IN FRUIT
Still lots of exceptional mangoes this week. Whole trays are extremely good value, perfect for the long weekend. In berries, there are a few good and well-priced raspberries in the markets, this is mostly the early NSW fruit and will not really get cheap until next month, but it is fresh good quality fruit. This week we start to transition to Western Australia for strawberries. The fruit is not as ripe as the Queensland fruit which is fast coming to the end of its season. The next month sees a small quantity of very good eating local Sydney Basin strawberries as well. All the imported grapes this week are good. The red Scarlet seedless grapes are my pick for the week. Blueberries are still great but there’s not quite as many available as in the last fortnight. For an exceptionally good eating product, we have some new season Queensland white peaches this week. It’s hard to grow fruit out of season and can only be done in areas outside our traditional stonefruit areas. These Queenslanders look like they might have worked out a different peach that will succeed and extend our Australian season with good eating fruit.
IN VEGETABLES
It's Spring and the weathers great and so are the vegetables. Read my Pick of the week, asparagus is so good and so well priced this week. Lebanese cucumbers, fennel, snacking tomatoes, even truss tomato quality is good - add a mango or two and you have a fabulous salad for the long weekend. Also, snow peas from the Sydney Basin are just fantastic this week. Look for bargains in broccolini, leeks, kale and English spinach. Corn on the cob is superb and the flood of imported garlic continues. The best capsicums now come from NZ but if you want a cheaper line look to our prepack nets of the still perfectly acceptable Australian product.
