With summer drawing to a close, Madalene Bonvini-Hamel, owner of the British Larder pub and restaurant in Bromeswell, Suffolk, looks at some of the prime ingredients to be found during September
Autumn is on its way and the game season has started. With the cooler weather, we can expect the partridges and pheasants to eat well and fatten up quickly. The hedgerows are doing spectacularly well too and wild mushrooms are booming in the damp weather.
The brambles, damsons and sloes are ripening fast, with elderberries not far behind. English apples are plentiful and, as with damsons and blackberries, pick them quickly before the dampness turns them soggy otherwise they will rot before you even know it.
September is the month for pickling and preserving the last of the glut provided by the summer. It's the perfect time to put jam, jelly and chutney making skills to the test.
Butternut squash
Part of the winter squash family, butternut squash is harvested once the fruits have turned dark orange. Fresh young butternut squashes can be cooked with their skin on; the older and the longer it's stored the harder the skin and so requires peeling before cooking. The seeds are also delicious if roasted and seasoned with coarse sea salt and ground spices.
Damsons
Damsons are a plum specie that are also known as Damask plum, named after the ancient city of Damascus where they were first cultivated. Due to their tart flesh and high natural pectin content, damsons are perfect for making jams and jellies. Damson gin and damson wine are two other traditional uses of this fruit.
Venison
It all depends on the species, but venison meat in general has a strong, wild gamey taste. The meat can be anything from deep red to almost black-red. The most common varieties of deer in the UK are fallow deer, red deer, roe deer and muntjac.
Rosemary
Rosemary is an evergreen shrub that's native to the Mediterranean. Rosemary extract is used in preservation as it's shown to improve shelf life and stabilise omega 3, which is prone to going rancid.
flavours of september
Apples, apricots, beetroot, bilberries, blackberries, blueberries, borlotti beans, brill, butternut squash, cabbages, celeriac, chard, chicory, clams, cobnuts, cockles, cod, crab, cucumbers, Dover sole, fennel, figs, flounder, garlic, greengages, grey mullet, guinea fowl, halibut, herring, kohlrabi, langoustines, lemon sole, leeks, lobster, mackerel, mussels, new potatoes, onions, oysters, pears, plaice, plums, pollack, potatoes, pumpkin, salmon, scallops, sea bass, sea bream, skate, spinach, squid, sweetcorn, Swiss chard, turbot, turnips, tomatoes, watercress, whelks, winkles
September's wild food
Comfrey, crab apples, damsons, elderberries, grouse, hare, hawthorn berries, horseradish, mallard, marsh samphire, partridges, rosehips, rowan berries, sea beet, sea blight, sea plantain, sea purslane, teal, truffles, venison, wild duck, wild mushrooms, wild rabbit, wood pigeon
Damson and rosemary jelly >>
Open pulled venison and butternut chutney sandwich >>
Flavours of August >>