IN FRUIT
Navel oranges and new season Queensland strawberries are the good news this week. The Navels are now sweeter and are very good value in our stores this week. Queensland looks set to have the biggest strawberry season yet, weather permitting. Strawberries love cool nights and warm days and that’s exactly what’s happening in the growing areas now. Hass avocados continue to be good and good value, and red grapes are still a bargain but don’t have all that long to go. All melons are good and inexpensive and we are seeing the first of the imported stonefruit in store this week. It’s dear, but with dry weather in the USA it’s a far better product than we had last year.
IN VEGETABLES
A lot of lines are tightening up this week as cooler conditions slow down the growth of our vegetable crops. So very few lines are as inexpensive as they have been. Celery, fennel, sweet potato, kumera and Chinese cabbage are all however much the same. As mentioned in my Pick of the Week, the vegetable bargains for this week are in our basket of Tasmanian produce, consisting of Nicola potatoes, brown onions and French eschallots. Again, snacking tomatoes are saving the day in the tomato category and all our stores have either Sampari or yellow snacking tomatoes available at a great price.
