The annual British Food Fortnight begins tomorrow but I start this week not with this country but with observations of an Australian friend who lives in Castlemaine, a small town in central Victoria about 75 miles from Melbourne. Stay with me, there is a logic to this Antipodean link.

Sally Kaptain and I met at teacher training college in Melbourne, where we forged a friendship that has stood the test of time, particularly as we both maintain a mutual interest in local seasonal food. Of course while she’s harvesting winter pumpkins, I am picking strawberries and summer fruits.

Having retired from teaching, Sally spends a considerable amount of her day organising Castlemaine’s monthly farmers' market. She also uses lemons from the trees in her garden to produce an innovative range of fresh fruit cordials that she sells at the market.

On meeting up with her again on a recent trip to the UK, I naturally apologised for the weather. She said no one should apologise for rain.

“It’s wonderful, it’s a life-giving force. I’m enjoying every moment of it,” she said, as she took pleasure in watching raindrops fall down my waterproof jacket and on to my boots.

Her excitement at standing in the rain is understandable for Australia is in the grip of the worst drought on record. After years of no rain, even the mighty Murray River, which irrigates Australia’s food bowl, is drying up.

According to Aborigine lore, the Murray was created when Ngurunderi the Great Ancestor chased after Ponde the Giant Cod, who carved out bends in the river with its tail as he thrashed to escape. When he finally caught the fish, Ngurunderi cut it into pieces and threw them into the river. With each toss a new species was born — bream, perch, callop and catfish.

Now, after years of drought and poor management, this mighty river boasts very few fish and very little water. Seasonal creeks which have supplemented water supplies have ceased to flow, too.

There are now just too many irrigators and not enough water. Farmers are walking off their land or going into debt to purchase water for their livestock. Crops, including wheat, central to world food prices, are failing for want of water.

During her stay we visited Deddington’s own award-winning farmers' market to compare prices with those in Australia and talk to producers.

It didn’t take Sally long to conclude that British food was amazing and that we were incredibly lucky.

“Look at these prices,” she declared on tasting a glorious fresh goat's cheese produced by Renee and Richard Loveridge, from the Windrush Valley Goat Dairy. “Our goat farmers simply couldn’t compete, their pastures are not lush enough now.”

As she paid for a couple of fluffy white cheeses that melted in the mouth, she added that this is what she called a real ‘two for one’ deal, as they cost of what she would pay at home.

We then looked at the watercress stall run by Gary Allam before going on to the Morton Mushroom stall where Richard and Wendy Launchbury were selling mountains of freshly harvested mushrooms.

We bought several jars of home-made raspberry jelly from Bruce Young and his wife, Amanda, of Shaken Oak Mustards, who said that raspberries in their garden have been particularly plentiful this year, and a whole meal loaf from Bakers Basket, all of which Sally noted were at least a third cheaper than similar items in Castlemaine.

Sally found her conversation with Caroline Landless particularly fascinating. Caroline and her husband, Charles, raise organic beef on the clover-rich pastures of Hill Farm, Duns Tew.

Just hearing Caroline describe the fields on which they farm, reminded Sally that the dry, arid pastures of Australia are preventing farmers there from producing succulent beef.

Hill Farm beef is butchered on the farm and processed at a local abattoir to save food miles. Sally was impressed to learn that Charles rounds his cattle up on horseback rather than using a four-wheel drive vehicle. This helps preserve the wide variety of flora and fauna on their land.

Having purchased a couple of organic steaks, again cheaper than in Australia, we then topped up with fruits and vegetables from Duncan and Ann Savory, who specialise in plums and tomatoes.

“This is a true celebration of British food,” said Sally as she began to apppraise the contents of her bulging shopping bag. “Do you realise how lucky you are?” she added as she offered me a juicy Victoria plum that she had fished out of her bag.

I did point out the difficulties farmers are having as they wait for the rain to cease so they can bring in a long overdue harvest, as well as the problems they suffered from last year's floods.

Later we raised a glass to British food and both agreed it should be celebrated throughout the year and not just from September 20 to October 5.