​From pavement plums to canal-side berries, recipes that celebrate summer

As I sit at my desk, my eyes keep straying towards the fig tree outside, checking for any fruit that might have ripened since yesterday, or this morning, or whenever I last checked on the situation. Frankly, it’s difficult to keep track, but the anxiety of allowing even one precious orb to drop sadly to the ground is ever-present. A decade ago, this tree was more of a stubby, barren bush. For a while, as it expanded its territory, it fruited occasionally, a pallid afterthought once the leaves had yellowed and dropped, but this year the tree has grown vast, and the fruit with it.

Big as squash balls, split with the effort of growth, they started ripening in June and, although I don’t want to sound ungrateful, it’s more figs than one person should probably consume at once, so I’ve been trying to preserve them for when such worries are but a distant memory: Nigel Slater’s roast figs with fig ice-cream uses a good few handfuls, as do Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s almond and fig tart and Joe Trivelli’s steamed fig and walnut pudding (pictured top). Though then, of course, I need to find people to help eat those, too. Lillie O’Brien’s fig and earl grey jam, however, can sit happily on the shelf, ready to bring a taste of summer to my toast when the fig’s glory days are but a sunny memory.

But you don’t have to be lucky enough to have a garden to find yourself inundated by fruit this summer; the slower pace dictated by the whims of an elderly terrier has opened my eyes to the abundance of the stuff freely available in my part of north London. There’s a bunch of purplish grapes hanging over a garden wall in the estate across the road (not that I’d help myself), the trees on the street where I used to live are already heavy with scarlet rowan berries (which, paired with the rosehips in the plant flowerbeds, would make a lovely jelly), and the elderberries that grow by the canal are almost over – time is running out to make Andy Hamilton’s elderberry liqueur.

My focus, however, has been on the various plums splattered on the pavements – not the big sweet victorias and greengages of the farmers’ market, but the small, reddish cherry plums that need cooking to bring out their acidic fruitiness. Forager John Wright suggests making wine with them. Readers have also offered up ideas: Mary Tobin endorses wild plum jam, and Geoff Warbuton has a lovely-looking gluten-free lemon and polenta cake I’m dying to try – once I’ve finished with the figs, that is. For sweeter, commercial varieties, I’ve bookmarked Meera Sodha’s Hyderabadi chicken with kofta with plums and Rosie Reynolds’ Lancashire cheese and plum salad (both found here), and maybe I’ll make Benjamina Ebuehi’s plum and brown butter cake. Though, of course, there are still the figs in the fridge.

Even the wild blackberries have come early this year, so enjoy these tight, glossy fruits (so much more interesting than their cultivated cousins) in Nathan Woodhead’s margarita-like blackberry and tequila tommy, while you fire up the grill to accompany Suzanne Anderegg’s quick blackberry barbecue sauce. Preserve any excess with Yotam Ottolenghi’s pickled version, which he suggests serving with duck or tossed through a stone-fruit salad. Actually, now that I come to think of it, that would probably work with figs, too.

Lunch of the week | I spent a weekend at Wilderness festival, talking about my new book, and interviewing Felicity Spector and Jimi Famurewa about theirs. Two exceptions to the otherwise bang-average food were the gorgeous fried egg and chorizo rolls my friend Caroline made us for breakfast at the campsite, and the lunch we had from Skye’s Café Cùil – tattie scone tacos with slow-cooked pork shoulder, crab rolls and a bloody mary with a slug of Buckfast that, as the designated driver home, I had to content myself with a mere envious sip of.

A moving read | The UN’s World Food Programme estimates that 1.9 million people are in the grip of famine – in Gaza and Sudan, but also in Haiti and Mali. Along with a group of writers and authors, including Feast’s own Rukmini Iyer, I’ve been taking part in a rolling fast to raise money for the Sameer Project, a Palestinian-run programme delivering aid in Gaza while aid organisations struggle to get food into the territory. Someone else in the group alerted us to this powerful essay on hunger by a Gazan writer, translator and researcher named Alaa Alqaisi. It’s worth a read to remind us how lucky we are to have gluts of anything.

Turning a new leaf | Even without the current backdrop, when you test recipes for a living, it’s easy to feel oppressed by leftover ingredients. Having bought an iceberg lettuce for fish finger sandwiches last week, I was at a loss as to how to finish it. If I’d had prawns in the freezer, I would have made a cocktail, but then I found Red House Spice’s recipe for blanched lettuce with oyster sauce. Not only did it use up half a head in one fell garlicky swoop, it reminded me that, actually, most kinds of lettuce are much nicer cooked.

Getting the chop | I have an ever-changing camping kit list – for instance, when north of Paris, always take a woolly hat – but I triumphed this week with the impulse purchase of a sturdy container with a wooden chopping board for a lid. It’s going to be perfect for storing a saucisson and some cheese on the road. Now to dry out the tent ready for the next adventure.

Locatelli at the National Gallery, London | ​“The National Gallery, especially in summer, is a far cry from Locatelli’s much-famed, Michelin-starred restaurant Locanda Locatelli,” writes Grace Dent. But what it lacks in ambience it makes up for in convenience (it’s a handy spot to meet friends) and quality (“the lunch menu is a million times more interesting than the usual museum or gallery scones and sandwich fare”). Think piping hot fritto misto, fresh pasta, or pot-roast chicken with polenta. “Someone is actually cooking here, not cynically heating things up for tourists,” writes Grace. Read the full review.