Seasonal food in August

Although we find that almost everything that was available last month is also good this month too, it is undoubtedly true that some things are definitely better in August than they are in July and raspberries quite definitely fall into this category, in fact as the year goes on they get better.

While we have a tendency to think of them as being in season only during the summer months, their season can go on and on for a long time, up to 4 months, there are early maturing varieties around in early June with other varieties cropping late into September.

Great for fools and jellies, they make a fantastic ice cream and sorbet and if there's a glut of them then they make great jam and jelly too. They are also a very good fruit for freezing, which is amazing really considering how soft they are. If you are using a puree of raspberries always strain it of its seeds before using, these seeds can be most irritating when caught in the teeth or under the plate of a set of false teeth! Crushing and passing raspberries is better than pureeing through a food processor as when the seeds are crushed they tend to make the resulting puree slightly bitter.

August also sees an abundance of Peaches and Nectarines, have you ever tried them grilled? Just sprinkle with a little sugar and pop them under a very hot grill, served with a little crème fraîche or better still, raspberry ice cream, quite delicious! I consider myself to be very fortunate, as there is a glorious Victoria plum tree in my garden, for my money the best plum there is, I may not have the best cropping tree in the world but it's welcome nevertheless. With their sweet, slightly fragrant flesh and rosy skin they are sublime straight off the tree, that is if I can get past the wasps!

They (plums that is as opposed to wasps) make interesting pies, wonderful coloured jams and great fools. Try poaching them with a little sugar, a stick of cinnamon and a split vanilla pod, eaten with a dollop of clotted cream or even Greek Yoghurt, how easy can a dessert be? But it is not just soft fruits that are good now, root vegetables like beetroot and carrots can be pulled from as early as June but it is August that sees them starting to provide a reliable harvest and young beetroot are particularly good this month.

They are such a wonderful vegetable and terribly underrated, a friend of mine rates them so highly that he only grows beetroot, nothing else! Try this recipe for serving as a vegetable with the Sunday roast. Diced raw and cooked into a sauce for lamb, beef, even chicken, it makes the most intensely rich, deep maroon sticky sauce, their young tops are good too as they can be cooked and used as if they were chard.

Allotments and gardens all over the country will have their wall of runner beans bedecked with their scarlet flowers and every plant producing far more than the household will ever need. So why is it that we will insist on growing them to see how long they can be? There is no finer bean than the runner, but only when they are young, Caught while young they are delicious, choose small bright looking pods preferably no more than about 6"/15cm long, ones which feel supple and snap sharply when broken. At this stage they will be stringless and an absolute joy to eat. Better than French Beans any day!