The hearty, flavourful fruits and vegetables in season this October - and how eating them helps the planet

• This month is a great time of year for locally-grown produce, with a wide range still in season
• These include some heartier root veggies, as well as late-season fruit
• Buying them can help the environment by shaving down your ‘food miles’

October is when a real autumnal chill starts to creep into the air, likely bringing with it cravings for warming soups and stews.

Fortunately – especially if you’re amongst the environmentally-minded – the fruits and vegetables in season this month lend themselves perfectly to heartier cold-weather fare. Fresh off the back of September, the “most abundant month for British grown produce”, conservation charity The National Trust says this month is almost as plentiful when it comes to cheaper and more eco-friendly produce.

Here are some of the many delicious crops which will be ready to buy fresh at supermarkets and grocers near you – as well as what The National Trust’s seasonal food guidance says on how you could be helping the planet by partaking:

What’s in season in October?

According to the National Trust, “hearty stews, bakes and soups” can all be made from the seasonal fruit and veg that you can harvest or buy at this time of year. Here are some of the month’s most tempting offerings:

1. Apples
2. Beetroot
3. Broccoli
4. Cabbage
5. Carrots
6. Cauliflower
7. Celeriac
8. Celery
9. Chard
10. Chillies
11. Jerusalem artichokes
12. Kale
13. Kohl rabi
14. Leeks
15. Marrow
16. Onions and shallots
17. Pak choi
18. Parsnips
19. Pears
20. Potatoes
21. Quince
22. Raspberries (Autumn-fruiting varieties)
23. Rocket
24. Spinach
25. Swede and turnip
26. Winter squash and pumpkins

How does eating in season help the environment?

Buying produce that’s in season usually means it is more likely to have been grown locally, rather than shipped from somewhere else.The National Trust says this can help cut back on food miles – the distance food needs to be transported from its producer to you – and the need for plastic packaging, “both of which contribute to climate change”.

Resources published by the Hampshire County Council, in England’s South East, say that the food in our supermarkets “is travelling from further away than ever before to keep up with this demand for year-round availability”. These out-of-season crops have often travelled by air, it continued, “which creates around 10 times more carbon emissions than road transport”.

But physically transporting the food is just one part of the problem. “Growing out-of-season produce can also require higher amounts of energy usage. Farmers must create artificial microclimates to provide the optimal growing conditions,” the guidance added. “This can include needing to provide additional heat and using electrical irrigation systems. Growing tomatoes in a hot greenhouse in December requires more energy than growing them in their natural season in the summer.”

Want to learn about some other ways you can help nature and the environment at home or in the garden? Here are four flowers in bloom this autumn you can plant to give wildlife a helping hand – and here’s everything you need to know about the cold season ‘super food’ to add to your bird feeder.