I have an almost Poohish fondness for honey. A cupboard in my kitchen is taken up with the pots I’ve brought back from holiday: treacle-dark chestnut honey from Corsica, sweet orange blossom from Morocco, herb honey from Dalmatia and smoky lavender from Provence. Recently, though, I’ve been looking closer to home. It started with a jar from my local deli. It had an amazing flavour – floral, but with an almost spicy finish – and was made by a bloke called Orlando Clarke in south London, just down the road from me (purelondonhoney.com).

I don’t know why I’ve always assumed that country honey is best. In fact, a lot of the countryside is monoculture these days: vast fields of beans and rapeseed. Bees love them, but the resulting honey is bland and uninteresting. Cities, with their gardens and parks, generally have richer pickings, and London honeys, in particular, frequently win national awards.

It’s well worth tracking down your nearest urban apiarist. People say eating local honey immunises you against hay fever. I can’t vouch for that, but, if nothing else, it’s something good to put on your toast. I’ve now discovered several beekeepers within a few miles of my home, among them Alison Benjamin, author of the forthcoming book Keeping Bees and Making Honey (David & Charles £14.99; published on May 16), who has hives across the capital (urbanbees.co.uk).

Does the postcode make a difference to the flavour? “It depends more on the season and the weather than whereyou live,” Benjamin says. “And some of it happensby accident. Last year, we got some incredible elderflower honey in Battersea. Bees don’t even particularly like elderflowers, but last June that was all they had.” Accident it may be, but it’s as unusual and delicious as any honey I’ve tasted. If only they could be sure it would happen again.

For details of local honey producers, visit beedata.com/localhoney; for beekeeping associations, go to britishbee.org.uk

OIL SLICK

It may look like a modernist bottle of perfume, but Lambda (as in Greek L) is the world’s first ultra-premium style over substance? Well, no, actually: for once, the product lives up to the packaging. The vivid green liquid, made in Kritsa, Crete, is the result of one man’s quest for oil perfection, and is incredibly low in acidity, with a clean, fresh fruitiness and peppery kick. At £28 for a 500ml bottle (or £99 if you want the white Perspex presentation box), it’s not cheap, and it is currently available only from LiquidLust (020 3144 0196, liquidlust.co.uk ). But it’s coming to a design-conscious food store near you.

TAKE 3

Richard Corrigan, of Bentley’s, celebrates the start of the asparagus season.

Serves 1

— 6 asparagus spears
— 1 duck egg
— 50g jabugo ham

Trim the spears of their woody ends, then boil the asparagus in salted water for 3-5 minutes.

Melt 10g of butter in a pan; crack in the duck egg and season with salt and pepper. When the white of the egg is half cooked, scramble with a fork and cook for a further 30 seconds.

Place the hot asparagus on a plate and season, spoon the duck egg next to it, then lay over the jabugo ham.

Bentley’s, 11-15 Swallow Street, W1; 020 7734 4756

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