Summer's farewell, a salad from the last of the summer crops from the garden

October, the nights are drawing in and you can sense the coming chill in the evening air yet still the days are unseasonably warm. The courgette and squash plants are putting in a last desperate effort to bear fruit and the tomatoes are leafless and bare with a handful of remaining green tomatoes soaking up the sun. Lots of people love autumn and the change in the season but I feel melancholic and sad at this time of year and will miss long warm evenings in the garden by candlelight. Preparing for the first frosts this weekend, I picked enough to prepare a salad in honour of the summer's passing.

A salad for Summer's farewell

10-12 small carrots, scrubbed and left whole (or sliced in half in larger than thumb width)
2-3 tbsp Farringtons Mellow Yellow chilli oil (or rapeseed oil with a tsp of chilli flakes)
250g sachet of pre-cooked wheat berries, spelt and barley
120g feta, crumbled
10 radishes, sliced
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
3 small courgettes, thinly sliced (raw)
handful of mixed salad leaves (rocket, nasturtium, spinach)
handful of coriander, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon

Heat the oven to 190℃. Place the cleaned carrots in a baking tray and drizzle over the chilli oil. Roast the carrots for about 30 minutes. While they are roasting, toss together the other ingredients and squeeze over the lemon. When the carrots are just soft but still with a little crunch, toss them through the mix whilst still warm, with any remaining juices or oil from the pan. Add some black pepper, the feta will provide enough salt. Eat sitting in the last rays of the sun (with maybe something warm and woolly on) and make a toast to the wonderful summer of 2014.