IN FRUIT
May is a fantastic month for red seedless grapes. All other varieties have been picked some weeks earlier and put in storage, whereas the red seedless are being picked, fresh right now and rushed to market daily. The intense heat in February and March has made the normal red colour of these grapes have very hard to achieve - they’re pale at best or even white in many instances but the fruit is mature, sweet and really good value. A lot of the paler fruit is being put in bags, while the premium priced loose fruit is the coloured lines. You can’t taste the difference. Avocadoes are now mostly the Hass variety which go black on the skin as they ripen. Similar to the red seedless grapes in terms of freshness are Pink Lady apples. Now at their very best, they’re still being picked in some areas. Other popular good eating fruit includes mandarins and strawberries and although prices have not retreated yet we are hearing about a bumper crop of Australian blueberries and expect huge volumes of fruit in July. In the next couple of weeks we will see local Australian navel oranges get underway. Apples, grapes and mandarins are the pick of the fruit at the moment.
IN VEGETABLE
Not a lot of news on the vegetable front. All the quality is good with attractive prices on all pumpkins, better supplies of potatoes and a great improvement in English spinach. Don’t miss our loose brown onion special in all stores this week. They’re a most versatile vegetable and I have not seen this price often in the last 10 years - it can’t last! Finally our tomato bargain of the week is mini Romas - sold in punnets, they’re great value.
