Seasonal Fruit Topics

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.

Start 2019 with Flavoursome Fresh Fruit: New Year is a great time to focus on a new approach to many aspects of life whether on resolutions, family, fitness, health, or diet. Of diet, fruit is so often consigned to the routine in our daily lives, approached without consciousness, and experienced as mundane. The classic average

Mandarins are not top of everyone’s shopping list in mid-summer as there are so many other fruits to buy. However, they are still a lovely fruit to eat: great for snacks, picnics and lunch boxes and a worthy inclusion in any fruit bowl. In early summer the choice has mainly been of South African Clemenules

Grapes have not been front-of-mind lately, partially due to very mixed sourcing due to change of seasons, but also because of so much happening with other summer fruit types such as Asian mangoes, berries, melons and stone fruit. As the main supplying country gradually switches to Egypt, and as early varieties from there, with their

Melons: Such hot weather, perfect for melons: such a summer fruit! There are plentiful supplies of melons in all stores, whether supermarket, green grocer or market stall. These are mainly from Spain, with some from Italy and Greece, and, as volumes improve, prices are coming down. Watermelons are the perfect choice when it’s too hot