August is another amazing month, where you can find plenty of wild food, herbs and mushrooms to forage for. If you are new to foraging, you’ll be pleasantly surprised, that you can pick fruits that you’ll readily recognise from your local fruit market, such as blackberries, plums, cherries or apples.
What’s in season in August often overlaps with July and September, so make sure you check out my foraging resources for these months too.
So, next time when you go for a summer walk in the coutryside, make sure you pack few extra paper bags to gather your finds and don’t forget to pack a small pocket guide to help you identify everything you find on your stroll.
Sea Buckthorn
Sea buckthorn grows close to the sea in shrublands and hedges. You can also see it in town’s public spaces, parks or gardens as it’s often grown as a ornamental plant.
Another plant from this month’s picks that’s high in Vitamin C, sea buckthorn has about 10 times more Vitamin C than oranges.
What to pick
- leaves
- fruit
notes
harvest time is anything between late august to late winter.
how to use
pick leaves in the spring to make tea
fruits can be made into syrups, confectionery, chutneys or jams.
Recipes
Elderberries
When the fragrant flowers of elder tree die down, the dark blue/black berries are formed. They taste completely different than the elderflowers, they are more like blackcurrants, blackberries and blueberries mixed together.
The berries are very high in Vitamin C, which makes them perfect for making syrups, jams and vine. Elderberry syrups would be traditionally used to calm down sore throat, cold or coughs.
What to pick
- Pick whole clusters to take home, but then use only the berries for eating
notes
Harvest from august to september
how to use
Use elderberries in a similar way as blueberries or other small berries. Perfect for syrups, cordials, wine, baking or cooking.
Recipes
Mountain Ash – Rowan Berries
Mountain Ash (or Rowan tree) usually grows in mountains and on the banks of rivers, medowlands and you can also find them in parks and town gardens. Most of the tree is edible, but people mainly harvest berries which are high in Vitamin C.
It’s best to cook or process the berries and not to eat them raw. They are quite bitter to eat in the summer, but once frost has ‘bitten’ them, they soften and are much sweeter (the same as rosehips).
What to pick
- harvest whole bunches of berries, but use only individual berries to cook
notes
harvest from August to November
how to use
Only use cooked, baked or prepared with heat. Makes great jams, jellies, chutneys, syrups.
Recipes
Blackberries
Blackberries need no introduction! You would have come across their unruly bushes in the forest boundaries, hedges or the end of your garden.
They are pretty much everywhere and native to Britain. You can pick them and eat them as they are. Blackberries are fairly high in Vitamin C, which makes them perfect for helping to fight cold, flu or cough.
What to pick
- ripened fruit berries (black in colour)
- leaves for tea
notes
harvest from mid august to september
how to use
Eat blackberries fresh as a healthy snack or make them into jams, jellies, cordials or use them in baking or cooking.
Use leaves to make fresh tea or dry and then use in winter to make herbal tea
Recipes
wild mustard
The type of mustard relish you know from flavouring your food is made from commercially grown mustard, in particular the seeds of the mustard plant.
But there is nothing stopping us from using the wild mustard for the same purpose.
You can find wild mustard in the boarders of meadows, fields, domestic gardens, waste grounds, field hedges and shrublands.
What to pick
- leaves
- flowers
- seeds
notes
harvest from March to August
how to use
- young leaves to add to salads
- mature leaves to cook as leafy vegetables
- fresh yellow flowers to add to salads
- seeds to dry and then prepare into homemade mustard or sprouted and mix into a salad
Recipes
Other plants that are in season in August
Wood Sorrel, Plum, Blackberries, Blueberries, Cauliflower Fungus, Carragheen, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Chickweed, Fat Hen, Field Mushrooms, Elderberries, Crab Apples, Apples, Hazelnuts, Sheep Sorrel, Mint, Dandelion, Sea Buckthorn, Primrose, Borage, Black Mustard, Brooklime, Gooseberry, Mallow, Raspberries, Wild Cherries, Damsons, Rosemary, Rosehips, Nettles, Mulberries, Parasol Mushroom, Rowan Berries (European or American Mountain Ash).
foraging for wild food by month
- January >>
- June >>
- July >>
- August (you are reading this page)
- November>>
- December >>
Stay in touch
Hope this post inspires you and of course, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and add the hashtag #practicalfrugality so that I can see your post.
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Magdalena
This blog post was originally written on 1.8.2020 and last updated on 24.7.2022
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