When I think of the centuries of peasant heritage that led to me, I realize that apart from short, stubby fingers, they have bequeathed me a sense of season. Somewhere in my racial unconscious is a deep-rooted feeling that the seasonal cycle is something to respect. I like a world where strawberries are only available in summer; where fruits and vegetables come and go as pointers to the calendar. I'm a traditionalist: I like my foods in season.

And just like a true peasant, I hate waste. Gluts of any foodstuff need careful husbanding - what is not eaten today must somehow be preserved for tomorrow. The age-old methods of preserving food before refrigerators became common were salting and pickling and boiling. My old friend Michael Colgan is in the habit of saying to my wife 'You're a protestant: shouldn't you be bottling fruit?' Why this should hit the mark I'm not so sure; maybe there is something in the Calvinist tradition of not wasting that makes it appropriate. Still, in our house it tends to be me that does the preserving.

When you think about it some of the best foods are the result of preserving a glut for later: hard cheeses like cheddar, salami and Parma ham. All over Europe at this time of year people are making hams and sausages for curing because they like the end result, not because they lack fridges. If you are adventurous let me persuade you to try making your own Parma ham. Mine is curing as of yesterday. All you need is an abundance of patience, and a leg of pork.

Buy the largest leg of pork that you can and carefully trim away any small tags of meat, leaving the exposed flesh as tidy as possible. Put it in a tray on a bed of coarse salt and cover it completely in salt, taking care to work salt into any crevice, especially around the hip bone and the shank end. Leave it in salt for as many days as it weighs in pounds - twenty days for a twenty pound leg. Check it every couple of days and replace any salt that the pickle washes away, concentrating on the hip bone and shank. These are the two areas where rot can set in; salt stops it from happening.

When the time is up wash off the salt and dry the ham carefully. No harm in replacing a little salt around the hip and shank. Hang it up in a cool place and wait a year, two is even better. Try to avoid a draughty place as it will make your ham rock-hard in just a couple a months. Check it from time to time; it should be always dry and sweet smelling. Any sign of mould or weeping must be treated at once with more salt. If all is well after a month or two then you've won; you're on the way to a Parma ham. At this stage you can pretty it up by rubbing olive oil onto the skin which will give it a lovely golden colour. Rub the exposed meat with olive oil and sprinkle chilli powder over it, working it into any cracks until you have a smooth covering. Apart from making it look nicer and adding a little flavour, it stops the interest of flies during the summer. If you do now you can make your first cuts in October at the earliest.

There is a short-cut which works well, but which will not satisfy a purist - although I find it acceptable. A leg of bacon is already salted and costs less than fresh pork. Simply add salt to the hip and shank and proceed as above. I've tried it and it works, though the final taste is never quite the same as using fresh pork. It is, however, a lot simpler.