Queens of the stone fruit and grape expectations: Australia’s best-value fruit and veg for February
The final month of summer heralds peak season for grapes, new varieties of stone fruit and a glut of salad leaves in every shade of green.
Figs are in their prime and about 99c each, says Brendan North, owner of Paradise Farm Markets in Tamworth, New South Wales. “You usually pay $1 to $1.50 for figs this time of year,” he says.
They’re delicious fresh, but cooked figs bring an irresistible jammy texture to both sweet and savoury tarts. With fig season extending through to May, there’s time to try Anna Jones’s thyme and goat’s cheese galette, or figs roasted with brown sugar until their edges caramelise to sit atop Tamal Ray’s orange custard tart.
Cherries have also dropped significantly in price, North says, and can be found on special for $9.90 a kilo. “We’ve usually stopped stocking cherries by the third week of January,” he says. Nigel Slater recommends serving ripe cherries on toast, with ricotta and ginger.
For Scott Cohen, owner of Rod’s Fruit and Veg at South Melbourne Market, grapes are back in “full force”, with a strong season ahead for all varieties. “My top pick is the green sweet globe grape,” he says of the large oval seedless variety he sells for $6.99 a kilo.
White and black grapes are also plentiful and on sale at supermarkets for as low as $3.90 a kilo. Eat them straight from the bag or atop goat’s cheese crostini, baked into focaccia or roasted in a salad alongside eggplant, feta and croutons.
Seedless watermelon remains cheap at about $2.50 a kilo, and custard apples, persimmons and pomegranates are on track for an end-of-February ETA.
Queens reign supreme
As most stone fruit nears the end of its strong season, yellow-skinned golden queen peaches are having their moment in the sun. Another stone fruit royalty ripe for the picking is the queen garnet plum, favoured for its dark skin and high vitamin C content.
Black and red plums, selling in supermarkets for about $3.90 a kilo, make a great base for desserts, such as Yotam Ottolenghi’s spiced plum and marzipan tart or in an easy, no-churn ice-cream.
Make friends with salad
“Salads are the real hero through February,” says North, noting sales of baby spinach and rocket are up by 30% compared with last year.
Meanwhile, iceberg lettuce grown in Victoria is selling for about $3.50 a head, Cohen says, and is of exceptional quality.
Baby cos is flying off shelves. A twin pack costs between $3 and $4, and is enough to make Felicity Cloake’s caesar salad. Or add a smoky flavour to salads by barbecuing lettuce, as in Ravinder Bhogal’s recipe for grilled cos lettuce and peas with feta.
Reed avocados are leading the pack, Cohen says, and “are extra large and really creamy compared to a regular Hass avocado”. He is selling them for $3 each, while Hass are currently $3.50 each.
Tomatoes remain strong, with roma and truss varieties between $4 and $5 a kilo, and cauliflower is easing in price to between $3 and $4 a head.
Related: Barbecued greens, chopped veggies and creamy bean dip: Jessica Prescott’s summer salad recipes
Buy:
Avocados
Baby spinach
Broccolini
Cauliflower
Capsicums
Cherries
Figs
Grapes
Green beans
Lettuce
Mangoes
Nectarines
Peaches
Plums
Rocket
Salad mixes
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Zucchini
Watch:
Custard apples
Persimmon
Pomegranate
Avoid:
Sweetcorn
Berries (over $5 a punnet)
