There's a buzz in the air

At Petersham we don't have a shop, as such, but we do sell a small selection of products that we love. It's ostensibly to make available to our customers things that we believe in and could not do without - a variety of beautiful vinegars, for example, or a selection of new season's olive oils, fragrant syrups from the Middle East and, from Italy, almond milk and jams.

The shop is the baby of Petersham's forager, Wendy Fogarty. She loves all good things but has a particular passion for honey, in fact she is absolutely mad about it. I know without doubt that if I go on a buying trip with her to the markets of Italy or France, she will stop, taste and more than likely buy any honey that she sees. In her office just last week, above her desk I counted six different varieties and, she assures me, she has many more at home.

I, too, love honey and use it often in cooking. It works well with dessert cheese, ice-cream or perfectly ripe, seasonal fruit. Unlike sugar, which has a much more one-dimensional flavour, honey is complex and lends subtle flavour-notes to dishes. We often use a honey called Brockwell Park Honey made by bee keeper Orlando Clarke, in Brixton

Honey is produced all over the world, from the tropics to Siberia. In warm countries honey tends to be produced all year round, but in the cooler countries the season can be as short as two to three weeks. Each variety of honey's distinct aroma, flavour and colour is determined by the type of flower from which the bees collect the nectar. The resulting characteristics of the honey closely resemble the flavours of the herbs and trees the bees have visited. Most honeys come from bees that have foraged on many different floral sources, and are known as polyfloral honeys. However, the most prized honeys are known a monofloral, these are made by bees which have fed predominantly from the nectar of one plant species.

Wendy and I are unanimous about our favourite variety. It is definitely chestnut - a honey with a characteristic flavour so very particular that some find it shocking. It's the colour of burnt caramel, with a flavour intensity to match, and a deep, syrupy molasses beginning and a gentle bitterness to finish. It works beautifully with certain cheeses - aged pecorino, say, or older, crystally Parmesans.

Wendy wrote a list for me of all her favourite honeys. The list included rock rose honey from the Serra da Estrela mountains in Portugal, wildflower honey from the Isle of Colonsay in Scotland - made from a concentration of nectar from thousands of Hebridean wildflowers - and rhododendron honey from the Italian Alps, which come from fragile Alpine flowers that are becoming worryingly rare.

Wendy dreams most of trying the honey from the Yemen and finished by saying, and I quote. "I love honey because a single jar tells us so much about the place it comes from and the health of its environment. I love the fact that the complexity and majesty of nature can be so simply translated into one single product." To me, this sums it up perfectly.

Skye Gyngell is head chef at Petersham Nurseries, Church Lane, off Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey, tel: 020 8605 3627

A type of Waldorf salad

This is a simple salad, perfect for this time of year. It's light and clean and makes use of the last of winter's apples. We pickled the grapes when they came in, I love their finished flavour. We used Brockwell Park honey, which is produced in Brixton, London, by Orlando Clarke and can be bought from Petersham Nurseries or Basic Wholefoods, 49 Denmark Hill, London SE5, tel: 020 7701 8888.

Serves 4

For the pickled grapes

400g/13oz grapes (I like muscatel)

200g/7oz caster sugar

250ml/8oz champagne or white-wine vinegar

250ml/8fl oz white wine

1 bay leaf

6 juniper berries

For the dressing

1tbsp Brockwell Park honey

1tsp Dijon mustard

1tbsp good-quality red-wine vinegar

A little sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper

80ml/3fl oz walnut oil

1tsp creme frache

1tsp curly-leaf parsley, finely chopped

For the salad

2 stalks of celery, peeled and cut finely on the bias

1 English braeburn apple - skin on, cored and then cut into 8 pieces

80g/3oz mild goat's cheese

12 pickled grapes

12 leaves of spring lettuce (here I have used cicorino verde, frisee would be a good substitute)

1tsp curly-leaf parsley, finely chopped

For the pickled grapes, combine the sugar, vinegar, white wine, bay leaf and juniper berries in a pan. Bring to a simmer for about a minute. Taste it, it should be tart. Wash and pat dry the grapes. Using scissors, cut them into small clusters and place into a sterilised jar. Allow the pickling liquid to cool, then pour it over the grapes. Seal and store in the fridge for one week before using.

Next make the dressing. Place the honey, mustard, red-wine vinegar, sea-salt and pepper into a bowl. Whisk in the walnut oil and stir together well to combine. Finish by stirring in the creme frache.