For many years, September meant going back to school after the summer holidays. More often than not the return to uniform and class drudgery was carried out under the glare of a baking late-summer sun. Among other things, it made me yearn for beach cricket...

I love tomatoes – but only good varieties that have been allowed to ripen fully on the vine. Sour, unripe tomatoes, grown not for flavour but for their thick skins, which give them an interminable shelf life, still seem to pollute the supermarkets and greengrocer's.

For me, the fishy highlight of September is looking for sprats.

The best pears are those ripened off the tree. This should mean that the trade's policy of picking unripe fruit for transport fortuitously serves the consumer's best interest, but in fact a lot of pears are picked so green and hard that the journey to full ripeness is one they simply don't have the resources to complete.

This is one of the most spectacular and satisfying wild food recipes I have ever cooked....