The nights are drawing in, the clocks turn back soon and it's cold enough to put the heating on, we've even been tempted to light the fire early and play some http://www.foxybingo.com/.

Christmas will be on us before we know it, and thoughts are starting to turn to presents for friends and family. Edible treats always go down well in our house, and in some cases are all eaten by the new year.

Runner bean chutney is something I've eaten at friend's houses, but never made myself. This year, while many crops in the garden have done badly due to the bad weather, the beans have romped away. So, to use up a bit of a glut, I picked a trug of the larger of both runner and green beans and set about this recipe.

I took a trip to Yorkshire last week and was given a massive bag of these giant cooking apples by my aunt, so they made the journey back to Herefordshire. Although rather like taking coals to Newcastle they were welcome as the tree in the garden has yet to produce anything like these.

Sometimes with chutney the temptation is to through a bit of everything in just to use up as many vegetables as possible. This courgette / marrow / green tomato / apple chutney being a good example.
This time I've decided to keep it simple and concentrate on just apples with a hefty helping of spices.

It's marrow time of year again, in the past I've made marrow and green tomato chutney. I enjoy growing marrows, they always remind me of beached whales as you find them washed up underneath the courgette leaves, finding something to do with them all is more of a problem.
Most years we're swamped with green tomatoes due to harvesting them all early when the blight takes hold, but this year our tomatoes didn't get blight so we're a bit short.
This recipe uses marrows and cooking apples, both of which are currently abundant, and a lot of fresh ginger, so should have quite a kick.

  See here for the marrow and ginger chutney recipe in more detail.

How to store chutney is often a concern, especially as most recipes suggest the preserve is best left to mature for several months before eating.

The traditional advice is to store chutney in a cool, dry, dark place such as a larder or cellar. In modern houses under the stairs, or in a garage or shady shed may be the best option.

We're still working our way through a bountiful crop of quinces, the latest recipe being one for quince chutney.

I was drawn to this recipe, on the For The Love Of Food blog, because of the comparison with mango chutney and the suggestion that it would work well with Indian food, also I have never used juniper berries in a recipe and was keen to see what they were like.

This is a great recipe for using up a glut of damsons and green tomatoes, both of which I find can take you by surprise at this time of year.

I had for years wondered why we always produced masses of green tomatoes, usually blaming myself for not planting them out early enough, or the weather for not being sunny enough. While I'm sure these factors come in to play, I recently found out that a lot of people locally have the same tomato blight problem as we do, and while chatting about it had found out that a local market gardener has given up growing tomatoes outdoors. He had come to the conclusion that an increase in the amount of fields of potatoes in our area had caused such an increase in blight that it wasn't worth bothering.
I'd be tempted to not bother myself next year if it wasn't for recipes like this one, and the classic green tomato chutney.
They're a staple in our store cupboard and one we wouldn't go without.

Like a lot of people we always seem to get a glut of courgettes at this time of year, actually most of them are more worthy of being called marrows. We're also overflowing with cooking apples, and the tomatoes are looking like we're going have to pick them green before the dreaded blight makes it's annual visit.

All of this points towards using this excellent recipe based on the one Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall calls glutney on his river cottage blog. The beauty of Hugh's recipe is in it's adaptability, as long as you use 3kg of marrows / courgettes / pumpkins / tomatoes / apples the actual quantities are interchangeable.

With the late summer fruits starting to ripen on the trees (and fall off in the wind), this recipe is great for using up a glut of apples and plums. I actually used the last of last years frozen stewed plums from the freezer, and some windfall apples. The relative quantities of plums and apples can be easily altered within reason.

  Click here for the Plum and Apple Chutney recipe in more detail.

The gooseberries are swelling nicely and early varieties are already in the shops. The fresh fruit is not to everyone's taste, but is delicious when used in jam or chutney. Why not try some of these recipies: