British seasonal food in September – what to eat now
There’s a huge range of British seasonal food in September, the month that offers the most variety of all.
It’s harvest time, from late-ripening summer crops needing extra sunshine to newer autumn season arrivals.
Seasonal stars include fragrant figs and autumn raspberries, the earliest crisp apples and pears, and sun-loving peppers and aubergines. There’s also an abundance of fish and game.
Here’s what to buy at the market, or pick from your kitchen garden or allotment in the UK this month.
Fruit in season in September
British homegrown fruit is abundant this month, so make the most of it. There are a few nuts ready for picking too.
Here’s what you can find now at its peak:
British-grown fruit in September
Apples
Blackberries
Blueberries
Damsons
Figs
Grapes
Greengages
Loganberries
Melons
Peaches
Pears (first few)
Plums
Raspberries (autumn types)
Tayberries
Imported seasonal fruit: September
Apricots
Peaches
Pineapples (Caribbean)
Melon (Charentais, cantaloupe, galia)
Nectarines
Nuts in season in September
- Cobnuts and hazelnuts
- First few chestnuts
Recommended seasonal fruit & preserves books
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Vegetables in season in September
September’s the best month of the year for a wide choice of vegetables.
Help yourself to all of these stars of the season:
British seasonal veg: September
Aubergines
Autumn cabbage (green, red)
Beetroot
Broccoli (calabrese, autumn sprouting)
Brussels sprouts (very early types)
Cardoon
Celeriac
Celery
Chillies
Chicory
Courgettes
Cucumbers
Endive
Fennel
Globe artichokes
Green beans (French, runner)
Kohlrabi
Lettuce & other salad leaves
Leeks
Marrows
Okra
Pak choi
Parsnips
Peppers
Pumpkins & winter squashes
Radishes (summer, winter)
Spinach
Spring onions
Swedes
Sweetcorn
Summer squash
Tomatoes
Turnips
Watercress
Available most months in good condition: button mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, maincrop potatoes, onions, rocket.
Recommended veg cookbooks
FREE!!
UK fruit and veg calendar
Herbs in season in September
- basil
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- fennel
- lovage
- marjoram
- mint
- oregano
- parsley
- rosemary
- sage
- sorrel
- summer savory
- tarragon
- thyme
- winter savory
Always available:
- Chives, coriander, parsley grown under cover.
- Older leaves of hardy perennials like bay, rosemary, sage, thyme.
Wild / foraged food in season in September
It’s one of the best months of the year for making hedgerow jams and jellies.
Foraged food in September
Bilberries / blaeberries
Blackberries
Crabapples
Damsons
Elderberries
Rosehips (towards end of month)
Samphire (rock)
Sloes
Wild mushrooms (ceps/penny bun, chanterelles, field, puffball, truffle)
[Take great care when foraging as it’s very easy to confuse edible and poisonous ingredients.]
Recommended foraging & wild food books
Fish in season in September
Finally there’s an ‘r’ in the month, so oysters come back onto the menu again, along with many other shellfish as the sea temperature cools a little.
It’s also a really good time of year for the best haddock, sustainably fished cod and squid, and most flatfish.
Seasonal fish availability and sustainability varies greatly from year to year and in different areas around the UK, plus it’s being affected by climate change and conservation measures, but here’s a rough guide to what’s on sale now in the sustainable category:
Sustainable British fish: September
Brill
Cockles
Coley / saithe
Crab (spider)
Dab
Flounder
Gurnard (grey)
Haddock
Hake
Herring / sild
Mackerel
Monkfish
Mussels
Oysters
Plaice
Pollock
Pouting / bib
Prawns
Dover / common sole
Lemon sole
Lobster
Sardine / European pilchard
Sprat / whitebait
Wild turbot
Witch / Torbay sole
[To the best of my knowledge the list above excludes critically endangered fish, but it never hurts to double check as the situation is constantly changing. Visit The Good Fish Guide from the Marine Conservation Society for their latest lists.]
Fish in season, less sustainable
Many of these types of fish and seafood can still be sourced from a responsible fishmonger:
Title
Cod
Crayfish
Eel
Gilthead bream (wild)
Halibut (wild)
John dory
Langoustine / scampi
Razor clams
Red mullet
Seabass (wild)
Sea bream (wild)
Sea trout
Squid
Whelks
Whiting
Wild salmon
In good condition almost all year: farmed rainbow trout, farmed salmon, farmed seabass, farmed sea bream, farmed turbot, megrim sole, sustainably-fished monkfish, rope-grown mussels, prawns.
Recommended fish & shellfish books
FREE!!
UK fruit and veg calendar
Meat, poultry & game in season in September
Game season is almost in full swing now, with wild duck available from the start of this month. It’s also the beginning of guinea fowl season.
UK meat, poultry & game: September
Grouse
Guinea fowl
Hare
Lamb
Partridge
Pheasant
Ptarmigan
Snipe
Venison
Wild duck
Wild geese
Woodcock
Always available in good condition: beef, chicken, pork, rabbit, turkey, farmed venison, wood pigeon.
Recommended meat, poultry & game books
Cheese in season in September
Many traditional and artisan cheeses are seasonal. It depends on the animals being milked, their grazing and reproductive cycles, the way specific cheeses are made, and their time to mature.
Quality cheeses made with milk from spring and summer pastures have had longer to mature now, resulting in different textures and depth of flavour. Look out for longer-aged fresh cheeses, washed-rind cheeses with orange or pink surfaces, semi-hard cheeses, younger hard cheeses, and medium-matured (3 – 6 months) blue cheeses.
Here’s some inspiration for your cheeseboard this September:
Best British cheeses: September
Double Gloucester
Farmhouse Cheshire (Appleby’s)
Stinking Bishop
Wigmore
September imported seasonal cheese
Abondance
Beaufort
Cantal
Roquefort, other mid-matured blues (e.g. Fourme d’Ambert etc)
Saint-Nectaire
Many quality mature cheeses are available year-round, especially hard cheeses.
Recommended cheese books
Enjoyed this guide? You may also like:
- British seasonal food in August
- British seasonal food in October
- What to sow & do in the September kitchen garden
- Grow your own fruit & veg on a budget
What we’re eating at Golightly Gardens
The weather’s starting to change and the days are shorter, but there’s still some warmth in the sun between the showers. We’ve been enjoying lots of trays of roasted Mediterranean style vegetables here, and using our tomatoes to make homemade pasta sauces.
We’ve also been cooking grilled courgettes from the kitchen garden, and buying fresh sweetcorn, red peppers and chillies. Our basil plants have become very overgrown, so I’m also on the lookout for a few interesting pesto recipes.
I’ll be on the lookout for some Kentish cobnuts or fresh hazelnuts at the market, although it’s easy to miss the short season, and picking up plums, peaches and figs to make the most of harvest month. September’s definitely the ‘enjoy it while you can’ month, and there’ll be a few treats added to the freezer for later too.
Plum crumble, anyone? Ice cream on the side if it’s sunny, custard if it’s not.
Recommended seasonal inspiration books
Do you have any favourite ingredients in September?
Let us know in the comments below.
