What’s in season in August? A UK produce guide for shoppers and cooks

If the British food year has a high summer, it’s August. Nothing needs forcing, nothing needs a polytunnel’s apology, and the only real problem is keeping up with it all. Here’s what to look for, roughly in the order you’ll meet it.

The soft fruit, before it goes

Strawberries and cherries are in their final weeks — enjoy them now rather than mourning them in September. Raspberries carry on longer, well into early autumn. Blackcurrants are at their best, and the first blackberries arrive in the hedgerows towards the end of the month. This is the moment for jam, for summer pudding, and for eating fruit with nothing done to it at all.

The first of the orchard

Plums are August’s quiet star — the season is short, roughly August into September, and a good English plum eaten in its fortnight is a different fruit from the imported ones sold year-round. Early apples begin at the very end of the month, but the main crop belongs to September.

Vegetables in full flood

Runner beans, courgettes, and tomatoes hit their stride — this is the one stretch of the year when a British-grown outdoor tomato tastes the way tomatoes are supposed to. Sweetcorn starts in August and is a genuine case for buying local: its sugars begin converting to starch from the moment it’s picked, so a cob sold close to where it grew is simply a better cob. Beetroot and carrots are abundant; broad beans and peas are finishing.

What to cook

August cooking is mostly restraint. Runner beans, sliced and boiled briefly, want only butter. Tomatoes want salt, oil and bread. A glut of courgettes is the traditional test of a cook’s patience — grate them into fritters, roast them hard, or fold them through pasta with lemon.

Shop it while it lasts

Glut pricing is real: when a crop comes all at once, local prices drop, and the surplus is exactly what producer boxes on Parish Larder are built around. Browse the boxes page to see what growers near you are packing this week, or check the full month-by-month picture on our seasonal produce calendar at /resources/uk-seasonal-produce-calendar.