Hauls · ☀️ Summer
What's genuinely good in the supermarket now
The produce that's at its best and cheapest in the last weeks of summer.
Editorial · 3 min read · 3 min read
The cheapest seasonal shopping isn't in a homeware shop at all — it's the twenty feet of the supermarket that changes every few weeks and that most of us walk straight past.
Late August is one of the genuinely good moments: the last of the summer produce overlapping with the first of the autumn.
At their best right now
- Tomatoes, still — the last few weeks before they turn watery again.
- Plums and damsons, which are cheap, briefly excellent and freeze well.
- Sweetcorn, blackberries and the first early apples.
- Soft herbs by the bunch rather than the plastic packet.
Worth leaving until it's properly autumn
- Squash, which improves and cheapens through September.
- Anything labelled 'spiced' in August.
- Imported berries once the British ones have gone — the price goes up as the flavour goes down.
What to do with it this week
- Roast the plums with a spoonful of sugar and eat them with yoghurt for three mornings.
- Make one tomato dish while they're still worth it — bread, oil, salt, that's the recipe.
- Freeze whatever's about to turn. Blackberries and plums both freeze straight onto a tray.
Honest note
Availability varies enormously by region and by week — this is a guide to the season, not a claim about what's on your local shelf today.
My SZN editorial inspiration — our own seasonal idea, not a listing for a verified external event.
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