IN FRUIT
I had a relook at our imperfect offerings this week and saw some really good options. The Valencia oranges, most unattractive with their very green skin, are incredible - I hate to say it but probably thinner skinned, juicier and sweeter than the premium fruit. There are now a lot of Gala apples around and so anything not perfect and blemish free is there for the taking. A very difficult set of growing conditions in Victoria mean that a large proportion of their pears will be dumped as our canning capabilities are greatly diminished, so we have lots of choices for imperfect pears. My pick of the week this week is Golden Queen peaches and James our peach buyer tells me he has an absolutely stunning eating line of these in the imperfect offer this week. Seedless watermelon, rockmelons, bananas, all grapes and limes are all great value. Both Reeds and Hass avocados are back even more this week as everyone tries to clear the decks of this old season fruit before the new season Queensland green skins start. In mangoes, Palmers are the predominant variety this week and a ripe Palmer is a good piece of fruit. That said, this weekend we will have some way out of season KPs that come from Mildura, hardly the mango growing capital of Australia. No guarantees how long they will be instore, enjoy them whilst you can. We don’t usually promote imported fruit but as our local kiwi season is still some time away the Italian fruit is cheap and good. Finally my plum of the week is definitely Tegan Blues... sweet, juicy and not dear. More new apples every day now. I just love those red Jonathons from Bilpin.
IN VEGETABLE
Snow peas and beautiful hand picked beans are the best value vegetable options this week. Both are approximately half the price they were last week and (as is often the way) as they get cheaper the quality just gets better. In southern and central Queensland, our kumera farmers are at last able to dig again and so the price here is now substantially cheaper than a week ago. For something different, Chinese cabbage is way back in price and greater supply of twin pack Cos lettuce has brought the price of this product way back. Lots of options out there in our stores.
