Market Reports
April 2018
April 2018 - Fruit and Vegetables Market Report
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.
