Channel 4’s champion of local seasonal food, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, returns to River Cottage to harvest the best that autumn has to offer, all wrapped up in the ultimate seasonal food magazine. Hugh cooks and tastes the abundant produce, from root vegetables and game to fruits from the orchard, and from peppers and chillies to cardoons and celeriac.

The series celebrates the season’s best and freshest, whether from the wild, the garden or the shop shelf, as Hugh offers numerous recipes to inspire and salivate over. As ever, people from all walks of life drop in to get a dose of the River Cottage treatment, and taste a generous helping of the good life that Hugh has cooked up for them.

Hugh also catches up with the Bristol smallholders he first met in River Cottage Spring as they harvest their autumn bounty of beetroot, pots, kale, squashes and pumpkins. The experiment becomes even more hands-on when Ray the butcher shows them how to turn their pigs into salamis, sausages and hams. Plus, much-loved pig Blossom makes the journey back to River Cottage, where she will be used for breeding. Will there be a bunch of piglets to return to Bristol?

Thursday 16 October 2008, Channel 4 8PM