Dave's Market Update - 15.04.2014

IN FRUIT

We have two weeks now with fewer trading days. This makes growers nervous and shortages of stock often occur during these holiday periods for no good reason. At this stage all is well. That said lemons, which are always in high demand for Easter, are very short in supply and prices will be high. Limes are however somewhat cheaper than lemons and we would recommend you substitute limes for lemons. As well and from the same area Imperial mandarins are in full swing now and eating fantastically. I recommend buying a box for the Easter break. Other fruit really selling well include all the apples except the Fuji’s and we have our last hurrah for the mango season with a line of particularly good Brooks mangoes. Our advice on these is do the squeeze test for ripeness, you cannot tell by looking at the fruit. It is always green with a touch of yellow. Softer fruit will be riper. This is a great week for chestnuts - great fun over the Easter break. There are some very good eating large rockmelons available but they are not keeping all that well - buy them and eat them, don’t put them away for four or five days.

IN VEGETABLE

In vegies, cooler weather and rain in some areas has slowed the growth of many products. However and honey snaps are still very cheap. Cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini are all a bargain and as always at Easter dill and coriander will be a little short due to very high demand. I am happy to say all our asparagus and baby asparagus will be Australian grown this week. We are now on the last of our Shepard avocados. They are still better eating than Hass but they ripen very, very quickly. As soon as they have some give to them put them in the fridge.