Being Londoners with a garden the size of a postage stamp, my children are uninitiated in the joys of growing your own. They can claim to forage for windfalls from our apple tree, and we did once grow strawberries in one of those tiered pots, but most of the time the closest that they get to picking fresh produce is when they ride pillion on the supermarket shopping trolley.

All that changes when they visit their grandparents in Dorset. My father has been a keen fruit and veg grower for decades and, as a retired maths teacher with a penchant for statistical analysis, he has the record books to prove it. In neat columns, he has marked down every item that he has taken from the garden since the Sixties, from the lone plum in 1973 to the bumper 120lb of tomatoes in 1992.

For the children, it’s a great chance to see nature at work. On Sunday mornings they set off down to the vegetable patch, Granddad pushing the three-year-old in the wheel-barrow, the nine-year-old and 11-year-old bringing up the rear with the forks and spades. Then they see what’s come on since their last visit and help to choose something for the lunch table.

At this time of year that means huge squashes and knobbly carrots, potatoes and beetroot the size of fists and long spindly leeks. Once the first frost comes, there’ll be parsnips and turnips too, before the long winter of cabbages and sprouts.

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Their bounty safely stashed in wooden trugs, the children trudge back up to Granny’s kitchen for the official weigh-in.

What more could you want? Fresh air, exercise, nature lessons and mental arithmetic, followed by the best-tasting lunch.

Taste the fruits or your labour

Apple Tarte tatin

Serves 8

This has got to be the easiest pudding in the world, and I’ve yet to meet a child who doesn’t love it. Quantities are very rough because, let’s face it, caramelised sugar, butter, pastry and fruit will taste good whatever the proportions.

Ingredients

About 8 apples, peeled, cored and thickly sliced 100g butter

200g granulated sugar

Star anise, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks

1 block puff pastry

Method

1. Cut the butter into slices and squash into a large, oven-proof frying pan. Sprinkle the sugar over evenly. Put the sliced apples on top, arranging neatly as they will become the top of the pudding.

2. Wedge a couple of star anise, cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks in among the apples. Cover with the rolled-out pastry, tucking the sides down inside the edge of the pan. Prick the top with a fork. You can do all this in advance.

3. Put the pan on a medium heat and cook until golden caramel bubbles up around the edge of the pastry. Transfer to a moderate oven, about 180C/gas 4, for 20 minutes or until golden.

4. Put a serving plate on top of the pan, turn it all upside down and shake to release the tatin. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Pumpkin and ginger soup

Serves 6

It amazed my children when they learnt that you can actually eat pumpkins. This is a simplified version of a soup I had at Pied à Terre in London. Shane Osborn, the head chef, adds fancy things such as scallops to his, but he’s got two Michelin stars, and not even my parents grow their own scallops.

Ingredients

60g butter

1kg pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks

40g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1 glass white wine

800ml chicken or vegetable stock

100ml single cream

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large pan and tip in the pumpkin (or squash) and ginger, season well and cook gently with the lid on for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Once cooked, add wine and boil until almost dry. Add the stock and simmer for about ten minutes.

3. Puree with a stick blender (and if you feel fancy, pass through a sieve too for a silkier finish). Add a swirl of cream and serve.

Gratin dauphinoise with bacon and cheese

Serves 4-6

A marriage of potato, bacon, cheese and cream. This is the perfect dish to serve after a busy night of trick or treating.

Ingredients

1kg potatoes

Butter for greasing

2 cloves garlic, crushed

About ten rashers of smoked back bacon

250g gruyère, grated

300ml double cream

300ml milk

Method

1. Peel and very finely slice the potatoes (ideally with a food processor or mandoline). Remove the rind from the bacon and cut into small pieces.

2. Butter a large ovenproof dish and put in a layer of potatoes. Dot with a little of the garlic, bacon and cheese, season with pepper and then add another layer of potatoes. Continue layering until you use everything up, finishing with potato. Combine the cream and milk and pour over the gratin.

3. Transfer to a 160C/gas 3 oven and cook for 1½ hours or until golden on top and the potatoes are easily pierced with a knife.

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