Dave's Market Update

In Veg

"A lot more veg in the markets this week. Broccoli and broccolini are fast easing as increased supply from Qld hits the market. Celery, cauliflowers and fennel are all fantastic quality and also easing in price. 

We have a particularly good line of imperfect zucchini in all our stores, they are very close in quality to the premium line, in fact perhaps better than some of the supermarket premium lines I have seen.

Also good news coming from the tomato category. Although truss are quite expensive we are seeing some very good glasshouse Romas this week and unusually for this time of the year good quality and inexpensive snacking tomatoes, every store will have a snacking tomato on special by the weekend."

- David Harris 

In Fruit

"This week we change over our avocadoes to the G Max variety. we have found them to be more reliable than the new season Hass variety. A word of caution though they do ripen extremely quickly. New season Qld strawberries are now well underway and will ease in price over the next couple of weeks weather permitting.

We have some very good green kiwi in the stores this week and the price is coming back every week. There is a stunning line of imperfect navels in our stores this week, they are only imperfect because they are a bit bigger than the market prefers. 

By this weekend we will have good, well priced nets of passionfruit available again. Sydney stores have excellent quality drinking coconuts for sale at an excellent price. Mandarins and apples continue to be great value also."

- David Harris

 

Dave's Pick of the Week - "Imperfect Black Zucchini"

"Zucchini is an extremely versatile vegetable and can be eaten cooked or raw. In our house we sometimes slice them thinly into ribbons with a mandoline and put them in lemon juice and olive oil salt and garlic, which cooks them nicely.

They grow very quickly especially in warm weather with rain, so picking them can be a daily task. Miss a day and they end up in our Imperfect stack, miss a week and they can be a metre long! Ideally they should be 10 to 14 centimetres long. This size will be tender and flavoursome. Much smaller is not desirable either.

At this time of the year there is still some from local growers, however the cooler nights mean we start to look to Queensland, areas such as Bundaberg in central Queensland. Often our Imperfect zucchini are incredible value and right now is one of those times. They have halved in price since last week so take advantage of this bargain.

HOW TO PICK
In premium fruit you would normally look for zucchini that's around 10 to 14 centimetres in length and still relatively thin. Most of the imperfects are somewhat larger. The zucchini should feel heavy for its size. The skin should be dark green and smooth and free of blemishes. If the skin looks slightly shrivelled, it likely wasn't picked fresh.

HOW TO STORE
Store zucchini in the fridge, whole, dry and unwashed. Store them in a paper bag with one end open to encourage air circulation and pop them in the refrigerator crisper drawer. They'll keep there for 1 week or more, though you'll probably see the skin start to shrivel over time."

- David Harris 

 

Recipe Inspo