Results from a survey conducted by the National Trust reveal most Britons are unaware about seasonal food. The study, conducted as part of the National Trust MyFarm online experiment, showed the extent to which most people in Britain are disconnected from the food they eat.

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When questioned about the best time to eat British lamb, 93 per cent of respondents said spring, when lambs are born, as opposed to autumn, despite the fact that lamb remains one of the nation’s favourite meats.

The National Trust hopes its MyFarm experiment, which aims to increase public awareness of farming, by giving 10,000 members of the public a say in the running of an organic farm in Cambridgeshire, will give participants a better understanding of where their food comes from by enabling them to make decisions on a real working farm.

Richard Morris, the National Trust’s Farm Manager at Wimpole, the 1,200 acre organic farm where the MyFarm experiment is taking place, commented on the difference seasonality can make to food, "Eating lamb when it’s in season ensures consumers can enjoy the meat at its best. Lambs born in the spring feed outside on grass throughout the summer resulting in really flavoursome and tender meat.

"The lamb we see on our supermarket shelves in the Spring is either shipped in from abroad, or has been barn-reared out of season without the benefit of maturing and developing naturally on grass."

Further questions revealed further confusion over food; only 16 per cent of respondents were aware that hogget, mature lamb between one and two years old, is meat from sheep and that only 40 per cent of Britons buy British lamb, with 21 per cent admitting to buying New Zealand lamb and 16 per cent indiscriminately selecting whatever is available on supermarket shelves.

The MyFarm community fared much better when questioned than the wider community and the National trust has said this is evidence that its experiment is already providing benefits in raising farming knowledge among members, which will increase awareness of the current climate in UK farming and the challenges farmers face.

A National Trust spokesperson said, "The National Trust is the country’s biggest farmer - more than 80 per cent of the 250,000 hectares of land under our care is farmed in some way and we see it as our role to re-connect people with farming and to encourage them to care more about where their food comes from."