I love it, but I may need a bank loan to feed my asparagus habit

I am both delighted and dismayed to see that British asparagus season has started already, early this year due to our relatively mild winter (tell that to my gas bill). Delighted because the vegetable is very delicious when smothered with hollandaise and barely feels like one of my five a day; dismayed because I nipped into a Victoria deli last week and spied a bunch of Wye Valley asparagus for £8, or just under a quid a stem. The cost of living, eh? (Although a friend in Monaco laments that it’s much worse there, and a bunch of the green stuff sets him back £12.

Still, that’s what you get if you live in Monaco, I suppose.)