Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables
Real Foods is committed to buying organic fruit and vegetables, in season and as local as we can get it. Belhaven Fruit Farms who supply us with some soft fruits have informed us that whilst they've a few more weeks of strawberries, the raspberries will come to an end quite soon! Since when one thing comes to an end, another begins, we thought it was time for a quick rundown of the best fruit and vegetables September and October have to offer, and a couple of recipes to get you eating seasonably.
Coming into September it's still bramble season. The blackberries will be out for another month or so, you may be able to buy them locally (we're not selling them in our webshop sadly as they simply will not travel well!) Frankly for the best ones, you need to go brambling. Grab a bag and an umbrella (handy to hook branches out of the way) and head off! Avoid the heavily polluted areas and busy roadsides and head for woods, canals and the odd bit of scrubland. You won't even need to leave the city. Have fresh with a sprinkling of sugar, or freeze and store for adding to pies and crumbles throughout the year.
The
courgettes in September are also excellent. Simply slice finely, dress with a little lemon and olive oil and add a little chopped chilli and seasoning. They're also brilliant in quiches and omelettes. A favourite with many people is to grill or fry them on a griddle, pop a little parmesan and plenty of
black pepper over them and have them to accompany your meal. We also have
romanesco cauliflower (also known as coral broccoli) almost fractal in it's patterning, it make beautiful crudites.
Moving into October the sweetcorn is out in full force and delicious. There's very little that beats just boiled corn on the cob with a little butter. Even kids like it! Or try making an easy salsa by blackening the corn, slicing off the kernels and adding your own mixture (we recommend lime, tomato, chilli and mint). Check back in a few weeks and we should have it available in our webshop!
There's also an array of great apples to try. The Katy's (pink/red, quite mild and sweet) and Lena's (green, slightly tart and crunchy) are available from now, right on through September, or try Cox's in October for a sharper taste. We're also getting in the Worcester Pearmain's in a few weeks, along with Red Windsor's and Discovery. Lovely, simply to snack on they're also perfect for making crumbles and pies, so when the nights start drawing in you'll have a comforting food to curl up with.