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Since local and seasonal food is such a hot topic at the moment, the time is right to ‘go herbal’ and get down and dirty with the seasons.

Over the course of the year, I’ll take you through what’s going on in relation to all things seasonal, with a recipe or two thrown in. These will of course vary throughout the country according to weather, therefore the produce chosen is an average of what’s in season.

It’s not that eating seasonal food is necessarily more ‘healthy’ for our bodies, indeed some would argue that eating completely seasonal food is less healthy due to decreased variation in the diet. It is however, most definitely more healthy for the environment - less of those devastating food miles to destroy air quality.

We’re all too used to buying what we like, when we want it - blow the consequences. Or perhaps we don’t even think of consequences. But, little by little, we can incorporate changes in our daily diet, without there being too much hardship. Every little bit helps.

Throughout the country, many groups have popped up addressing the subject of seasonal food - there are allotments, co-operatives, fruit & vege swaps. However, although London does have allotments, they’re not plentiful and access depends completely on where you live. The closer to the inner city you live, the less available is an allotment. Which makes farmers markets all the more important.

So, let’s get cracking. We start with October …

Foods that are in season now:

Vegetables
Artichokes, globe; artichokes, Jerusalem; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; butternut pumpkin (squash); cabbage, red; cabbage, Chinese; cabbage, savoy; carrots, cauliflower; celeriac; celery; chicory; endive; Kohl rabi; pumpkin; salsify and scorzonera; swede; Swiss chard; turnips.

Fruit and nuts
Apple varieties - Adam’s pearmain, Ashmeads kernal, Belle de Bosksoop, Blenheim orange, Bramleys, Charles ross, Cox, Crispin, Egremont russet, Ellison’s orange, Elstar, Fukin-Ishuki, Gloster, Ida red, Jonagold, Kent, Kidd’s orange red, King of the pippins, Lane’s prince albert, Laxton’s fortune, Pixie, Ribston pippin, Red pippin, Spartan, William crump
Chestnuts, crabapples; damsons; medlar
Pear varieties - Comice, Concorde
Quince.

Meat and game
Chicken; duck, wild; geese; grouse; hare; partridge; pheasant; rabbit; woodcock; Guinea fowl; turkey; venison.

Fish and seafood
Brill; cod; crab; eels; flounder; haddock; lobster; mullet; oysters, native; plaice; prawns; skate; sole; turbot; whiting.

Try something new
Pumpkins are one of autumn’s great delights. They look good, taste great and are supremely versatile. They can be made into curries, risottos, breads, soups, cakes, pies, sweets - just about anything you can set your mind to.

Hot fluffy scones with butter dripping down the sides are a favourite for many people. This is a scone recipe, but with a twist.

Pumpkin scones
250 g self raising flour
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups cold mashed pumpkin (or butternut)
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 egg
milk if needed

Sift flour and beat egg.
Cream butter and sugar, add egg and blend well.
Add pumpkin and flour then mix into a soft dough (gently does it - don’t be too rough). Use milk if dough is too dry.
Turn onto floured surface and lightly knead.
Roll out to about 2cm and cut into shapes.
Glaze with extra milk, then bake in a hot oven until lightly browned (about 10 minutes).

When ready, take out of the oven, and eat immediately with lashings of butter.

http://www.gardenersworld.com/contentgw/events/categories/04/
www.parkfruitfarm.co.uk

Swiss chard - silverbeet to all antipodeans or leaf beet to Americans, is a most wonderful vegetable. It has long creamy white stalks that look a little like celery with a large frill of foliage surrounding the top part of the stalk. Each individual stem looks like a child’s drawing of a tree! The stalks come in several colours - yellow, red and white, but the most flavoursome is the good old-fashioned white one.

In the garden
Swiss chard is incredibly easy to grow. If you have a sunny space in your garden sow a few seeds in the spring, water and add some plant food every so often. It looks great mixed amongst a flower bed. The beauty of this vegetable is not only does it look great but it tastes wonderful. To harvest, pick the outer stalks leaving the inner ones to mature. The plant will survive for about two years and will only need protection in very cold areas. This can be done by surrounding the stalks with straw.

Swiss chard is a good source of antioxidants (being a leafy green vegetable), but also has vitamin C and iron. Actually, it has lots of other nutrients, but to a lesser degree.

In the kitchen
You get double your money with Swiss chard because the stalks can be eaten as well as the leaf. Cut the stalks out of the foliage and steam them whole or in long pieces until tender but not too soft. Serve them with melted butter, a sprinkling of sea salt and a fine spray of black pepper. Eat them as you would asparagus.

To prepare the leaves, finely chop and treat as you would spinach, or lightly steam.

Swiss chard goes with just about anything: cheese, butter, cream, olive oil, pasta, rice and potatoes, vegetables from the onion family, hot spices and particularly pastry.

Take a trip down memory lane and revisit a classic vegie dish … Hunza Pie. If you weren’t around at that time, try it anyway, it’s delicious.

Hunza pie
Pastry: Place 220g of wholemeal flour in a food processor and blitz with 110g of cold, salted butter until the mixture looks crumbly. Add a little cold water until the dough forms a ball - about 2-3 tablespoons. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for about an hour. Alternatively, go to the shop and buy ready-made short pastry dough!

Roll out dough to about 0.5cm and place in a 24cm pie dish. Bake in the centre of an oven at 180C degrees for 15-20 minutes. To ensure the centre doesn’t rise, place some grease-proof paper over the base and add something with weight, such as some dried pulses.This is not essential though.

Filling: Wash 5 large Swiss chard leaves and stems. Remove leaves from stems and immerse them into boiling water. The leaves should take about 2 minutes and the stems about 7 minutes. Drain and cool. Remove as much water as possible from the leaves and roughly chop them.

Chop stems into 2cm pieces. In a bowl, combine stems and leaves with 100g of cooked brown rice, OR chopped cooked potatoes OR a mixture of both, 200g of mature cheddar and 1 egg.
Season with salt and pepper and bake in a preheated oven at 180C degrees for 20-25 minutes or until ready.

Serves 6-8 or 3-4 if really hungry (or greedy!)

http://www.sunnyfields.co.uk/products/fruit-veg-box.html
http://www.eostreorganics.co.uk/boxes_london.htm

Roasting a handful of plump chestnuts in an open fire is an autumnal tradition in Britain. Remembering of course to cut a cross in the bottom to prevent an almighty explosion in the living room.

Although scrumptious, chestnuts are more versatile than in their simple roasted form. They make fantastic stuffings and delicious velvety soups. This is a version of a Delia Smith recipe, with the addition of a classic Australian bread - damper.

Damper is an easy-to-make bread originally prepared by bush settlers and stockmen. It was traditionally baked on coals in an open fire and eaten with meat or golden syrup and served with mugs of tea. This version is slightly modernised with the addition of thyme, which goes well with chestnuts. And it can be baked in the oven!

Chestnut Soup
300 g peeled chestnuts – approximately 450 g unpeeled
Knob of butter
1 medium potato, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chrushed
Bouquet garni
1 litre chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
Splash of cream
2 rashers of bacon, grilled and chopped

Melt butter, add celery, onion and carrot and stir until onions are translucent. Add garlic and potato and stir for 1 minute. Add bouquet garni, chicken stock and salt and pepper. Bring to boil and lower heat. Cook for approximately 30 minutes. Remove bouquet garni and some chestnuts, then puree soup. Chop removed chestnuts and replace in soup. Add a splash of cream, chopped bacon, stir and keep warm.

While the soup is being cooked, the bread can be made.

Herby Damper
2 cups self-rising flour
Large pinch of sea salt
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup beer (lager or light ale)
Small handful fresh thyme, chopped or 1 teaspoon dried

Pre-heat oven to 210 degrees C.

Mix the flour and salt together. Rub in the butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the thyme. Make a well in the centre of the mixture, add the beer and mix to make a soft dough. Knead lightly on a floured surface until smooth. Shape into a round, score a cross on the top of the dough, brush with milk, and bake at 210 degrees C for approximately 30 minutes, or until the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped.

Serve the soup with chopped bacon on top. Accompany with chunks of warm damper.
Serves 4-6 people

You may have seen a peculiar looking vegetable on your supermarket shelves that resembles a bunch of old sticks. They are dark brown or black thin roots that look, well, twiggy. They are Scorzonera. Their texture is similar to parsnip and some say they taste like a cross between artichoke hearts and jerusalem artichokes.

The Victorians used to eat them, mainly for their supposed health giving properties. Today they are eaten purely for their taste - french chefs praise this vegetable as a superior food.

Interesting points
- Poor old Belgium gets a bad press for being famous for nothing much but boring facts. Well I’m probably going to add to this because Belgium is arguably the world’s largest producer of Scorzonera!
- Scorzonera is part of the daisy family. If you let the plant grow to flowering stage, you can eat the flowers.
- This vegetable is high in carbohydrates but rich in inulin and laevulin (does not increase blood sugar) which makes it suitable for diabetics to eat.

Preparation
Scorzonera should be cleaned but not peeled and boiled for about 10 minutes. The outer skin should then be peeled off. They are now ready for a variety of recipes. Try this one:

Roasted Scorzonera
10-12 Scorzonera roots
4 cups of stock (of your choice)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Sprinkling herbs (of your choice). You might like to try sage, thyme or rosemary
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Wash but don’t peel scorzonera. Parboil in stock for 10 minutes - they should be firm not soft. Drain, peel and cut into two pieces.
Heat oil in pan, toss veges in hot oil, sprinkle with herbs (not parsley).
Season vegetables to taste, then roast at 180 degrees C for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
When ready, add chopped parsley.

For a little extra sweetness, drizzle a teaspoon of honey over vegetables before roasting.

Serves 4-6 people

Just recently I stumbled upon the health section of a newspaper called The Epoch Times. I’m not sure who the readership of this newspaper is but I’m guessing it’s American, Australian, southern hemisphere travellers.

To see red would be an understatement of the highest order. The thing that sparked my anger? An article on nutrition with the caption ‘Myths and truths about nutrition’. As the caption suggests, there was a paragraph about something the writer considered to be a myth, followed by an explanation. All the ‘myths’ were about saturated fat. Indeed the feature read as though it was written by the saturated fat appreciation society.

The problem with this article is that the ‘truths’ were only half truths (if that) and completely misleading. To make the ‘truths’ appear conclusive; a supporting reference was given. This in itself was alarming since some of the references were 40 years old, which also brings into question the validity of these studies. I’d like to see the criteria for these studies - the sample size, selection of subjects, ethnicity etc. etc. This feature did not use any recent studies to support its claims.

Rather than accepting this feature as simply bad journalism I started to think about who had written such a piece. It was authored by The Weston A. Price Foundation. Who are they you might wonder. I’ll tell you. They are a non-profit organisation who believe the answer to human health is to consume whole foods (granted, a good thing) and activators found exclusively in animal fats.

This type of diet has similarities to the paleolithic diet otherwise known as the caveman diet, of which I’m a great advocate. The feature did not explain that paleolithic man is considered somewhat healthier than we are today because they had to hunt their food and therefore expended many more calories per day in so doing. The feature simply had a picture of deep fat fried fish and chips under the caption ‘myths and truths about nutrition’.

The Weston A. Price Foundation has the right to believe what it will. Indeed a quick glance at their website will provide some interesting reading. To imply that saturated fat is not a risk factor for heart disease and that vegetarianism is not healthy is another matter.

Autumn is the time for root vegetables, but alas some have developed a bad name. Maybe scary memories of over-cooked school dinners are to blame. Put all nasty thoughts of soggy, watery specimens out of your mind and think of glorious, creamy, comfort-giving mash. All root vegetables make wonderful mash, not just potatoes.

Celeriac
What a strange and peculiar vegetable celeriac is. To be honest it looks hideous, but if you can overcome its lack of aesthetic properties you will be rewarded with a truly wonderful taste.

Strange as it might seem, I can’t stand celery and this feeling stopped me from trying celeriac until quite recently. However I am glad I put my prejudices aside and gave it a go.

Yes it does taste like celery but it has a much kinder, less harsh flavour. And it’s great mixed with other vegetables.

Technically celeriac is not a root (neither is swede for that matter), rather they are corms - to you and me that means they are a swollen stem base. For the purposes of this exercise however, we’ll call them roots.

Celeriac contains vitamin C and potassium and can be eaten raw as well as cooked. One of the joys of having celeriac in the fridge is it lasts for several weeks. This means you can always count on there being a vegetable that’s edible in the fridge if you’ve not made it to the supermarket for a while.

Swede
Swede is a member of the brassica family - for those not in the know, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli are brassicas - and grows well in cold climates.

It has a high sugar content and this makes it ideal for roasting, providing a lovely caramelised jacket in the way that parsnips and carrots do.

Historically swede has not been around for all that long. It was an important European crop in the 18th century, then in the 19th century found itself in America where they call it rutabaga - a much more exotic name. Perhaps we should rename it!

Swede is a rich source of many minerals including calcium, potassium and magnesium. It is low is the dreaded saturated fat (unless drenching it in butter) and high in sugars.

If you’re feeling a little cautious, the following recipe will ease you into the wonderful world of root vegetables.

Three Root Mash
500 g good mashing potatoes, peeled and chopped
250 g celeriac, peeled and chopped
250 g swede, peeled and chopped
100 g butter
a good splash of cream
salt and pepper

Simmer potatoes in a pan of boiling water. In another pan, simmer celeriac and swede together. When ready, drain and return to respective pans.

Melt butter in pan and add cream, warm through. Mash potatoes, then add butter and cream. Blend until smooth.

Mash celeriac and swede together and when well combined, add to potatoes. Beat until smooth and creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

For extra flavour, add some crushed garlic. The recipe should be enough for about 4 people.

Three root mash goes beautifully with sausages - good quality ones of course!

http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk