Benefits of buying British

Keep the home barbecue fires burning

- TOBY BUCKLAND

BLAME the shortages in the shops on what you like 'ineptitude', 'Brexit supply chain issues' or 'Russian aggression' - but it won't alter the fact that it's you and me who have to deal with them. And I've been doing just that... ditching the barbeque gas that's now in short supply and going 'old-school' and back to the Bronze Age art of cooking over charcoal.

I know that garden gourmets reading this will wonder why anyone would stoop to gas when a smoke and fire barbeque makes for a much better flavour. Well, that same smoke taints washing hanging on the line, and when the kids were young waiting for the coals to heat up and become safely cool after cooking took an age. Gas, in a word, was more convenient.

But since the shortage has forced me to rethink my alfresco cooking style, and the kids have grown up, I haven't looked back and have come to appreciate charcoal's broader benefits.