Potatoes, courgettes, beans, capsicums, chillies, avocados, pears, plums, peaches, blueberries... late summer produce is the best, isn't it? Before we move in to preserving some of this bounty later in autumn, we are using it raw in Aaron Brunet's Mexican salad and serving it a simple bean dip for dinner on a hot evening with a take-it-or-leave it appetite. For lunch? Try this late summer bacon salad with hot-right-now courgette noodles.
Fruit cakes also take on a different spin at this time - no dried fruit required here - just six juicy red plums for a chocolate and red plum cake,1 golden queen peach for these peach and ginger friands, a couple of pears for these yummy pear and vanilla oat bran muffins and a punnet of blueberries for blueberry polenta cake.
In between harvesting all the corn, courgettes and beans she encouraged us to plant in December, Sarah O'Neil is starting to plant the autumn garden. Rainbow chard is a constant in my autumn garden, parsnips never; I am the only one who eats them. But, with Louise Thompson yet again reminding me it is okay to do things for yourself, I think I'll plant a few and sneak them in to the kitchen when no one's looking. I don't have corn in my garden but I am certainly buying enough of it right now to make up Peter Gordon's cornbread. It's absolutely delicious ... anytime. I am enjoying it for breakfast with mashed avocado.
