What's in Season in September?

Whoever eats goose on Michaelmas Day
Shall never lack money for his debts to pay

Traditional Rhyme

This month marks the start of autumn and all its pleasures. It is time to go blackberry picking and foraging for mushrooms. Take a guide (human or in book form) and look for any of a multitude of fungi, avoiding the fly agaric and the deathcap, both easily recognised. Early British apples begin around now, particularly Worcester Pearmain. Native walnuts come in and may last until the turn of the year. In addition, native figs come into season now. Calabrese is very good at this time of year, although it is available earlier. Similarly, although you can find tomatoes nearly all year round, you will enjoy the very best home-grown, unforced tomatoes right now. The best crops of rocket begin now.

Seasonal Feast Day

Michaelmas Day - the feast of St Michael and All Angels - is celebrated on 29 September. A busy day, it used to be celebrated all over the country with great feasts, the centrepiece of which was the Michaelmas goose.

Michaelmas geese are leaner than Christmas geese, their flesh slightly paler and their flavour slightly milder. A goose for the table should be young not more than a year old. A 'green goose' is a bird up to the age of 3 to 4 months, a gosling one up to 6 months.

Geese are rather fat and when they are cooked the flesh is dark, with a rich meaty flavour, therefore accompaniments should counteract this. Traditionally these are sage and onion stuffing and apple or gooseberry sauce. To make gooseberry sauce, sieve or liquidise slightly sweetened stewed gooseberries (fresh, canned or bottled) and re-heat with a knob of butter.

Oysters

Now that there is an 'r' in the month, we can tuck into native oysters again. They are in season from September to April. With its smooth textured, delicate meat, the Whitstable oyster is thought to be the finest.

Of course, you may prefer the hardier Pacific oyster. It is coarser fleshed, with a less fishy, more metallic taste but it is still very good. Its advantages are it matures quicker and consequently is cheaper and because it does not spawn in our colder waters, it is actually available all year round.

When oysters are bought, the shells should be firmly closed and should come from a reliable source.

Stand up for Kentish Cobnuts

British seasonal produce is worth getting passionate about, yet all too often it is overlooked in favour of foreign imports. Take Kentish cobnuts, a type of hazelnut. A great regional and seasonal delicacy, they are ready to pick about now and last through to the beginning of October. Astonishingly crunchy, the flavour intensifies as the season progresses. You may be hard put to find them outside Kent, though.

Compare this to the availability of wet walnuts. Imported from France, they are similar to cobnuts in that they have a limited season and shelf life, yet all the supermarkets stock them when they come into season at the beginning of October.

Support our cobnuts - pester your supermarket and write (with an SAE) to the Kentish Cobnut Association, Clakkers House, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN15 8PY, for its fact sheet.