christmas news

Dear All
How time flies, this will be the last Market Report of 2011. It's been an interesting year and For me there were many produce stars throughout the year and here are just a few. The Yorkshire peas from Richard Brittain were the best I've ever tasted. The English raspberries from Adam Shorter lasted for months and were the best quality I've ever seen. What few English cherries we actually received from Kent were beautiful and sweet and the Victoria plums and Marjorie Seedlings from Man of Ross were also the finest quality I've ever seen. Further afield, the Spanish peach and nectarines were delightful and especially the flat varieties which I'm sure we will see more and more of. We found two super growers of local spinach and the red sprouts have caused lots of interest in the run up to Christmas this year. The golden kiwi were amazing as usual and the square watermelons we brought in from China for exhibitions caused quite a stir.
Fruit.
The Belgian greenhouse "Elsanta" strawberries have eased slightly in price since last week but are still expensive. For a cheaper alternative we are working air-freight Egyptian and they are really quite nice. Our Brian has just carried out the taste test and "not bad" was the verdict.
Don't forget your bramley apples for lovely homemade bramley apple sauce. Mr. Robertson from Kent is grading us out the best quality and we don't anticipate any supply issues next week.
Apple sauce , yummy
After all the excesses of the festive period no doubt everyone will be starting the new year diets and what better way to kick that off than with grapefruit. The new season Cyprus fruit has just arrived and they are fabulous - big and heavy and super sweet. We still have the Florida "Pride" ruby if you are looking for something extra special and for the serious dieters we also have the Jaffa sweetie. This is a green skinned grapefruit which is very sweet, not through excessive sugar but through a lack of acidity. This makes this particular grapefruit very low in calories so an ideal diet fruit. All grapefruit have a low glycemic index which means they are ideal for folk wanting to loose some weight and it has been proved that grapefruit can actually help reduce cholesterol so there you go , personally I just eat it because I love the taste !!
Some super big comice just arrived this morning - 80+mm and they eat fantastic . super for poaching. They will need a couple of days in your fruit bowl to fully ripen so please buy early in the week ( while stocks last ).
Finally some big comice for Christmas
We've managed to acquire a few pallets of seedless grapes that were destined for Marks & Spencers. The berry size is XXL and both the green and the red are exceptional. Both are from South Africa and the green variety is prime seedless and flame for the red.
M&S quality (not quite up to strongs but best i could get !!!)
Plenty of availability of all the range of dates so no panic there.
The Brazilian fig season has just started in time for figgy puddings ! - prices are reasonable and the eating quality is considerably better than the smaller Israeli we have been working.
no cheese board is complete without ..
Rhubarb price has gone through the roof again so please check the price before ordering.
Vegetables.
Cauliflowers shot up in price last week as everyone bought out of the French auctions. There was very little volume going through for sale as conditions have turned very cold in the Brittany region where the caulis are grown. We think prices have reached their peak and will remain steady yhis week but some heavy snow could soon change all that. Watch this space !
Plenty of Spanish broccoli and prices very reasonable - we do not anticipate any price changes this week.
The carrot growers are still moaning ( a little ) and keep threatening another price rise in the very near future. We are not anticipating any supply issues next week and quality looks very good indeed.
All systems go on all lines of sprouts whether they be on stalk, loose, ready peeled or indeed red in colour. We are not expecting any problems with supply and we think prices should remain steady.
We are not anticipating any problems with parsnips next week but if we receive heavy snow and very low temperatures in the interim we may have to review this.
Everyone will want the best potatoes for roasting and in my book that has to be Uncle David's Maris Piper. I've tested them recently and they roast beautifully. If you're not a fan of piper then try our Lincoln king Edwards , top quality and they also roast perfectly.
Chestnuts - all Chinese now. We still have the ready cooked too if you want an easy life.
Salads.
Iceberg lettuce can shoot through the roof this time of year but we've just spoken to the growers in Spain and unless there is a complete disaster we think prices will remain steady this week.
Tomatoes seem to have a two tier pricing structure at the moment , anything bold and nice with calyx on are fetching big money but paler, smaller fruit is about a quid less. We don't think prices will increase next week as there seems to be plenty of fruit in the system.
Coming in this weekend we have a new variety of tomato called a raf tomato. This is a rather flat looking tomato but is instantly recognisable by its creases or wrinkles. The selling point of this fruit is it's lovely flavour and sweetness, some people say it's how tomatoes used to taste . For me they remind me of tomatoes you buy in market stalls in Spain when on holiday.
These should grace any festive feast and my colleagues tell me that they featured in the hit series Masterchef recently with feta cheese and basil.
All the very best and on behalf of all the team here at Strongs we wish you a very happy Christmas and a very merry New Year .
Bye for now Andy

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