Listening to the weather reports and forecasts from around Britain and elsewhere in the last 10 days, one wonders at the potential impact of storms and flooding on supplies in the autumn and its traditional mellow fruitfulness.

There have been stories of brassica growers not being able to get onto their land, and another crop, pumpkins, is already on the horizon as Halloween draws nearer, with growers desperate for success after two difficult years.

Home-grown strawberries still seem to be going strong, and Tesco is even making the point by flagging them up in its 380g fresh Classic Fruit Collection, at £2.50. The mix is 11 per cent strawberries, only two per cent less than the mango content, with melon (32 per cent), apple (26 per cent) and grapes (18 per cent) making up the bulk.

It is also the time when numerous niche and lesser known English apple varieties provide an interesting array of market choice. Waitrose has the “exclusive” source of Suffolk Pink, grown by Jeremy Linsell, at £1.99 for a four-tray pack, displaying a sticker that proclaims the fruit’s nationality, to ensure it is not mistaken for other varieties of a similar colour.

What also struck me was the presence of Delbard Estival, although there still seems some confusion as to its actual name - Marks & Spencer, for example, calls it Delbard, while other multiples are going the whole hog.

Labelling, of course, should be clear and concise. Aldi’s simple Super 6 offer at 69p, as part of its Fresh Ideas campaign, avoids any clutter and reinforces its no-nonsense value image. As far as the detail is concerned, Aldi’s Conference pears are sourced from the Netherlands.

The autumn is also the time when, in many parts of Europe, the public goes out into the woods to pick mushrooms, although the habit - with a few exceptions - has never really caught on, on this side of the Channel. There have already been a few cases of mushroom poisoning reported in the media, which does little to enhance the practice. Nevertheless, exotics are now far more frequent on supermarket shelves, and eastern Europe seems to have found its own slot. Waitrose, for example, has Wild Girolle, also known as the Golden Chanterelle, at £3.29 for 120g, picked in Belarus.

Meanwhile, there always seems to be something going on in the salads section. In the main, at this time of the year, the English and Dutch usually have it all to themselves within the tomato category. But Tesco is stocking baby plum tomatoes (98p for 250g) - hardly unusual you might say, until the source is discovered as France.

One of the questions being widely asked in the national media is whether organic produce will fall out of favour with growers and consumers alike, as money gets tighter. However, the Soil Association’s Organic Food Fortnight (September 6-21) is going full pelt, and there is evidence that more and more products are being introduced. Amongst the unusual is chopped organic coconut, grown in Ghana (99p for 100g), which featured in Waitrose’s New Seasonal Products publication.

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