I am sure I don’t eat enough fruit. We have a fruit bowl, it’s just that we don’t seem to fill it that often.

It’s not that I don’t like fruit. I love it. We just seem not to buy much when we’re doing our shopping. When the fruit bowl is full, it empties quickly – maybe that’s the problem. When the kids are home, we’re more likely to have fruit in. There will nearly always be a bunch of bananas hanging up somewhere in the kitchen and, probably, a few satsumas around as well.

There’s nothing better than a fresh pineapple. Simply slice a layer off and cut away the skin and you have something that is sweet, moist and dripping with flavour. Melons are a bit hit and miss. Some honeydew melons seem to have had all their flavour sucked out of them. No wonder we used to drizzle them in ginger and pop a cherry on the top in the 1970s – anything to impart a bit of taste. Other varieties seem to be a bit more consistent.

Grapes are brilliant, especially if they’ve been in the fridge for a while. They’re little pockets of juicy goodness that can just explode in the mouth. Whoever thought of squishing them up and turning them into wine must have been an absolute genius. I don’t know which I prefer the most – the fruit or the wine. Thankfully, it’s not a competition and I can have both.

Some fruit are more difficult. What’s with the massive stone in the otherwise delicious mango? Pomegranates are great but what a palaver! I love pears but they’re only in prime condition for about 30 minutes. Lemons are great but you wouldn’t want to suck on one for too long. Then you have the fruit who see themselves as vegetables like the good old tomato and the irrepressible avocado. It’s a minefield.

Yet what can be better then biting into a nice English Russet apple, firm and tart? Much better than the sun-gorged Golden Delicious varieties we import year around from abroad. Or a homegrown strawberry just popped into the mouth not long after harvesting.

I can’t be the only person who has been neglecting the fruit bowl – surely we all need to up our game and get more fruit into the house. We’ll all feel better for it. And if we forget about it and it goes a bit mushy, well, that’s what fruit smoothies are for. Nothing gets wasted.