Another cracking selection of late Autumn European fruit continues to make for a vibrant sea of colour on our top shelf.
Dark orange pulpy persimmons from Spain are plentiful, consequently offering better value by the day. As ever, the Rojo Brilliante variety is rocking our world… wait until it feels almost like a water bomb and it will slip down like an incredibly sweet jelly! Representing the greens, chirimoyas are similarly abundant (again, resist until they’re quite soft), and there’ll be another hit of bubblegum-like feijoa come Friday. Tempted to mention the wonderful dark red pomegranates again too, but most of you will probably have cottoned onto these by now…
Veg-wise, the arctic blast is being felt across the continent, and is manifesting itself in sun-loving courgettes becoming increasingly scarce. In the UK, colder weather has heralded the end of our celery supply, as well as resulting in a more limited range of soft herbs. Anticipate us looking to Spain and France respectively on these. While British brassicas remain plentiful for now, it will most likely only be a couple of weeks until we look to Europe for broccoli. In the meantime, there’s plenty from Duncan Gielty near Ormskirk. You will notice the heads are quite small – helps minimise risk of getting nipped by frost, but the stems are incredibly tasty and tender… just sautee in a little olive oil and dress with lemon juice.
What else? A top-of-the-season root offer, complete with two different varieties of purple carrots from Royal Oak of Ormskirk. Parsnips and sprouts both benefitting from a dose of frost to sweeten them up too.
