Food and Drink
Harvest time provides a bounty of indigenous fresh nuts, unusual plums and decorative squashes. Vikki Rimmer digs deep to find the best seasonal crops and how you can use them in your everyday recipes
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hose who keenly tend their veg plots and enjoy cooking seasonal foods will be aware as the sun dips earlier in the sky and the chillier mornings mist our windows that harvest is upon us. October is a time of plenty and a time to sample something out of the ordinary like damsons, Kentish cobnuts or mini munchkin squashes. Watts Farms in Ayelsford have been farming in the county for over 70 years, supplying Michelinstarred restaurants and high-end clients with the best Kentish produce. With the advent of harvest, Watts Farms Home Shopping have seen a demand from local consumers who want to sample unusual produce that’s native to the county. Here’s where to source and how to cook these unusual seasonal gems:
DAMSONS: Smaller than your regular plum, the tiny purple damson is a quirky pocket-rocket of a fruit. Introduced by the Romans, this sweet fruit was incredibly popular in Victorian times when it was used to make jams and also dyes for different materials. Plentiful from August to October, the damson still makes a tasty jam and is also a popular flavouring for gin. Recipes handed down across the generations have helped save this wonderful little fruit from falling out of favour. A spokesperson for Watts Farms
“With the advent of harvest, most local foodies want to savour a taste of the produce that’s native to our county”
for the first time this month, Watts Farms home shopping consumers are getting the chance to experiment with fresh cobnuts, cobnut oil and cobnut brittle. Ed Gray, director at Watts Farms, says: “It’s fantastic to work with a grower like Alexander who knows everything there is to know about the Kentish cobnut! His cobnut oil is fantastic for salad dressings, and his cobnut cheese biscuits are wonderful at the end of the meal. We are also stocking cobnut brittle, cobnut shortbread and chocolate coated cobnuts in order to support this fantastic Kentish harvest.”
KENTISH COBNUTS Popular with a dash of salt as an accompaniment to a gin and tonic, or served with cheese, the Kentish cobnut is fresh and in great demand from August to December. The first flush of harvest sees chefs and consumers, who love the cobnut’s juicy green early cobs, rushing to buy in order to throw these tasty treats into warm salads, stirred into a shortbread mix or just eaten ‘neat’ with port at the end of a meal. The sweet cobnut flavour intensifies as the nuts gently turn a light brown in September and mature further as the shells and husks turn brown in October. Working with specialist grower Alexander Hunt, Watts Farms begin sourcing these fresh nuts in late August for their Michelinstarred customers in London. Now
SQUASH As Halloween approaches, thoughts turn to pumpkins, but there’s more to this fruit (it’s not a vegetable!) than just the huge orange orbs we carve into ghouls on All Hallows Eve. There are lots of other squashes that will do more than grace the table this harvest. Named for their shape, the onion squash is great for roasting and has a really gorgeous autumnal chestnut flavour. Munchkin squashes are popular in restaurants where chefs have been known to carve them out and use them as soup bowls to serve fresh pumpkin soup. The munchkin squash is also good when roasted - you can hollow it out, mix the sautéed flesh with onions, garlic and some cream and pack it back inside the munchkin shell, then roast in a medium oven until golden brown and tender (1 - 2hrs).
says they have seen a big demand for damsons from their local online customers who are keen to make jam, chutney, gin and even cheese from these little gems.
TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH All this wonderful local seasonal produce is great for keeping you healthy and happy too…. Damsons: are a natural source of potassium, fibre and vitamins A, C and K. They contain the amino acid called ‘tryptophan’ which is used by the body to produce serotonin. They also contain carotenoids which help boost eye-function. Kentish cobnuts: Full of vitamin D and E, high in protein and the right triglycerides fats, the cobnut is a heart-healthy choice this harvest-time.
SEASONAL SPLENDOUR Now is the time to enjoy damsons and Kentish cobnuts (above right)
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Squash: a seriously nutritious package, the squash is high in vitamins A, B6, C, folate, magnesium and potassium. Yellow squashes also contain manganese, a mineral that helps the body to process fats and carbohydrates. Where to buy damsons, squash and Kentish cobnuts this harvest: www.shop.wattsfarms.co.uk
