After June 21st solstice celebrations and revelries, I start to experience pangs of misery about the impending short days and long dark nights; seeing my children off to school in the dark and welcoming them home at dusk. Every night comes a minute sooner.

I am already mourning the end of freshly cut salads, baby courgettes and peas, the abundance of fresh soft herbs - mint, parsley, marjoram, fennel, coriander - from the Perfumery herb garden that gives endless inspiration for our soups, salads and pestos in the Tearooms.

I am dreading turning the heating on, keeping doors closed and being huddled together in the only warm room in the house, but what is forgotten in all these terribly negative thoughts that border on Seasonal Affective Disorder is AUTUMN!

There is no shock of summer into winter, we have been blessed with this beautiful transition, this season of mists and mellow fruitfulness to ease us in gently and joyously.

The subtle beauty of changing light that turns dark green into russet, amber, copper. The smell of the first fire in the hearth, hedgerows dripping with nuts and berries, mushrooms poking their heads above leafy ground. Trees laden with apples and pears, pumpkins fattening in their beds. There is nothing to mourn here but plenty to welcome and celebrate.

With all the new ingredients of autumn comes new inspiration in the kitchen. Warm hearty soups from pumpkin and squash, wild mushrooms on toast, slow cooked stews with lashings of creamy mash. Hot blackberry and apple crumble with hazelnuts and dare I say it, the smell of a christmas pudding steaming away on the stove.

Blackberry and Apple Hazelnut Crumble

Ingredients

• 250g blackberries, rinsed not soaked
• 500g eating apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 55g caster sugar
• Juice of half a lemon

For the crumble:

• 125g plain flour
• 95g butter, cut into small cubes
• 60g demerera sugar
• 60g ground hazlenuts
• a pinch of salt

Pre-heat the oven to 180c/gas4

Put the apples, sugar and lemon juice into a pan, over a moderate heat and cover with a lid. Allow to stew a little for about 10 minutes and add the blackberries. Take off the heat and replace the lid.

Make the crumble: If you have a food processor, put the flour, salt and butter into it and whizz for 10 seconds. If you don't, just rub the butter into the flour using your finger tips untill it looks like large breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and ground hazlenuts.

Find a suitable crumble dish, as pretty as you can and load it with the stewed apple and blackberry. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top generously (I have to say I am always delighted with a very generous crumble) and put into the oven for at least 25 minutes. Check to see that it is golden and a little bubbly at the edges, if so take it out and serve with double cream, clotted cream, ice cream, custard...

Living in the Burren, one cannot ignore the abundance of these ingredients, offering themselves up free of charge, in the hedgerows, orchards and hazelwoods. And I feel we have a duty to store and preserve this ‘harvest festival’ as best we can. Gone are the days of ignorance and waste, I applaud the ‘back to basics’ that we are forced to face. We need to teach our children how to make the most of their natural habitat, to best serve nature and for nature to best serve them.

I love to make chutney, my children love to eat it! It’s a most rewarding and delicious approach to ‘store and preserve’. There are no ends to the varieties and combinations of ingredients, making the most of the seasonal offerings from the garden and the market. Last autumn, the courgettes took over, I was beginning to resent them, so I chopped them up along with my neighbour’s glut of tomatoes and onions, resulting in a tasty savoury delight. I hope all who tasted the chutney in the tearooms this summer agree! This year my sister’s apple trees were so laden with beautiful red crunchy apples, (her garden looked like a fairy tale) I made a predominantly apple chutney, throwing in a few chillies and onions for good luck.

The more mature the chutney, the better it tastes . I am still eating a batch from Autumn ’09, which far surpasses the taste of my August ’10 - a great preserve!

For a perfect jar of savoury deliciousness to spread on cheese and freshly baked bread, serve with hot and cold meats, plonk it on top of macaroni cheese...

Autumn Chutney

Ingredients

• 1kg Apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 1kg courgettes, diced
• 1kg onions, peeled and diced
• 1kg tomatoes, diced
• 500g dried apricots, diced
• 500g dates, chopped
• 1kg sultanas or raisins
• 1 head of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 200g ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 750g brown sugar
• 800mls cider vinegar

Put all the spice bag ingredients in a muslin cloth and tie securely with a piece of butcher's string. Place this, together with all the other ingredients, into a large, heavy based saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.

Simmer gently, uncovered, for approximately 2 hours, stirring now and then to prevent the chutney burning on the bottom. Be careful not to boil it hard, as it will turn into a dark, sticky, jammy mess!

The chutney is ready to pot up when it is of a thick, brown, rich consistency. Remove the spice bag and pot into clean, sterilised sealable jars. Store in a cool dry place for at least 2 weeks (but the longer the better) before eating.

So then onwards and upwards towards December and the festive season and what better way to celebrate than with a little glass or two of sloe vodka? Sloes are beautiful blue-black berries found on Blackthorn, so sour they are basically inedible but with a little love, tender care and a lot of vodka they can be turned into a delicious Christmas treat.

Enjoy!

Julia

Sloe Vodka

Ingredients

• 1kg sloes
• 500g sugar
• 1 litre of vodka

The best sloes to use have been through the first hard frost. If you are in Ireland, that could be a long time coming, so pick the sloes and throw them in the freezer for a night or two.

Prick each berry a few times with a pin (this is best done with some company or good music, or both, as it does get quite boring on one's own) and put into a large glass bottle that has a tight fitting lid. Add the sugar and pour in the vodka. Seal with the lid and leave to settle in a cool, dark place. Turn the bottle after two weeks and continue doing so until you can bear it no longer! Six months is the minimum time recommended but ideally a year to mature and give the full benefits of the fruits of one's labour.