Summer produce, but make it taste like fall.

Because we’re already watching football, visiting orchards, and pining for plaid.

My strategy for shifting flavors in an autumn direction when the summer harvest is still coming in is usually one of three things:

• Add heat

• Add smoke

• Add spice

Or sometimes, do all three.

Some examples…

HEAT

If you have a mountain of small tomatoes, oven dry or blister them. Heat brings out the more complex potential in their acidity and sweetness.

If you have okra, fry it crispy, in thin strips, and pair it with the afore mentioned tomatoes.

Have you ever tried grapes roasted with rosemary or thyme? A revelation.

I’m staring down some LOADED pepper plants. The sweet red ones are delicious raw, but they enter fall flavor territory when charred and peeled.

SMOKE

To me, smoke takes both meat and produce in a fall direction. You don’t have to literally smoke your vegetables though. You can just leverage your vegetables in different ways to pair with smoked ingredients.

I roast my own red peppers for homemade pimento cheese, and it’s fun to riff on it with smoked cheddar and Chipotle Tabasco.

I left a jar of my homemade cucumber pickles with my dad last week, who later texted me they are an excellent addition to his smoked pork barbecue.

My favorite way to eat pole beans or bush green beans is with bacon, roasted tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Bonus points if you pick up Benton’s bacon from Revival Butchery in West Greenville. I’ve never smelled smoke through the packaging like that.

Here’s what you do:

• Render a few slices of bacon on a sheet pan at 375 degrees.

• Meanwhile, blanch the green beans in salted water for 3-4 minutes, until bright green and strain. Shock them in an ice bath if retaining the color is important to you. I don’t usually bother.

• Remove the bacon from the sheet pan and drain on a paper bag.

• Add the green beans and a handful of cherry or grape tomatoes to the pan. Toss in the bacon fat and season with salt and pepper.

• Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes: Essentially, until the tomatoes begin to burst. You may need to toss once halfway through, if the tomatoes are particularly sweet, they can catch.

• Remove from the oven. Sprinkle the pan lightly with red wine vinegar, and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to deglaze. Toss the tomatoes and green beans in the “sauce” that forms. Top with the bacon, chopped finely into bits.

SPICE

The warming pie spices are obvious for apples and pears, but that’s not the only way spice can help out. They also make late summer peaches and figs feel like early fall treats.

If you still want to eat vegetables raw, take your dip in a spiced direction. Chipotle, cumin, toasted coriander or chili powder stirred into a yogurt sauce give it a more complex flavor, for example.

We have many more weeks of strong summer produce here in Zone 8a, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mentally shift to fall, and change up the ways we are using things. I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

Also, I wrote more about developing this mindset, and some super-practical skills for using up all of what you’re growing, in Garden-to-Table All Year: A Minimalist’s Guide to Preserving, my zine published by Good Printed Things. I hope you’ll check it out!

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If you’re local, come join me and some friends for a plant-sharing event on October 3 in West Greenville! Details below.