What's in Season in October in the UK

The season turns properly now

There is a moment in early October when the light changes and the hedgerows seem to exhale. The soft fruits of summer are done. What replaces them is harder, darker, more demanding — and considerably more interesting. This is the month that rewards anyone willing to look beyond the supermarket aisle.

It is also the month when Britain's game season properly opens out. Pheasant shooting begins on the first of October by statute, and with it comes the broadest stretch of the game calendar. Partridge has been available since September, woodcock and snipe are arriving from further north, and venison is well into its stride. For those who have never cooked game at home, October is the natural moment to start — the birds are fresh and the weather has turned cold enough to make a slow-braised dish feel exactly right.

Orchard fruit at its peak

Apple pressing happens across the country this month, and the variety on offer from farm shops, orchards and farmers' markets is genuinely staggering if you know where to look. This is not the time for the same four varieties that sit on supermarket shelves year-round. Heritage apples — bittersweet, russet, sharp cookers — are at their best, and many orchards open their gates or run pressing days. Check locally for what's available near you.

Quince ripens in October and remains one of the least understood fruits in Britain, despite a long history here. Raw, it is hard and astringent; cooked, it turns a deep rose-amber and develops a floral, almost honeyed depth that no other fruit quite matches. It keeps well, which makes it worth buying in quantity when you find it.

Medlars are stranger still. They look like small, slightly battered apples and must be left to blet — a process of controlled softening that takes several weeks after picking — before they become edible. The result is something between a spiced apple purée and a date, eaten straight from the skin. They are rarely sold commercially, which means finding them at a farm or market stall is a small prize worth taking seriously.

Nuts, squash and what the hedgerows offer

Cobnuts — the fresh, milky-white hazelnuts grown mainly in Kent — are at the end of their short season in early October. If you can still find them, buy them. Dried, they become the hazelnuts you know from baking; fresh, they are altogether different — moist, almost creamy, with a delicate bitterness in the skin.

Walnuts are also freshly harvested this month. Wet walnuts, sold in their soft green-stained shells, have a gentler, less tannic flavour than the dried kind and are worth trying if you have only ever eaten the latter.

Pumpkins and squash are at their absolute best now, well ahead of the Halloween rush. The carved lantern varieties are largely grown for looks rather than eating. Far better are the dense, sweet-fleshed kinds — Crown Prince, onion squash, Delica — which roast to a rich, almost nutty sweetness and keep for weeks in a cool place.

Sloes, the small blue-black berries of the blackthorn, are traditionally gathered after the first hard frost, which is said to break down their fierce astringency. In practice, the timing varies year to year. The rule of thumb is still useful — wait for a frost if you can — but the first frosts can arrive anywhere from mid-October to November depending on where you are in the country.

How to think about buying this month

October is a month that strongly favours farm shops, farmers' markets and independent butchers over the weekly supermarket shop. Game, quince, medlars and fresh walnuts simply do not appear reliably on supermarket shelves. A good butcher will source local and regional game; a farmers' market is the most likely place to find heritage apples, wet walnuts and the more unusual squash varieties.

It is also worth thinking about storage. Many of October's best ingredients — squash, quince, dried cobnuts, walnuts — keep extremely well, which means buying in a little quantity now pays off across November and into December. The season feels urgent, but a good deal of it can be brought indoors and kept.