What a terrible week of weather it has been! Torrential rain coupled with extreme humidity is an undesirable combination in our industry, as inevitably it leads to quality issues. The main sore spots this week are leafy vegetables, herbs, salad mixes, broccoli, lettuce, strawberries, mushrooms, chokoes, and all cabbage varieties. Other vegetables in short supply include beans, sweet potatoes and leeks.

Some better news on the vegetable front is that those excellent eating Grape tomatoes have come down fairly significantly in price and are an excellent alternative to Cherry tomatoes which are more expensive. Snow peas represent the best value for money out of all the legumes. A welcome relief is the avocado quantities are starting to increase in volumes so expect the prices to ease over the next few weeks. Quantity of leeks are building up and prices are keen so be sure to add these to your shopping list.

Two of the major events on the Harris Farm Markets calendar are Valentines Day and Chinese New Year, and this year they both fall Sunday 14th February. Unfortunately berry quality is not what we would like for Valentines Day. In particular, the quality of strawberries is below expectation. Eating quality is fine but shelf life is limited so buy them daily.

Better news for Chinese New Year. Large nectarines and peaches (both yellow and white flesh), dragon fruit, ya pears, lychees, Seedless watermelon, large Navel oranges, Teegan blue plums and Tasmanian cherries are all in good supply.