NZ Vegetables (For week 01 June 2011):
Pick of the week is tomatoes. I still see some for sale under $5/kg, which is very good buying to be fair, as winter prices are just around the corner. Tomatoes, by the way, are a firm produce item in the “Superfood” hall of fame. Round or salad tomatoes are the common tomatoes found in greengrocers and supermarkets. They vary in size according to the exact type and season. Sun-ripened tomatoes have the best flavour, but for year-round availability the fruit is often picked and ripened off the plant. These tomatoes are very versatile in everyday cooking. Adding a pinch of sugar and taking care to season the dish well helps to overcome any weakness in flavour. Other top veggie buys are mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, kumara, and silverbeet. If baking kumara, scrub them well and cook exactly as you would for ordinary potatoes. To boil, either cook in their skins and remove these after cooking, or peel and place in acidulated water (water to which lemon juice has been added). This prevents them turning brown and it is worth boiling them in lightly acidulated water for the same reason. Also to look out for is new season parsnips. Very small parsnips require little or no peeling; just trim the ends and cook according to your recipe. Medium-size and large parsnips need to be peeled. Larger parsnips also need to have the woody core removed; if it is cut out before cooking, the parsnips will cook more quickly and evenly.
NZ Fruit:
Pick of the week is persimmons. The good thing about these is that you can eat them straight out of your hand like an apple if you wish. There are still good volumes of this fruit here too as our export program continues plus they store very well. Tauranga horticulturist Hans Lens has experimented with grafting persimmons way back in the seventies and eighties and is said to have been responsible for the first commercial planting, in 1977, of sweet persimmon from which trail exports were well received in Japan. Other top fruit buys are avocados. We haven’t mentioned avocados for quite some time but they go quietly about their business and are readily available, which is great for June really. The Reed variety is also available, which is a more recent variety on the New Zealand scene. It shows promise for the late season, overlapping the second half of the Hass crop. It is a large fruit with green skin, so remember to eat it when it gives to the touch because the skin remains green. It is not as popular as the Hass in this country; however it is still nutty so it’s not entirely disappointing. Also to look out for is new season Navel oranges, but during June they are tart, so don’t buy up too many early on; enjoy more of the imported ones in the meantime. The orange ranks third in the New Zealand household fruit-spending stakes behind bananas and apples. After bananas, apples, and oranges, follows pears and grapes. Then nectarines, strawberries, peaches, apricots, mandarins, kiwifruit and avocados are all next in line. Followed by several favourites such as watermelons, plums, tangelos, paw paws, cherries, grapefruit, lemons, and melons.
Imported Produce:
Bananas are in good supply this week, and we are getting all 3 melons now from Australia...albeit on the higher side in values. Fijian pink taro is good buying, along with plums, papaya, grapefruit, Navel oranges, and grapes. The Angelino plum, currently here from Chile, has a skin colour from red to almost black; but the flesh of these plums is always yellow. Dessert plums can be eaten on their own; they are usually larger than cooking plums (up to 10cm long) and are sweet and very juicy. Cooking plums are drier, with tart flesh that is ideal for pies, flans and cakes.
Fresh Flowers:
Spring type flowers are appearing and, to date at least, we have had more products hang around a bit longer this year before the real nasty frosts and cold weather kicks in. Tulips sold well this week, and so did Roses. Calla Lilies were the dearest, as against Orientals and Asiatics. Daffodils, Iris, Freesias, Gerberas, Chrysies, and Carnations are all available. Orchids and Alstro not overly expensive either, but most of the good quality Lisianthus have fallen by the wayside.
Kind regards,
Glenn Forsyth.