NOTHING quite symbolises the changing season like squash: apart from butternut and pumpkin I was never really aware there were other varieties, but that’s the joy of working with local, organic food – you see so many more types of produce than you’d usually see in the supermarkets.

The season started with us receiving a load of small brilliant orange and yellow striped squash. A variety called uchiki kuri, it looks like a mini pumpkin but has a smoother texture to its flesh and a distinctive chestnut flavour, which makes sense seeing as 'kuri’ is Japanese for chestnut. We also picked up a box of spaghetti squash. With a thick yellow skin its fleshy interior develops strands that resemble spaghetti when cooked and can be eaten in much the same way. It definitely gives courgetti a run for its money, especially as you don’t need an expensive gadget to create it.

A couple of weeks later we collected boxes of small, round, cannon-ball like squashes. A rich green in colour, I could see why they were called gem squashes. A regular customer beamed with glee when she saw we were stocking them. A popular dish in her native country of South Africa, they are notoriously tricky to get hold of elsewhere. Their emerald green skin is contrasted by their orange fleshy interior which is a little sweeter than other squash varieties.

We're now starting to see the arrival of the Crown Prince squash in our depot. With a powdery-blue/grey skin and a dense, sweet, nutty flesh ideal for roasting, it looks as good as it tastes and is a clear favourite with our customers. But, with Halloween approaching, I think the real hit this week will be our pumpkins, sourced from a local allotment grower they come complete with crooked stem giving them an extra spooky feel. However, we won't be encouraging our customers carve them into decorations, partly as we’re joining the Oxford Pumpkin Festival which aims to prevent thousands of tonnes of pumpkin ending up in landfill each year, but mostly because they’re just too delicious not to eat!