A Better Choice For Freshness

We are spoilt for choice with fruit and vegetable offerings at your local fruit and veg shops this week. Now is a great time to get into the kitchen and try out new recipes with the season’s peak produce. 

You can’t go past luscious R2E2 mangoes from Bowen. They are sweet, juicy and full of robust flavour. Store your mangoes at room temperature, out of the sun to ripen.

A wide range of berries are available this week with Victorian strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries from northern New South Wales all good eating. Throw them in a smoothie, complement breakfast oats or brighten up lunchboxes. Every day is a ‘berry’ good day!

Spring into your local fruit shop to pick up some mouth-watering stone fruit as there are plentiful supplies of nectarines and peaches from New South Wales and Queensland, whereas plums have also arrived in stores from Kumbia.

Cherries are at the start of the season arriving from Victoria and New South Wales. More volume will follow as the season gains momentum. For a taste of the tropics, try dragonfruit currently from Northern Territory and Panama passionfruit from North Queensland. Other fruity standouts include sweet watermelons, rockmelons, pawpaws, pineapples and Lady Finger bananas from New South Wales. Throw them together in a fruit salad.

Your best buys this week in vegetables are the beautiful eggplant and zucchini from Bundaberg, both are well supplied in excellent quality. Victorian-grown baby broccoli and asparagus are great value right now. Sautéed with olive oil, they both make a quick side dish and complement mains such as roasts, chicken, fish or pasta. 

The shelves of your local fruit and veg shop are overflowing with many tomato varieties, particularly truss, gourmet, cherry, and medley mix varieties. All are in good supply and represent great value for flavour and money. 

Why not whip up a stir-fry dinner? Think beetroot, carrots, cabbage, celery, spring onions, green beans and broccoli as they are in abundance. 

For light spring salads, we recommend lettuce, spinach, kale along with crunchy radish and Lebanese cucumbers as they are in season and arriving in superior quality. In short supply is capsicum, snow peas and corn.

This week’s top pick is the delicious apricot from Victoria and South Australia. This bright, juicy, fragrant fruit can be enjoyed on its own, used in savoury dishes or desserts. Choose apricots that are firm but not hard. Allow them to ripen at room temperature; however, once ripe store them in the refrigerator. Impress your guests, grill halved apricots (seed removed) and serve topped with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream and torn fresh mint leaves. Easy!

– Produce report supplied by Brismark

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