DAVE'S PICK OF THE WEEK 

This is turning out to be a difficult week for most vegetables. The one bright spot is eggplant; fortunately, there is lots of it in the markets. Most of our supply is coming from glasshouses in the Sydney basin with a small top up from Victoria. Most premium eggplant now comes from glasshouses, not field grown, as in the past. The varieties have changed and we no longer have the seedy fruit of old.

I love grilling eggplant on the barby in summer. I slice the eggplant and coat in olive oil and salt. I then grill some sliced tomatoes. After one side of the eggplant is cooked, I turn them over and put a slice of tomato on each piece. I then put a slice of our fabulous Shaw River Mozzarella on the tomato and when it starts to melt add a basil leaf. It's a real taste treat. Eggplant is high in fibre, antioxidants and a great carrier of flavour!

DAVE'S MARKET UPDATE

 

More of the same this week. Berries in all growing areas are struggling with the weather, while our supplies of avocado and mangoes are both fantastic. Our KPs are now all from the Katherine area, and are eating superbly. Next week, we expect there will be even more fruit, and riper ones at that. The trick this week is to hang on to the available fruit, which has slightly less colour than we would prefer to have in store. My tip: stick with KPs for the best eating experience. There are a few more bananas available, and I would expect to see prices ease over the next week. Papaya and all apples remain well supplied, great quality and reasonably priced. Our apple we are promoting this week are Kanzi's; a great eating apple. 

 

This week, look for bargains in truss tomatoes. It is extremely uncommon to see truss so much cheaper than our gourmet tomatoes, however that is the case right now! Premium glasshouse eggplant is the other bargain in stores this week, and is half last weeks price. Imperfect kumera is cheap; caulies, Iceberg lettuce, Dutch carrots and asparagus all continue to be great value. We are finally seeing corn ease back, as we move to later crops, and I feel confident it will be on our specials list by next week. Cucumbers have also eased in price. Put the in season lettuce, cucumbers and truss tomatoes to good use in salads as the weather warms up!

– David Harris