Summer menu, step by step
Interactive lesson: how to cook from a full garden from June to August without heating the house, keep food safe in warm weather and put up preserves along the way.
Free sample Chapters 1 and 2 (8 steps) are free. The full lesson comes with the Summer menu module. Already bought? Unlock
This lesson is general guidance, not professional training. Local regulations and expert advice always take precedence. Read our disclaimer.
The whole lesson as text
1. What summer gives
Summer is the only time of year when the homestead gives more than the family can eat.
- A full garden — Garden, orchard and animals run at full capacity. The weather can be warm too, and food without a fridge spoils within hours.
- June: young vegetables — Peas, broad beans, new potatoes, lettuce, chard and spring onions. For fruit there are strawberries, gooseberries and elderflower, and plenty of eggs and milk.
- July: courgettes and beans — Courgettes, cucumbers and French beans arrive in large amounts, and tunnel tomatoes are only starting. Fruit means raspberries, currants and cherries, and the first batch of table chickens comes at the end of July.
- August: tomatoes and beans — Tomatoes, runner beans, peppers under cover and sweetcorn, with plums, blackberries and early apples. The hens lay less, and the moult begins.
Why: Courgettes, beans, peas, new potatoes, salad and fruit arrive every day. At the same time the kitchen becomes a preserving workshop. So the summer menu has to be quick, fresh and safe.
- In the south of England the season starts 1–2 weeks earlier; in the uplands and Scotland it starts later and is shorter.
- Tomatoes and peppers are reliable only under cover in most of Britain and Ireland. In US zones 6–9 they crop well outdoors, but a dry spell can stop the harvest without irrigation.
2. How much the family eats
In summer you eat more fresh vegetables and fruit, and less meat and potatoes.
- Vegetables and fruit — In summer a family of 3.1 AE eats roughly 9–10 kg of vegetables and 6–8 kg of fruit a week. That is more than the yearly average of 7 and 4.5 kg.
- Fewer potatoes, less meat — Potatoes 3–4 kg, meat 1.5 kg and flour 4 kg a week. The meat is chicken from late July and rabbit, and there is less baking in the heat.
- Eggs and milk — 13–18 eggs a week, plenty in June and fewer in August. Milk 9–12 L: soured milk and cheese are eaten every day.
- Count the water — In summer an adult needs roughly 2–3 L of fluid a day. Soured milk, whey, fruit juices and cold herb teas are part of the menu, not an extra.
Why: The yearly standards are the same, but the pattern changes. That is not a mistake: in winter it will be the other way round. The example is a family of 3.1 adult equivalents (AE).
- Work out your own figures in the summer quantity calculator in the module.
- When working in the sun, an adult needs even more than 2–3 L of fluid a day.
3. Cooking without heating the house · Locked
When you buy the Summer menu module, you get the PDF to download and print and lasting access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
4. Food in the heat · Locked
When you buy the Summer menu module, you get the PDF to download and print and lasting access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
5. When something comes in all at once · Locked
When you buy the Summer menu module, you get the PDF to download and print and lasting access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
6. Preserving day · Locked
When you buy the Summer menu module, you get the PDF to download and print and lasting access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.