Eat The Seasons: Autumn
Written by: Stefano Cuomo
With the warmth of the summer tapering, autumn (albeit for the occasional hail storm!!), gently rolls in with the morning mists.
Fairy rings of field mushrooms push up in grounds behind Macknade (our Married at Macknade wedding venue – exciting!!) and thorny-husked sweet chestnuts flash their bright green in the low September sun.
Autumn draws in these rich earthy flavours that I absolutely love. The season of cooling air, crackle of flames and the scent of drifting smoke from garden fires.
Orchard Fruits
Kent is at its industrious best in the Autumn – the last weeks of hops being cut and dried, the great kilns glowing as I pass them on my way home, along the tight hedged lanes now full of tractors towing bins full of apples – Kent’s golden bounty.
We had our first Discoverys in late August and now the glut of hard fruit comes - Gala, Braeburn, Cox & Bramley - and old favourites such as Russet, alongside new trial varieties tested by our friends and apple trailblazers GH Dean up in Teynham.
Too often the great Kentish Pear gets overlooked by the glut of apple varieties, but the ‘snap’ of a fresh picked Conference is hard to beat. I have many memories of sitting round the farmhouse table, spooning out the flesh of a ripened Comice - their sweet, deep, honeyed flavour lingering, always a reminder that nothing beats home grown fruit!
Mushrooms... Foraged & Grown
My thoughts never stray far from the deli counter, and at this time of year, it is the soft rind washed cheeses from the continent that are at their best. It is when the iconic Vacherin finally makes its appearance - the true herald of the shifting seasons - or a rich, meaty Tallegio, perfect on the cheese board, as it is in a risotto with mushrooms.
As well an abundance of wild mushrooms, perfect for foraging (if you know what you are doing!), we are blessed in Kent to have some fantastic mushroom growers too. Owley Farm, on the Isle of Oxney, close to Ashford, furnish us with the most wonderful funghi, including oyster mushrooms and lion's mane. They are delicious with cream, from Dee and her family farm in Hinxden Farm Dairy, and of course, our Tallegio from the northern hills of Italy.
'Stracchino' Italian Cheeses
Tallegio is one of a family of cheeses known as ‘stracchini’ - named because they are made from the milk of cows grazed on the late, tired (stracco) summer grass... the rich, early Summer meadows having provided huge wheels of mountain cheese, perfect for aging into the Winter and beyond.
As the cows descend from higher pastures into the valleys below, for Winter protection, it is these stracchino cheeses that are made – fresh with little maturing, but rich and earthy through rind washing techniques passed on by generations. They capture the essence of a lost Summer and the cocooning joy of the closing nights and setting frosts of Autumn – a favourite cheese, instantly homely and so rich in flavour!!
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