Dave's Market Update 16.09.2014

Carlo here (head buyer) sitting in for David Harris who is on holidays for a few weeks.

IN FRUIT

The high volume of berries currently available can be directly attributed to the burst of warm spring weather. Strawberries, mulberries and blueberries are all tremendous quality and value this week . Yellow honeydew melon from the Ord river near Kununurra in Western Australia are available in good numbers and at prices not often seen. A wonderfully sweet and refreshing fruit I reckon yellow honeydew should be on your to try list for this week. A big thank you for your support for our imperfect picks campaign launched last Tuesday. Our motivation for the campaign is to address the serious issue of food wastage in Australia. The campaign centred around produce which is perfectly fresh however has some imperfections caused by mother nature at a great low price has been warmly received by our customers. Some of the highlights in the imperfect picks range this week include strawberries and eggplant. The strawberries are a terrific sweet fruit but smaller and slightly misshapen- perfectly good and cheap! Eggplant is another highlight, despite a couple of skin imperfections, they are tender with little or no seeds and still perfectly delicious.

IN VEGETABLE

As good as it gets is the best way to describe the veg business this week. Overall quality is impressive and there is some excellent value to be had across a wide variety of products. Mainstream lines such as cauliflower, beans, snow peas, cabbage, zucchinis, capsicums, celery, English spinach and kale are all well supplied. Some other products that need special mention are broad beans, Desiree potatoes and asparagus. The cold winter means the broad beans are a little later than usual but have now hit the market in a major way. Our main source of supply is from Swan Hill in Victoria and the quality is magnificent. The flavour of the Swan Hill broad beans are unbelievable so be sure to add them to you shopping list. Desiree potatoes from the fertile soils of Virginia in South Australia are my favourite potato. A very versatile rich yellow flesh potato, Desiree's make the most delicious gnocchi. Australian asparagus is available in strong numbers with the prices and quality both excellent. Gourmet tomatoes from Bowen in North Queensland which have been very expensive for some time are now starting to ease significantly.