IN FRUIT
More than ever this week I recommend switching away from strawberries to blueberries. The blues are well priced, great flavour and at their best, as opposed to strawberries which now are right at the end of their Queensland season. Over the next week we will get good supplies from Western Australia and the few remaining local growers in the Sydney basin. Both these options will be considerably better than the Queensland fruit but will be dearer. My advice is to seek out this fruit and pay the difference, or stick with blueberries. We are also able to supply mulberries for the next few weeks. There are very few growers of these and some days we will have them and on other days we won’t, a truly seasonal fruit. There are more bananas arriving in the market and prices have started to or will ease over the next few weeks. There are lots of good avocados getting underway from down south and soon Western Australia. Mangoes have taken a bit of a hit with totally unseasonal rain in Darwin this week disrupting the picking up north. We are supposed to still be in the dry season. An interesting option at this time of the year is the TPP mangoes, sweet eating, and all round good value. Of course still plenty of imported grapes, apples from Australia and kiwi from NZ to fill the fruit basket this week.
Although the weather is quite cool, the spring vegies are really coming on strongly this week. A delightful change has been with Portabello and Swiss brown mushrooms. Normally the most expensive in our mushroom range, this week they will be no dearer or even considerably cheaper than our standard cup or flat mushrooms. These mushrooms are definitely the best eating of the lot, however as lots of people are not familiar with them and they have a brown colour where tradition insists the best mushrooms are snow white they are not easy to retail. Green beans are fantastic again and rhubarb sales, given the cheap price and great quality have gone through the roof. Lettuce, zucchini, pumpkin and broccoli and broccolini are all cheap and good too. As always at this time of the year potatoes are dearer but there are lots of great options.
