland’s climate is ideal for its cultivation and the Scottish variety tends to be slightly lighter in colour with a delicate taste.  The Spring season is short, for about six weeks from the second week of May to the end of June.  

In particular, Perthshire’s rich soil and cool climate allows asparagus to grow slowly. One of the leading suppliers of fine Scottish asparagus is Eassie Farm, at Glamis, for its green, tender stalk with a thick skin to preserve the flavour.

Scotch lamb is often at its prime later in the season and at present the lamb being served is from Uist, reared on grass and seaweed from their natural habitat – the meat is lean and excellent.

Asparagus is sourced from East Lothian, Wild garlic is picked around the Denny area and Sprouting Broccoli is from farms in Perthshire. 

Nutritious, delicious and versatile, the potato is by far the most important and beloved vegetable in Europe.  How impoverished would our national cuisine be without golden roast potatoes, thick-cut chips or creamy mash? Having long been cultivated in South America (Peru), the vegetable was introduced into Spain in the 1550s and then the British Isles. 

Somewhat surprisingly, potatoes weren't grown in North America until they were taken by Irish emigrants in 1719 and they travelled to Australasia with Captain Cook on his voyages.

Wild Garlic is picked from the woods, just a short walk from the Turnberry's back door. Use only the flowers and the leaves of the Wild Garlic. Never taking the bulbs to ensure a good crop of garlic for the following year. 

Wild Garlic is the Swiss Army knife of produce for omelettes, stir-fries, salads, sauces, seafoods and a speciality lobster casserole. 

This Springtime visit Turnberry to sample all these delicious locally grown foods including this delicious light and tasty dish: Dow Hill Farm Asparagus, confit egg yolk, hazelnut and sauce bordelaise.

Roman epicure Marcus Gavius Apicius, creator of one of the earliest known recipe books, describes preparing broccoli "with a mixture of cumin and coriander seeds, chopped onion plus a few drops of oil and sun-made wine."

From the same family as the cabbage, it is closely related to cauliflower. As well as the more familiar tight green florets, purple sprouting broccoli is a fine Spring vegetable.

 Broccoli is grown in Scotland, particularly in Perthshire and prefers a cooler climate for growing. Also known as Scotch kale, it is rarely if ever destroyed by any sort of bad weather. 

Simon Whitley, Director of Food & Beverage, is a strong supporter of the Government’s Eat in Season campaign and sourcing local produce. He is very enthusiastic about the new Spring dishes on offer,  “ Crab from Fife's East Neuk, pork ribs from farms within a short drive from St Andrews, rabbit from our own Duke's Golf Course at Craigton and beetroot from hills that overlook the town -  we do all we can to source the freshest local food and drink.”  

Key suppliers include Buccleuch meats, Braehead for Gressingham duck and fine cheese, Fresh Direct for fruit and vegetables, Get Juiced smoothies, fruit juices and lemonade and exquisite rich and creamy artisan chocolates from Iain Burnett Highland Chocolatiers. 

Spring is the ideal time of year to enjoy pigeon, found across the fields and woods of Scotland.

As with grouse, young Scottish wood pigeon offers a tender meat and the flavour is improved if fed on barley, which farmers sow on the fields in springtime.

Wood pigeon is one of the smallest game birds, usually serving one person, and can be braised slowly or pan fried quickly, until pink in the middle. 

Asparagus comes from Glamis, rhubarb from local small holdings and a range of fruit and vegetables from Turriffs of Montrose.

The new and very appetising Conservatory menu runs from early March to 22nd April and highlights the local provenance of freshest seasonal food direct from Aberdeenshire farms and fish markets: 

Salad of Woodland Pigeon with apple, sorrel and hazelnuts, Butter roasted North Sea Monkfish, kedgeree risotto, braised leeks, and Loin of roe deer, venison pastry, new season Broccoli, lyonnaise potatoes.