The cold weather we have had up until recently has delayed all crops, but things are beginning to get back to normal.
Wild garlic season is now in full flow, and we will be running a special price throughout April and May. It’s local, it’s seasonal, and it’s at a great price so fill your boots!
The first lot of English asparagus is with us, still quite expensive but by the end of the month/early May, it will be the right time to add it to menus. Like last year our asparagus will be coming from Norfolk county farms – always a top quality grower. French white grass is a particularly wonderful but expensive treat at the moment.
Jersey royal mids are also now available with Cornish mids starting shortly too. Cauliflowers are great value at the moment and should remain so for a while, courgettes and even yellow courgettes are also down in price. Spring greens as the name suggest are excellent at the moment and great value too. Purple sprouting broccoli is as good as I’ve seen it and white sprouting broccoli is available also. Black cabbage, on the other hand, has got very expensive, so we are giving it a miss for a while.  Early peas and broad beans from Italy and Spain are small sweet and very lovely. We expect the first English crops late May/early June. Later than usual, our fresh, UK grown nettles are back.
Wet garlic from Egypt is excellent and new season bunched grelot onions perfect for a spring menu. Heritage tomatoes have been with us throughout winter but are now beginning to add flavour to the amazing array of colour. Another visual feast back in stock are those multicoloured rainbow radishes.
On the mushroom front, morels are beginning to come down in price and look amazing, and St George mushrooms have also started just in time for St Georges day on the 23rd. Strawberries and raspberries from Spain are particularly good value currently, but we expect a price rise as we slowly switch to Dutch/Belgium growers. Stone fruit is coming through quite nicely, in particular, the yellow plums from South Africa.
Alphonso mangoes season is underway and should be with us until the end of June. Yorkshire forced rhubarb is now finished (we’ve moved on to the outdoor crop), and we are coming to the end of the Italian blood orange season too, unfortunately.
Dry goods wise we have butter beans, cannellini beans, borlotti beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas and lentils all in small tins. Couscous is available in 1kg bags as well as a wild rice mix and various types of quinoa. As well as pesto and sunblushed tomatoes, we now have roasted peppers, aubergines and courgettes in oil.  We also have all kinds of eggs: free-range chicken eggs, duck eggs and quails eggs.
Also wanted to mention all the frozen fruit and veg we stock, especially our frozen berries. Our mixed wild berry is particularly popular and excellent quality.

Happy New Year Everybody!
Just before Christmas, we had the first arrival of our favourite blood oranges. The season is now in full swing with the darker varieties coming through. Grab these while you can, they should be available until the end of March.
Equally, as impressive and available for a short period is Yorkshire forced rhubarb, beautifully soft and pink a real seasonal delight. It’s only around for a couple of months so don’t miss out.
As well as the sanguinello oranges mentioned above, Seville oranges will be in stock for a few weeks if you fancy making some marmalade. Sticking with the citrus, leafy Italian clementines are the best bet for easy peelers. Lemons and limes seem to be easing in price.
Prices, in general, have started to fall now across many lines. As long as we don’t get any major weather shocks/frosts etc we expect prices to remain steady throughout January. This includes all the main lines from Spain: aubergines, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. Potato prices too seem quite stable for the time of year.
On the veg side of things, Jerusalem artichokes are nice and big now, celeriac, kohlrabi, leeks, parsnips and turnips are at their best. Cauliflowers of all colours are in splendid nick, romanesco too. Broccoli, purple sprouting and cima di rape (turnip tops) all great. As usual, at this time of year, French large leaf spinach is a little expensive – kale both green and red are great alternatives. Cabbages are a must, cavalo nero, savoy, hispi and the appropriately named January king being the best of the lot.
On the salad front – red and white chicory are fantastic choices as are all of the radicchios my favourites being pink raddichio and the beautiful castel franco. Pre-packed in 500g packets we have roquette, bull’s blood, red chard and the underused baby kale – ready to go with no prepping!English braeburns are still the pick of the apples, pears are more difficult – comice have now finished – Spanish strawberries are surprisingly tasty and good value – apricots, peaches, nectarines and golden kiwi pretty good too. Micro cresses are as popular as ever. Edible flowers especially seem to be appearing everywhere even in my drinks!
Just a reminder of all the dry goods we sell too, which include all types of tinned and dry beans, nuts, rice, olive oil, vinegar, sauces, eggs, dairy, cooking wine and even blue kitchen rolls!

Spring has finally sprung, and as you can see from the photo, wild garlic is taking centre stage. Our forager has been hard at work harvesting this beautiful local crop, so rest assured you are getting it as fresh as can be. They can be eaten raw or wilted like spinach, and they make a great pesto alternative. They will be around until June but are at their best now when the leaves are young. He will also be supplying us with sea beet and sea purslane.
The first of the English asparagus has started, it’s a bit expensive at the moment, but we expect the price to be more affordable after Easter. We mainly source it from Norfolk and will have green, purple and white varieties this year. Also available are the first jersey royal mids, but once again quite pricey to start with but prices will ease next month.
Cauliflowers are great value at the moment and should remain so for a while, courgettes and even yellow courgettes are also down in price.  Spring greens, purple sprouting broccoli and English watercress are coming through great now too. Fresh nettles have also started.
We have fresh peas and broad beans and beautiful stem baby artichokes from Italy and Spain. Kohlrabi and all types of radishes, breakfast and heritage equally nice at the moment.
All salads have started to fall in price, and as the weather gets warmer, the quality should improve too. Try adding baby kale to your salad mix. This superfood comes in ready to go bags and has many reported health benefits.
Unfortunately, the price of avocados is set to rise again, a victim of its own success.  Expect prices to remain high until at least May.
There is also upward pressure on all citrus fruits especially limes. Blood oranges are bucking this trend so should be enjoyed before the season ends.
Fruit wise, peaches and nectarines should be avoided. Plums are a great option, though.
Strawberries are still good value from Spain, English and Dutch have started, and we will be switching to these soon. All other berries are reasonable priced. Melons are also great, Piel de Sapo, the pick of the bunch. There are also some beautiful South African black figs available. On the apple front: braeburns are the best bet; unfortunately, our comice pears are now finished, conference the next best thing.                                                                                On the dry goods front, we have butter beans, cannellini beans, borlotti beans, red kidney beans, chick peas and lentils. All in small tins. Cous cous is available in 1kg bags as well as a wild rice mix and various types of quinoa. On top of the pesto and sun blushed tomatoes we now have roasted peppers, aubergines and courgettes in oil too.  We also have all kinds of eggs available: free range chicken eggs, duck eggs and quails eggs.
 Don’t forget Easter coming up and that we are closed bank holiday Monday!

It hasn’t been the best of starts to 2017 in the fruit and veg world.
I’m sure your aware as it has been heavily reported on TV and in the newspapers, bad weather in Europe (Spain and Italy mainly) have caused shortages in many products that we get from there at this time of year. I have never known prices at the levels they are currently and unfortunately it looks set to continue for a while yet. It’s mainly affecting salads, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and yes COURGETTES.
While we are doing our best to search alternative areas for these products, it is proving difficult, and our main focus is keeping the quality high.
The best advice we can give at the moment is to plan your menus carefully. There is plenty of produce available out there that hasn’t been affected so much.Cauliflowers, cabbages (January King is great), leeks, kale, beans, swiss chard, mange tout and sugar snaps remain well priced. Kalettes are becoming ever more popular. For those who don’t know they are a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts and do not need any prep! Root vegetables too are unaffected, and butternut squash and Jerusalem artichokes are beautiful at the moment. There is a wide range of mushroom available, like flat, portobello, chestnut and mixed cultivated. Fennel, chicory and radicchio are ideal for salads and perhaps shifting to things like lollo biondo, rosso and batavia rather than the expensive and not so exciting iceberg is the way to go. Our ready mixed salads have not changed price either.
Still available from Italy despite the weather are all the various types of radicchio including the beautiful castel franco and tardivo. Cima di rapa (turnip tops – like a wild broccoli) is a seasonal favourite and should not be overlooked when looking for something green to put on the plate.
As you can see from the photo blood oranges take centre stage this month. Grown on the slopes of Mount Etna they have a unique flavour. The early arrivals were quite pale in colour, but they are now coming through with a lovely red tinge. Later in the month, this will change to the full blood colour of the sanguinello and moro varieties. Marmalade makers will also know Seville oranges are in season. Order these now if you need as they are only around for a few weeks.
Forced English rhubarb has now started, wonderfully pink and thanks to the fact it is grown down a mine, is unaffected by the weather. A seasonal delight!. English Braeburn apples and conference pears are also readily available and in their prime now. Spanish strawberries are sweet and low in price, and clementines are all but finished, so we have now moved on to nardacots. From further afield, lychees are great at the moment too.
Lastly don’t forget all the dry goods that we stock, as well as dairy and eggs. We have all sorts of rice, quinoa, lentils, beans and chickpeas. Sundried and sun blushed tomatoes are always popular, and we have pesto sauce in 1litre tubs available at a special price of £5.99 at the moment.
Dates for your diary, Valentines Day (14 Feb), Pancake Day (28 Feb).
Don’t forget your lemons!

There is plenty to look forward to this month with home grown produce being the stars of the show. 
Taking centre stage has to be the wonderful asparagus. These delicious spears are now arriving in greater quantities and as such the prices are now at more sensible levels. Available in green, purple and white varieties our favourite by far being that grown in Norfolk at Prestwood farm.
Jersey Royal potatoes are another highlight this month – wonderful when cooked simply with butter and mint – early in the season prices are high but expect them to come down by the end of the month.
Spring greens as the name suggest are excellent at the moment and great value too. Purple sprouting broccoli is as good as I’ve seen it and this year, as you can see by the main photo, white sprouting broccoli is looking great too. Wild garlic (ramsons) is still plentiful and should be around for a while yet. Rainbow chard is also now back in stock.
Our English Chalke Valley watercress is superb and really popular with our chefs, nettles on the other hand less so!
From further afield fresh peas and broad beans are arriving from Italy and Morocco. Artichokes and fennels are looking particularly splendid at the moment.
Unfortunately the season for monks beard is nearly over, but our Italian friends are now sending us over beautiful punnets of courgette flowers and datterini tomatoes.
Talking of tomatoes, we are now moving to those not so flavoursome Dutch tomatoes. The good news though is that English Nutbourne tomatoes have started again – wonderful mixed varieties in 3kg and 5kg boxes (please specify when ordering).

On the salad front – all our French leaves are coming down in price – the season for radicchio castelfranco is now over I’m afraid.
Fruit wise, forced Yorkshire rhubarb (yes, i know its a veg!), has finished and we have now moved to the outdoor crop. Blood oranges are also best forgotten until next year. Peaches and nectarines are not the best currently – so best avoided until the Moroccan crop arrives. Red blushed pears make a welcome change to the conference we’ve been selling all winter.
We had our first delivery of English strawberries  – but still a bit too early really with lots of Spanish around at great prices.
Morel mushrooms are a seasonal delight at this time of year and with St. George’s day coming up on the 23rd, why not consider putting the aptly named St. George’s mushroom on the menu.

Happy New Year everybody!
January is upon us and those poor parsnips that love the frost must be wondering what’s going on. The mild weather does have its plus points with unexpected delights like the English raspberries we received last week and the wonderful purple sprouting broccoli that just keeps getting better.
The first of the forced rhubarb from the legendary Rhubarb Triangle (an area in west Yorkshire where spades and trowels mysteriously go missing at this time of year) has arrived. It’s wonderfully pink and soft and much preferable to the greenish red outdoor variety. An absolute must!
Blood oranges are also in abundance now. The first to appear is the Tarocco variety. Grown on the slopes of mount Etna, this is not a full blood orange but makes a wonderful eating orange and contains the most vitamin C of anyorange in the world. The much bloodier Moro and Sanguinello will soon follow.
Talking of oranges, but something altogether more bitter, it’s time to get out those kilner jam jars because now is also marmalade time. The short-lived Seville orange season is now upon us so make sure you catch them while you can. Satsumas, clementines and Sicilian leafy clems are looking great. Spanish lemons are good too but even more fragrant are the unwaxed lemons that come from Amalfi. 
Our most popular English cox and braeburn apples are still going strong as are the comice and concorde pears. Berry prices have fallen from the highs we saw in December with the Egyptians finally managing to get their strawberries out despite the troubles.
As always at this time of year, salad prices are on the up. Cos, iceberg and little gem in particular. Not to worry though, as there are so many more interesting salads to choose from. Lollorosso, biondo, oak leaf, green and red batavia, frisee, bull’s blood and red mustard to name a few. Not forgetting that winter is the best time for raddicchio and chicory. On the radicchio front we have chioggia, treviso, tardivo and the beautiful castel franco. We also have white, red and baby chicory.
Tomatoes are predominately being sourced from Morocco and Spain and have been quite good so far, but by far the best flavoured tomatoes are arriving from Italy, with some fantastically coloured yellow and red cherry vine, plum and baby plum (datterini).
Root vegetables are the best value local produce at this time of year. Parsnips, piccolo parsnips, swedes, carrots, rainbow carrots, celeriac, turnips, golden, candy, cheltenham and regular beetroot. The list goes on and on. Salsify and jerusalem artichokes are also musts.
On the brassica front, green and red kale along with black and savoy cabbage are all looking great. Cima di rape, brussel tops, both green and red, swiss chard and kohlrabi are my personal favourites at the moment. Aubergines round, white and even stripy are a good change from the norm as are the long sweet peppers that are in stock now.
We have our usual mix of wild and exotic mushrooms, in particular. Why not give our king oyster mushrooms a try?
If your trying to extend the Christmas feeling don’t forget we still have vac-packed chestnuts, cranberries, pomegranates, medjool dates, agen prunes and a variety of nuts to choose from.

There’s plenty to cheer with the onset of March. Mad as it may seem the first of this year’s English asparagus is here and as always the quality is superb. We have also seen the arrival of another native delight, Jersey royal mids and ware. Now while I know you just can’t wait to get your hands on these treasures, both the asparagus and jerseys are quite pricey at the moment and my advice would be to wait until next month when the prices should ease.
Cheaper and equally as rewarding, wild garlic is now available. If there is anything that reminds me of spring then this is it and it is a must-have on menus this month. Two of last month’s joys, blood oranges and forced rhubarb are still going strong and I would say are an even better buy now.
Wet garlic has started arriving from Egypt and fresh broad beans and peas are now coming through from Morocco. Italian Barba di Frate is still available whilst the French have started sending us some truly excellent white asparagus (English growers, pull your fingers out and start growing it!) and the first of this year’s nettles.
Purple sprouting broccoli has been fantastic quality so far this year and this should continue throughout March. Cauliflowers are down in price and Romanesco is providing a nice alternative. Normally at this time of the season potato prices start to creep up but this year a good harvest has led to an oversupply and prices, if anything, are falling.
Salads are proving to be very difficult at the moment with quality on the patchy side and prices quite high. Raddicchio, cos lettuce and flat parsley seem to be suffering the most. Capsicum and cucumber prices keep fluctuating but with the onset of the Dutch growing season prices should stabilise.
On the tomato front, we have to go back to Italy to find anything flavoursome. San marzano and vine are the best choice, whilst merinda and baby san marzano are available to order. From Sardinia we have a new variety called camone with a distinctly salty flavour.
Spanish strawberries and raspberries continue to be good value. Wild strawberries have made an appearance from Spain too (48 hours notice on these). Garigueete strawberries from France have also eased in price. Melon prices are now reasonable, Moroccan charantais probably being the best bet but for those with deeper pockets we have the super, super wonderful charantais melons from the Dominican Republic (yes that’s right, doubly super!).
Other highlights this month are the fragrant alphonso mangoes (should be in stock by the time you read this), moscatel grape, baby kiwis and there are some quite pretty looking black figs around as well.
Lemons and limes continue to be inexpensive and if kumquats are your thing then now is the time to do what you do with them! What do you do with kumquats?
Dates to remember this month are Mothers’ Day on 18 March, which also happens to be Sumnel Sunday (get baking those Sumnel cakes!), British Summer Time begins on 25 March (clocks go forward an hour), and 31 March is Oranges and Lemons day… or so say the bells of St Clement’s.

February, the month of cleansing and purification has arrived with a bang. Just as we were getting used to the milder weather, snow and freezing temperatures have reminded us what winter really should be like. The good news though is, as the saying goes, if February gives much snow, a fine summer it doth foreshow.
The cold snap has unfortunately driven up the price of many items, in particular salads like lollorosso, biondo and oak leaf, with spinach suffering most of all. Italy in particular is experiencing unprecedented levels of snow throughout the country which is making distribution to the UK difficult to say the least. As a result roquette prices have increased, although the quality remains good.
Courgettes and aubergines have been expensive for some time now but cucumbers should ease as the onset of the Dutch season increases supply. The price of Kenyan french beans though cannot be blamed on the cold but rather high December rainfall followed by unusually hot weather which has resulted in limited yields. Some herbs are also experiencing shortages with basil in particular proving difficult to source.
The Saxons knew February as the ‘sprout kale‘ month so were obviously interested in seasonality even in those days. At the moment we have green and purple (black Russian) kale to choose from, while spring greens, savoy and January king cabbages are also great buys.
Purple sprouting broccoli must be the star of the month though. Be aware though that these early varieties tend not to hold their colour after cooking. Barba di frate (monk’s beard) has arrived again this year too. We are now sourcing it from several senders so prices should be keener. Cime di rape is still going strong but expect puntarelle and brussel tops to finish soon.
Rainbow chard is now no longer available. Romanesco has been looking fantastic and makes a nice alternative to cauliflower. Root vegetables are still the best bet at this time of year and our organic rainbow carrots are our greatest example. Our genuine Maris Piper chipping potatoes are also worthy of mention, especially as it’s national chip week between 20 and 26 February.
English forced rhubarb will welcome the cold weather and availability should improve as the month goes on. Blood oranges are now at their peak: dark and sumptuous and a real must buy at the moment. Seville oranges are still in stock which is just as well with national marmalade week starting on the 25 February.
Spanish strawberry season is now well under way and the quality is quite good, even though the berries are a little on the large size. All other berry fruit remains quite sensibly priced. Grapes are now coming from South Africa and have been nice. They are also sending us nectarines, peaches and apricots but they really are best avoided as the quality is poor. By comparison plums, both red and yellow, are great. English cox apples are now finishing up but there are still plenty of braeburn and russet to compensate. Bramleys for cooking are available, as always, (and yes it’s Bramley apple week from 5-12 February). European William pears are finishing up and we will shortly be moving on to cape pears.
Don’t forget to buy your loved one a rose on Valentine’s Day (14 February) ? we are eternally indebted to the humble rose as most of our fruit comes from the rose family. Also, make sure you get your lemons in for Pancake Day (21 February) and, lastly, don’t forget Kissing Friday (24 February): a long lost tradition that is surely due a revival.