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.
Make it yours
Kept ideas live in My Keeps, keep their category and season, and can be planned, lived and remembered later.
My SZN editorial inspiration — our own seasonal idea, not a listing for a verified external event.
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