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Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Seasonal fruits at Paddy's Market


When I was back in the UK, particularly when I lived in London, I wasn't overly conscious of the different fruit seasons. Imports from southern Europe, Africa and South America meant virtually all fruits were available all year round. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that there were probably several years in a row where I bought seven Royal Gala apples a week the entire year round. Not really thinking about price or the season.

One of the things I really love about Australia is all of the different fresh fruits that we get. Virtually nothing is available from further afield than New Zealand, meaning that we only get fruits in season. At the moment we have a glut of mangoes, nectarines, peaches and cherries. I'm in heaven and making the most of it while I can as I know in a couple of months time they'll be gone until next year.  Unlike in the UK you simply don't see a mango available out of season.

In many ways the stalls full of peaches and nectarines remind me of summer holidays in France when I was a child. I think I turned my nose up at the unfamiliar fruit at the time, but I remember the French markets vividly.

Being in an unfamiliar country I'm using price to judge the seasons. Peaches and nectarines arrived at around $16kg a month before Christmas and can be found for as little as $2.50kg at the moment. I've noticed that prices have been increasing since Christmas. I'm not sure if the season is turning or the rise in prices is being caused by the Queensland floods?

I've recently taken to visiting Paddy's Market near to where I live. The fruit isn't all Grade A, but the choice is the largest and the prices the cheapest in central Sydney.
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3 comments:

  1. Mel19 January 2011 at 10:48

    I bought some lemons the other day in Woollies that were all the way from LA...not sure why we'd get Lemon's from Lala Land, but they weren't bad and crazily cheap...very odd indeed.

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  2. Old BE19 January 2011 at 13:22

    The UK is quite a special case. We haven't been self-sufficient in food for about 150 years. And if we were, we'd spend all year eating turnip chutneys and blackberry jam. We have good fruit in the UK but not that much variety because of the narrow range of climates. We have even less choice in vegetables. It's no wonder we like to import so much!

    I got an organic local veg box for a few weeks one year and nearly died of boredom as the umpteenth bloody parsnip/potato/onion combo arrived.

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  3. Penne20 January 2011 at 08:59

    At least you're getting fruit - still hard to come by up here!!

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