What's in Season in August?

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief

Summer is starting to draw to a close, although there are still a lot of summer fruits and vegetables around. However, this is the month of harvest and soon the poppies will be cut, as reaping begins. Butterflies are out in big numbers. Around now, apricots should be coming on to the shelves and wild blackberries or brambles can be found from now until November. Plums and greengages are in season this month, as is grouse. At the fishmonger's you will find crayfish and pilchards. Add purslane to your salads. Go for vegetable marrows this month before they grow old and woody and try the first of the new onions (shallots in particular) and peppers. It is possible to grow peaches in sheltered sites and they should be ripe now.

Let us eat Lettuce

As rocket and lambs' lettuce have become the darlings of the food world, their humble cousin, the lettuce, has been overlooked. A pity, as it boasts a sweet flavour and slightly bitter aftertaste. It makes a good soup, either hot or cold. For soup-making, use a soft-leafed English lettuce such as butterhead for the best colour. Lighter coloured lettuces, such as iceberg give a paler colour.

Lettuce was first introduced into England in the sixteenth century and is chiefly used as a salad vegetable although it can be cooked and served as a vegetable or made into soup. There are several species and over one hundred varieties.

When preparing lettuce, remove old or badly damaged leaves. Wash the lettuce quickly but thoroughly in cold running water and drain it well.

Ravishing Raspberries

Raspberries are the aristocrats of the soft fruit world. They may lack strawberries' outrageous sweetness and succulence but they have a wonderful tartness, colour and softness. They go well in many recipes, particularly in Raspberry Walnut Shortbread.

Raspberries may be red or yellow in colour and cap- or thimble-shaped. They have quite a good vitamin C content. The full flavour of raspberries is best appreciated when they are eaten immediately after picking, either alone or with cream and caster sugar. They also make excellent jam. Raspberries also freeze well; the flavour is best preserved when they are frozen in sugar. The fruit may also be used for home-made wine, raspberry syrup and raspberry vinegar.

To prepare the fruit, remove the hulls. If the fruit is dirty, wash it in a colander.

Pretty as a Peach

The single-stoned fleshy fruit of the peach tree, which is grown chiefly in warm countries such as Italy and the South of France, may also be grown in sunny, sheltered corners of English gardens. In this country, however, peaches are cultivated in glasshouses.

There are two main varieties of peach, the free-stone and the cling-stone. In the former the skin and stone separate easily from the golden flesh. In the cling-stone type the flesh is firmer and is freed from the stone with difficulty. Peaches bruise readily so they should be handled gently and as little as possible. As the fruit contains little acid, extra must be added when it is used for making jam. They make an excellent chutney. Peaches can be frozen in syrup or as a purée.