Autumn lamb

Autumn lamb is available until the end of October and tends to have more flavour than spring lamb owing to the maturity of the meat. It is the perfect partner to other autumnal produce such as orchard fruit and root vegetables. A butter flied boned leg of lamb cooks wonderfully on the barbecue for late summer days. Autumn lamb should be readily available from butchers and supermarkets. Look out for bright red meat and white fat as a sign of freshness.

Apples

Worcester Pearmains, Bramleys, Discoveries, Early Windsors and Cox’s Orange Pippins should all be making an appearance this month. Some of these are available in supermarkets, but searching out local growers and visiting orchards will give you an even wider choice and the apples should be at their freshest. Use Bramleys in pies and crumbles, or bake them whole with some brown sugar, butter and spices. Slices of caramelised apple also go wonderfully with meat, especially pork.

Partridge

A close relative of the pheasant, the partridge comes in several varieties. The British, or grey partridge, has delicate and tender flesh which, when young, is pale and full of flavour. It's a small bird, so a whole one feeds one person. It's best hung for a few days (the more it's hung the more gamey the meat becomes) and any good game dealer or butcher will sell partridge ready to cook. The whole bird can be roasted and served with its traditional accompaniments of game chips (homemade potato crisps, really thinly sliced), clear gravy and watercress but it's the plump breast of young birds that provides the best meat. The legs can be used in game pies or puddings.

Brown trout

Brown trout can be hard to source as they are farmed on a very small scale but it's worth the trouble. The fish is really delicious; some argue the flavour is far superior to rainbow trout. You may have to take up fly-fishing to get hold of any brown trout but, however you get it, it's best cooked simply in a little water and wine, with a few herbs, so as not to mask its exquisite flavour.

Wood pigeon

Wood pigeon tend to feast on corn and other cereal crops and so, by the time autumn arrives, they make for fine eating. Young birds are the best for roasting to ensure tender meat, which is dark, very rich and gamey. Older birds get tougher with age and are best braised slowly with vegetables, or used for stock. The richness of the flesh is complemented by other strong flavours, such as gin, brandy and port, and by dried fruit, such as prunes, and it's good served with braised red cabbage, lentils or cabbage and bacon.

Sweetcorn

By late summer young, tender sweetcorn starts to appear in the shops and markets. At their best, the husks should be green and fresh and the tassel at the end should be fine and silky to indicate that the corn has not long been picked. For the best flavour, sweetcorn should be eaten as soon as it's picked, a bit of a tall order unless you grow it yourself or go to a pick-your-own farm. Eaten when really fresh, you will enjoy the sweetness of the kernels that should be plump and juicy and full of flavour. Sweetcorn should be cooked in boiling water with a little sugar but not salt, as this can make the kernels tough. After cooking, season the cobs with salt and pepper and serve with lots of melted butter.

October

Elderberries

Elderberries are not commercially grown but can easily be found growing in the wild. Pick the heads of the berries and be sure to wash them thoroughly before using. Elderberries are a well-known and popular choice for homemade wine, cordial or syrup and their flavour also combines well with blackberries to make sauces or syrup for fools, ice creams and sorbets. Apple pie is delicious sweetened with elderberry and even duck and pork is complemented by its flavour.

Figs

The fig is considered to be one of the most sensual of fruits with its tempting, luscious flesh that is at its best when it has been left to ripen in the sunshine. The ancient Greeks recognised the health benefits of figs and included them in the diet of the athletes for the first Olympic Games. Some prefer to peel the fig before eating but the whole fruit is edible and should be eaten at room temperature, as chilling suppresses the flavour. If you get a glut, fig jam is delicious or they can be poached in syrup and served with a little crème fraîche or mascarpone.

Grouse

The traditional grouse season runs from 12 August, known as the Glorious Twelfth, until 10 December but the birds are best in the first half of the season. There are many species but the red Scottish grouse reputedly has the best flavour. It can be found feeding on heather moors in Scotland, Ireland and northern parts of England and it is the heather that gives the meat its gamey richness. Young grouse are best roasted, covered with rashers of bacon to protect them from drying out. Serve them with game chips (homemade potato crisps, really thinly sliced) and watercress, as with other game birds. Grouse can also be used to make game pie or braised slowly in wine and stock, with celery and onions, for a truly seasonal dish.

Oysters

These days, oysters are an expensive luxury, which makes it difficult to believe that they were once the food of the poor. In fact, steak and kidney pudding was bulked out with oysters in times when meat was scarce and expensive. They are available all year round but are best between October and February, when the sea is cold. Oyster-lovers prefer to eat them raw from the shell, sprinkled with a little lemon juice, but they can be eaten cooked. Try grilling them briefly in their half-shells, sprinkled with shallots and a little butter.

Watercress

Most of the watercress people buy in Britain is grown in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, the UK's historical watercress-growing regions. In Hampshire, daily deliveries of fresh watercress were railed to London to satisfy demand and the rail link became known as the Watercress Line. Nowadays, watercress is available all over the country. Its peppery leaf is excellent served with orange segments as a salad and dressed with olive oil and orange juice. It's delicious with an omelette or scrambled eggs, or as an accompaniment for game bird dishes, or simply made into a smooth, vibrant green soup that can be served hot or cold.

November

Goose

Goose is farmed but is still very much a seasonal bird. The season starts in late September when the bird is small but ready to serve for the traditional Michaelmas Day feast on 29 September. By November, and in the run-up to Christmas, the goose is mature and getting fat. Fresh goose can't be bought in portions but only as a whole bird. It has a thick layer of fat, most of which melts away during roasting, leaving tender, slightly gamey meat. The melted goose fat stores well in the fridge and can be used to make the best and crunchiest roast potatoes.

Chestnuts

Mention sweet chestnuts and most people conjure up warm memories of roasting them on a cold winter's day. The smell is very enticing and the nut is deliciously moist and sweet. Chestnuts are also important as a baking ingredient because they can be dried and ground into flour for making cakes. Marrons glacés are whole chestnuts soaked in syrup, which can be eaten as a sweetmeat or used as decoration for cakes and puddings. Boiling or roasting makes their skins easier to remove and they are perfect served whole with Brussels sprouts. They can be chopped into stuffing for turkey and goose or made into a purée and served as a traditional accompaniment to game. When buying fresh chestnuts, choose nuts that are heavy and have shiny, smooth skins. They should be used quickly, before they start to dry out when their skins become tough and the nut loses its flavour.

Cranberries

The cranberry was an important staple in North America, even before the Pilgrim Fathers arrived. To this day, New England, the West Coast and the Canadian borders are the biggest producers of this tart little fruit. Cranberries grow in wetlands and bogs and during harvest, in the autumn, growers use machines resembling large egg beaters to comb through the low vines shaking the fruit off. The bog is then flooded and the cranberries float to the surface, where they are easily collected. Cranberries are too tart to eat raw and are always processed, usually into drinking juice or into a sauce used as a filling for pies and tarts, as well as a relish for turkey. Dried cranberries can be used in baking cookies, muffins and cakes.

Beetroot

The Greeks ate the leaves of the beetroot and valued the root for its medicinal qualities but it was the Romans who first cultivated it and brought it to the table. Nowadays, beetroot tends to be relegated to adding colour to salads or making relishes, which is a shame because it can be used in all sorts of dishes. Choose beetroots that are as small as possible because larger, older roots can take longer to cook. They can be boiled, steamed or baked and the outer skin needs to be rubbed off once cool enough to handle. Baby beetroots can be pan-fried in olive oil with other baby vegetables to serve as an accompaniment to meat or fish. Hot beetroot is delicious mixed with sweated garlic and onions and its sweet, earthy flavour is perfect for making soup such as borsch.