Making the Most of British Seasonal Produce in Autumn

Autumn's Abundance Arrives All at Once

By the middle of September the hedgerows and the veg patch seem to conspire. One week the apples are still hard and green, the next you are filling carrier bags and wondering what on earth to do with them. Blackberries ripen along the lanes, squashes swell on the allotment, and there is a brief, generous window when everything tastes of itself at its very best.

This is the season for cooking plainly and confidently. A ripe Egremont Russet needs nothing more than a sharp knife. A Crown Prince squash needs only heat, a little fat and a pinch of salt. The trick to a good autumn kitchen is not complicated recipes but keeping up with the glut, wasting nothing and letting the flavour lead.

Useful things to look out for in the coming weeks include:

• Apples of every sort, from crisp eaters to floury cookers
• Blackberries, damsons and sloes in the hedgerows
• Squash and pumpkins, cobnuts, beetroot and the last of the sweetcorn
• Leeks, kale and maincrop potatoes coming into their own

Apples: The Backbone of the Autumn Kitchen

Sort your apples as they come in. Anything with a bruise, a wasp hole or a soft patch goes straight into the pan. Sound fruit gets wrapped loosely in newspaper, set in single layers in a cool, dark shed or garage, and kept away from potatoes and onions, which will taint them. Stored that way, a good keeping variety will see you through to January.

For cooking, Bramleys break down beautifully into a fluffy purée. For eating, look for Cox, Discovery, Spartan or a russet. Windfalls are not waste — trim the damaged parts, stew the rest with a strip of lemon peel and a spoonful of sugar, and you have the base for crumbles, porridge toppings and pork chops for weeks.

Baked apples remain the simplest triumph of the season. Core them, fill the cavity with raisins, a little soft brown sugar and a knob of butter, sit them in a dish with a splash of water and bake at 180°C (gas mark 4) for 40 to 50 minutes until the skin wrinkles and the flesh gives. Serve with cream or custard and nothing else.

Blackberries: Pick Well, Freeze Smartly

Forage on a dry day, after a spell of sunshine, and avoid hedges right beside busy roads. Pick the fruit that comes away easily — those are the sweet ones — and leave the tight, red, hard berries to ripen. Take a shallow container rather than a deep bag so the fruit does not crush under its own weight.

At home, tip them into a bowl of cold water, swill gently and lift them out rather than pouring them through a colander. Any that float are usually fine, but discard the mouldy ones. To freeze, spread them in a single layer on a tray, freeze until solid, then bag them up. They will rattle loose and you can take out a handful whenever you like.

Blackberries need very little. A crumble with sliced apple beneath them, a spoonful of sugar and a buttery oat topping is the classic for good reason. Beyond that, simmer them with a splash of water and a little sugar for a coulis to spoon over yoghurt, or steep them in vinegar or gin for a winter tipple.

Squash and Pumpkins: Heat Does the Work

Halve a squash, scoop out the seeds, rub the cut faces with oil and salt, and roast cut side down at 200°C (gas mark 6) for 40 minutes or so. The flesh steams and caramelises at once, and you can scoop it straight into soups, risottos or a bowl with butter and black pepper. Butternut, Harlequin and onion squash all roast well; Crown Prince has the deepest, sweetest flesh.

Do not throw the seeds away. Rinse them free of fibres, dry them on a tea towel, toss with a little oil and fine salt, then roast at 160°C (gas mark 3) for about 15 minutes until they puff and turn golden. They keep for weeks in a jar and are excellent scattered over soups and salads.

A simple squash soup is worth mastering: soften an onion in butter, add roasted squash flesh, a grated apple, a few sage leaves and stock to cover. Simmer for 15 minutes, blend, and finish with a grating of nutmeg and a swirl of cream.

Preserving the Glut Without Fuss

When you simply cannot eat it all, preserve it. Chutney is forgiving — roughly 1kg of prepared fruit, 450g of sugar and 300ml of vinegar, plus onions, ginger and spices, simmered until thick and glossy. Apple and blackberry, or squash and chilli, both work well.

Jelly is the answer to a mountain of windfalls. Chop them whole, barely cover with water, simmer until soft, then strain through a muslin overnight without squeezing. For every 600ml of juice, add 450g of sugar and boil to setting point.

Freeze purées in ice cube trays, then bag the cubes for adding to sauces. Sterilise jars in a low oven, fill them hot, and label with the date. A shelf of your own preserves in November is one of the quiet pleasures of a rural kitchen.

Keep It Simple and Let the Season Speak

The best autumn cooking is barely cooking at all. Roast, stew, bake, and add only what flatters the fruit: a bay leaf with blackberries, sage with squash, cinnamon or clove with apples. Buy or gather only what you can use within a few days, then deal with it promptly.

Eaten at the right moment, a warm blackberry picked from the hedge and a squash pulled from the plot need very little from the cook. That restraint is the whole point of seasonal eating — and it is the surest way to avoid waste while enjoying flavour at its absolute peak.