If you are looking out for the arrival of autumn, the best way to tell it is here is to look for the different types of fruit on the market stalls in Spain – true culinary cathedrals that the tourist should not miss.

THE seasons cannot be divided up as easily as slicing a piece of cheese – that is, you cannot really know when it will be summer in December or winter in July. Autumn announces its arrival with the ripening of pomegranates, quince and persimmon.

Palo Santo
Persimmon, or palo santo in the Valencia area – local terminology is very common in food and farm produce – is a tropical fruit that comes from Japan and China and which was not grown in Spain until the end of the 19th century.

If it has not reached the peak of ripeness, the persimmon can be very bitter, but eaten at the right time it takes on an intense sweetness and tropical warmth.

Pomegranate
The pomegranate is one of the fruits that is considered a symbol of love and fertility. It is thought to have been harvested in Egypt in around 2,500 BC, but now Spain is one of the world’s main producers and the largest European exporter.

Pomegranates, made up mainly of seeds inside a thick skin, is time-consuming to clean and prepare. Another slightly off-putting feature is that its juicy ‘grains’ still have the seeds inside.

Quince
Quince – another delicate fruit of love and fertility, or at least it is known as such in Greece – is native to southern Europe and of the countries on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Although it can be eaten raw or even boiled with sugar, it is normally used to prepare a sweet dish known as membrillo – a type of quince jelly often eaten with cheese, whose name is literally the Spanish word for quince - although this culinary practice is beginning to die out as processed food is gradually taking over the laborious homemade recipes of our mothers and grandmothers.

However, if you have time to spare in the kitchen it is worth investing the time in preparing membrillo yourself. Membrillo is delicious with any type of cheese; on its own; in salad, or in sandwiches.

As is usually the case with top quality farm-produced foodstuffs, the persimmon, the pomegranate and to some extent the quince do not really require any intervention in the kitchen before eating.

After all, what tastes better than a fresh, unfettered persimmon?

In the case of a pomegranate, the very most you might need to do is add a bit of sugar and perhaps a drop of liqueur.

As for the quince, the traditional membrillo recipe involves little more than boiling it up with sugar, a sprinkling of cinnamon and a piece of lemon rind.

You could argue that the colours of spring fruit (like cherries, for example) or summer fruits (particularly the apricot and peach) are brighter, more vibrant, younger, more attractive than those of autumn fruits which tend to be duller and less interesting.

Yet in any case, when you see these fruits in your home, be they in the fruitbowl or as a dessert, you’ll know without any shadow of a doubt that the season has changed and we’re now very much in autumn.

Five steps for preparing membrillo
1. Wash the quinces and simmer them in plenty of water until they are tender and the skin starts to crack.

2. Rinse the fruit, peel them and cut them into small pieces. Put them in a blender.

3. Weigh the pulp and mix with the same weight of sugar.

4. Simmer on a low flame for about 25 minutes, stirring the mixture continuously to stop it from sticking to the sides of the pan. When it is fully cooked, a small amount placed on a plate will set immediately.

5. Take off the flame, pour into a large mould or several smaller ones and refrigerate. Serve once cold.