IN FRUIT:
It's May this week and May is when we look for Queensland Imperial mandarins. This year does not look to be a great year for this variety of mandarins, there is a lot of dry fruit on the market. Some brands are better than others, but it wont be a fantastic year. May is also the time we farewell the imported Navel oranges and commence with Australian fruit and we have very good new season fruit in store this week.
Mangoes are finished for the season but plenty on the way from late August onwards. The glut of good quality bananas will continue this week and if you are lucky enough to have your kids at school they may be a better option than mandarins this week cheap and good. For plums I am picking Flavor falls this week. Red seedless are the pick of the grapes and we have moved from Williams pears to Packhams now, you need to buy a little ahead with these as they are far slower to ripen than the Williams we have been enjoying. In apples, we have started a fantastic line of new season pink Lady apples; really good fruit and really good value. Finally with avocadoes, there are now the black Hass variety available in many stores but for me the greenskin Sheppard variety are still the best to eat!
IN VEG:
Again vegetables are easing in price. This week sees coriander, some varieties of snacking tomatoes, Celery, Chinese cabbage, Fennel, pre-packed lines of Kestrel potatoes, and spinach are all cheaper than last week. Broccoli and broccolini are both very good value as are mushrooms. Jap pumpkin, and imperfect kumara also continue to be cheap. Lots of very good options as we start to source our vegetables from further North in Queensland where growing conditions especially the water supply have been excellent.