Dave's Market Update - 05.08.2014

IN FRUIT

My pick this week is blood oranges. Everything is in perfect alignment for bloods with quality flavour and price all excellent making them an absolute must for this week's shopping list. August typically signals the beginning of the Queensland strawberry flush. Strawberries are excellent value and quality. We are currently only sourcing the Queensland strawberries as they are far superior in eating to some of the Western Australia fruit in the market. North coast Blueberries continue to get better, with good numbers and plenty of chill hours the fruit is eating superbly. Finally the cool temperatures in the banana growing areas has affected the supply and appearance of bananas. The result of the conditions is that bananas have lost their bloom giving the fruit a dull appearance. Rest assured the fruit is eating as good as ever as the issue is purely aesthetic.

IN VEGETABLE

The pick this week in vegetables is broccolini. A cross between broccoli and Chinese kale, one of the features of broccolini is that the entire product can be consumed even the stems are sweet. A wonderfully versatile product that suits many different styles of cooking, broccolini is on special at a great price at all Harris Farm Market stores. Increased volumes of red capsicums and black zucchini has caused the market to ease considerably. Black zucchini in particular are less than half the previous weeks price, coming from North Queensland the quality doesn't get much better. Legumes, eggplant, Lebanese cucumbers, cauliflower, parsnips, broccoli, cabbages and corn continue to be difficult to procure. The highlights in the tomato category this week are cherry and grape tomatoes which have great flavour. Keep an eye out for the Roma tomatoes. The Roma tomatoes presently in stores are from Bowen which are some of the finest Australia produces.