Nothing says autumn like a huge hedgerow full of blackberries. There’s not much that compares to putting on your wellies, grabbing some receptacles and heading out to the nearest scouring ground. I think there’s an unwritten law somewhere that decrees, ‘one for me, one for later’. That’s how I operate anyway.

The potential that a blackberry brings to the kitchen is endless; add a few to some gravy for a wonderful sweetness or, inevitably, use them alone or with other fruits for a marvellous array of puddings. Autumn also brings with it apples and pears and, preferring to eat my pears nice and ripe, I turned to perry to pair with my berries.

In order to use some locally made perry I had to get my Poirot on and try to find a supply. As luck would have it my butcher lives next door to a man who happens to make some using local pears. I returned to the old (and I think better) bartering system I managed to procure a bottle of fine perry in exchange for some rabbit ragu. Marvellous. read more