Make your weekend a whole lot tastier with a great selection of fresh Aussie fruit and vegetables arriving at your local fruit and veg shop this week. So, get ready to fire up the barbie, whip up a pavlova and sip on a cold glass of fruit punch.
For mouth-watering pavlova toppings, we recommend Kensington Pride mangoes, Panama passionfruit from North Queensland, Tasmanian cherries and Queensland figs as they all present well and are in good quality and supply.
Planning a trip to the beach with kids? Beat the heat with a refreshing grape punch as both red and green seedless grapes are fantastic eating at the moment. Apples, pears, lychees and dragon fruit are well-supplied and add a colourful element to cheese and grazing platers. In dragon fruit, look out for the sweet eating pink champagne variety coming from the Sunshine Coast.
Peaches from Victoria and South Australia, smooth fleshed nectarines, velvety apricots, sweet and juicy plums, Cavendish bananas from Nerada and local limes are all in good supply and great eating this week. Juicy watermelon and rockmelon are consistently in supply too, whereas both strawberries and blueberries are in short supply.
Keen to try something different? Try rambutan! Entering in peak season this tropical fruit is marked by its signature bold red colour and bristly spines. Belonging to the lychee family, the sweet and floral flavour of rambutan makes it ideal for eating raw as a snack and many use it as a palate cleanser.
In vegies, Stanthorpe is producing many of our stand-outs this week such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, silverbeet and wombok. After being in low supply for a while these vegies are picking up, as supplies are also arriving from Victoria.
Bulk up your favourite summer salads with a range of leafy greens that are in good supply including spinach, kale, rocket, lettuce and bok choy. Barbecues will benefit from plentiful supplies of tomatoes and corn from the Stanthorpe and Bundaberg regions, respectively.
Onions from Gatton, sweet potatoes from Bundaberg and pumpkins from the Lockyer Valley are all good options to stock up your pantry, ready for your next vegie roast. The best quality buys this week for vegetables are celery, green beans, eggplants, Lebanese cucumbers and zucchini from Lowood.
This week’s top pick is the king of fruit – pineapple, currently arriving from Mareeba in large and small sizes. They are perfect for an Aussie Day barbecue served hot on a grilled burger, in summer drinks or juicy fruit salads. Choose pineapples that feel heavy for their size, have fresh-looking leaves and smell the bottom of the pineapple to gauge its level of sweetness. While pineapples are available all year round, its peak season is from January to July.
– Produce report supplied by Brismark