Hello my loves,

Winter is almost upon us, so this week I'm doing a run-through of allll the amazing produce that's deliciously seasonal right now, with some recipe suggestions to boot. Whilst winter signals short days, chilly nights, and slower growing, there are some sturdy stars that love this time of year, and kindly provide us with a pretty incredible array of options to warm our winter bellies. So, hold my hand, and let's jump right into the deep end of the cold-weather harvest...

Pumpkins

Solid, dependable and deliciously savoury-sweet, pumpkins have come right into their own at this time of year. You get a lot of bang for your buck with a pumpkin - once you cut into them, they always seem to provide more than the sum of their parts, and one large pumpkin will yield enough for many more meals than you might think. A pumpkin can also last on your bench-top for weeks, adding some gorgeously seasonal decor to your kitchen, and with the beautiful heirloom varieties that are becoming more and more common, that is a wonderful thing. Or is it?

Every year I find myself faced with The Pumpkin Conundrum. Here's how it goes down: I buy an achingly gorgeous pumpkin, perhaps a variety I've never seen before. I proudly nestle it into pride of place in the kitchen, and commence gazing adoringly at it like a love-smitten teenager. I examine every detail, finding joy in each new pattern, wart, or expanse of stubbled skin. But even in the clutches of my infatuation, niggling thoughts start to needle the back of my mind. What does she taste like? What would be the most delicious thing I could create with her? And so I enter The Pumpkin Connundrum: to cook, or not to cook, that is the question. This internal tug of war can go on for weeks. I want to look at her, but I also want to eat her. And once I eat her, it's over. What do I do? Of course, for each pumpkin that enters my kitchen, the day eventually comes. There's so many ways you can go with them, from roasting to stuffing to baking to souping to pastas and pasties and pies. One of my current favourites is the sour pumpkin curry with spiced rice that I created for our Free Food Fridays, which has also become a firm at-home favourite. You'll find the recipe here.

Leafy greens

Leafy greens do really well in winter, and will in fact take us right through the next few months and well into spring. Silverbeet, lettuce, kale, bok choi, tatsoi and really anything leafy and green power through the chilly days, providing nourishment for lucky old us as we navigate the cold weather. Two of my absolute favourite winter greens are broad bean shoots and pea tendrils. Yep, I'm talking about the actual plants here, the ones that produce proud pods of broad beans and tight little parcels of peas. Both the pea plant and the broad bean plant are themselves edible, and they're both incredibly delicious. Harvest the tender pea tendrils, and the leafy tips of the broad bean plant, and you will be in winter green heaven. We served a delicious gnocchi featuring both these delights at Hearth & Soul last year. It's sooo incredibly creamy and warming, and if you want to give it a try, you'll find the recipe for my gnocchi with broad bean shoots and a green garlic cream sauce here. If you don't have access to green garlic, don't worry. You can substitute 3-4 cloves of regular garlic and it will be just as delicious.

Citrus

Many people don't realise that citrus has a season. The lemon has become so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget that throughout summer, they're merely tiny promises of winter zing, maturing slowly on their rangy trees as the weather starts to cool. If you start to look for them, you'll probably find loads of citrus trees in your neighbourhood, and what you'll notice is that colour is now starting to come into the green fruit as they ripen ready for a winter harvest. I like to think that nature gives us what we need each season, and citrus is such a lovely example of this - all that vitamin C and winter healing power, timed perfectly to see us through the annual cold and flu season.

Apples

Ahhh, apples. They're the fruit of the garden of Eden, long associated with love, and once you've crunched into a 'real' apple, you can't help but understand their reputation for being irresistible. The poor old apple has had a sad time of it over the past few decades, with homogenous, waxed and flavour-lacking varieties dominating the shelves. But fear not - many passionate growers are harking back to the 'real' apple, and they are getting easier to find. A trip to your farmers' market may be able to assist you, and once you've found a source, you're sorted for the season. There's something about this time of year that compels me to dive head-first into my spice cabinet, shovelling generous piles of cinnamon, cardamon, allspice and clove into just about anything I can think of, and apples lend themselves perfectly to this. A spiced apple pie will fix ANYTHING that ails you, and even just a simple pot of spiced-poached apples served with cream will send you to heady apple heaven.

And so my loves, it's become pretty clear that whilst we've said farewell so some of our warm-weather produce for the year, there is still plenty to look forward to and take joy in over the coming months. With that I will wish you an incredibly delicious weekend, puddling about in all that is local and seasonal and beautiful in your part of the world. It's a long one here in Sydney, and I'm planning a country drive, some extended sessions with my latest enthralling book, and a couple of long soaks in a steaming, oil-scented bath. It's going to be quite the time. Until next week my loves 💛.

Love, Rachel xxx