Most seasonal food guides give you a list of everything currently available, which is a bit like being handed the whole supermarket. Two thirds of it was there last month and will still be there next month.
So I'm going to do this differently. Each month I'll tell you what's actually changed — what's just arrived, what's about to disappear, and what to ask for when you're standing at a counter. Short, and hopefully more use than a list of forty vegetables.
September is a good place to start, because it's arguably the fullest month of the British year.
From the sea
Native oysters are back. The season opens on the 1st, and the old rule about only eating oysters in months with an R in them isn't superstition — natives spawn over the summer, and the beds are left alone while they do it. They come back in September plumper and better for the rest off. If you've only ever had rock oysters, which are available year-round, a native is a genuinely different thing.
Mussels and cockles come back with them, for the same reason. They spawn through the summer too, and a mussel that has just spawned is thin and disappointing however carefully you cook it. From this month they start filling their shells again. Same R-month rule, same biology behind it.
Slightly counterintuitively, the sea is at its warmest around now — late August and early September, a month or so behind the air. Which means the summer fish are still around while the autumn ones arrive. Mackerel, squid, sea bass, herring and most of the flatfish are all worth asking about.
And the cuttlefish boats go out. This one isn't about a creature arriving — cuttlefish are in the Channel all year. What changes in September is the fleet. The autumn fishery off South Devon gets going now and peaks through September and October, and in a strong year it draws boats to the Brixham grounds from Plymouth, Looe, Mevagissey and Newlyn, and from as far away as Shetland and Northern Ireland. The trade calls it black gold, for what it fetches.
Almost none of it stays here. Cuttlefish is one of the most valuable catches in the English Channel and the great majority is exported to Spain, Italy and France, because we have never really taken to it — which is a shame, because it is cheaper than squid and tastes much the same. If you are anywhere near a South Coast fishmonger this month, ask.
From the field and the hedgerow
The apples change over this month. Discovery, the early one, has been in since late August and will be going over by the end of September — it doesn't keep, so eat it now or not at all. Cox comes in from the middle of the month, and it's the one most people are actually waiting for. Bramley is really October, though some growers pick from late September for storage. The point is that "English apples" isn't one event: it's a relay running from August into November, and a good farm shop will have something different on the table every few weeks, including local varieties you'll never see anywhere else.
Damsons and elderberries are properly here. Both are free if you know a hedge. Blackberries are at their peak, and tradition says you want them picked before Michaelmas on the 29th.
Sloes are the one to be patient about. They start colouring up around the middle of September, but they're usually better left — traditionally until after the first frost, which softens them, and in practice often well into October. If they're hard rather than yielding, they aren't ready. A night in the freezer does the same job as a frost if you'd rather not wait.
Wild mushrooms hit their stride. The main flush runs from late August through to November, and September is when it properly gets going — ceps in the woods, field mushrooms on old grassland. If you don't know what you're doing, don't; but a good greengrocer will have them.
The last of the summer veg is worth catching now. Outdoor tomatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans and courgettes are all on their way out, and the difference between a September tomato and a February one is not a small difference.
Meanwhile the first of the autumn crops are turning up. Squash and leeks start coming in this month, with celeriac and kale behind them — those two really come into their own in October, but you'll start seeing them. The larder swaps over during September, which is why it feels so full.
From the moor and the wood
Partridge season opens on 1 September — both grey and red-legged, right across England, Wales and Scotland. For a lot of estates that's the real start of the year.
Grouse has been going since the twelfth of August and runs until 10 December. Venison is around, with red stags in season in Scotland until 20 October.
Pheasant is not yet. That's 1 October, and anyone selling you British wild pheasant in September is probably selling you something else.
What to ask for
If you take one thing to a counter this month, make it this: ask your fishmonger whether he's got natives. Not rock oysters — natives. Some will, some won't, and the ones who do will be pleased you asked.
Then ask your butcher when he's getting partridge in, and your greengrocer which apples are local. Those three questions will tell you more about a shop than any review ever could.
Find a farm shop, butcher, fishmonger or greengrocer near you at myfoody.co.uk.