Author name: Nick Ball

Every retailer has a number of favourite and tasty alternative apple varieties to the main choices on sale everywhere. A great one to look out for at the moment is Envy: a New Zealand variety, grown in UK and offering a lovely crisp texture and balanced flavour (in M&S, Sainsbury’s & Waitrose). Other retailer favourites

Blueberries: The cross-over between the Chilean and Moroccan blueberry seasons is underway. Most stores continue with late-shipped Chilean fruit, but some of this, particularly at the cheaper end of the spectrum, is mixed with unpleasantly soft berries: a pity for this wonderful fruit. Moroccan and Spanish fruit is appearing in the main retailers (seen in

Pears can look quite shabby at this time of year as they have been in storage since September and the skin becomes quite sensitive to marking. However, eating quality of the best varieties should still be fine: Abaté Fétèl, Comice, Migo and Rocha. QTee is now reappearing from South Africa as the new season starts

It’s a great time for fresh figs. Most retailers are selling South African Evita or Parisian figs which are seriously indulgent when at the right maturity (dark as possible). Waitrose sometimes has the Peruvian alternative, Toro Sentado, and there are Indian Brown Turkey figs on the market as well: both lighter and less ‘jammy’, but

Peruvian Kent is the only choice of mango at the moment. Due to sea-freighting, the variety often proves uninspiring to eat, but we are now in the latter half of the season and there are some very good, flavoursome fruit to be found. Ripe-and-ready twin-packs tend to be a good choice for quality (although you

Blood oranges are available in most stores, and, of the two varietal choices, both are at their best: Italian Tarocco is usually acknowledged as the most sublime, but Spanish Sanguinelli (in Sainsburys & Tesco) is also excellent now that acids have reduced. Waitrose No. 1 is Ippolito, a particularly well-pigmented Tarocco (these being grown in

It is difficult to go wrong with mandarins at the moment as the late varieties hit their peak of quality from Spain, Morocco and Israel. The best of the options is the delicious Orri from Spain and Israel, often sold as a tangerine, but Mor (in Sainsburys) is a worthy alternative, sweet, firm and flavoursome.