It’s officially winter, so let’s find out what’s in season this month!
Fruits
If you’ve read our other Winter 2021 What’s in Season blogs, this month’s wrap up of in-season fruit might feel familiar to you!
There are still plenty of Apples available, but a few varieties are starting to drop off. South Australia has finished with Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith varieties, and Tasmania will likely follow suit towards the end of the month. Expect apple prices to rise as quantities drop and demand grows.
Pears, like apples, are also shortening, most of the red and early season varieties are finished. There should be good stocks of Packham pears to get us through until early spring.
In stores this month you will see good stocks of Bananas, Rockmelons and Honeydew coming from North Queensland. You’ll also see plenty of citruses, such as Eureka and Meyer Lemons, Tangelos, Navel Oranges and Limes. Mandarins are the hero fruit of August with good stocks of Imperials, Ellendales, Honeymurcott and Amigos.
Plenty of Yellow Grapefruit are available, with Ruby Grapefruit a little short on supply. There are few Blood Oranges around, but traditionally these have a very short season, so be quick and grab them while you can. Some nice Blueberries coming up from the Adelaide Hills, and more local berries should be coming out of the Bundaberg region as the month progresses.
Nothing has changed on the Avocadoes front, still plenty around at record low prices. As we touched on last month, North Coast Strawberries shortened up a little with the wet weather but expect them to make a full recovery by the first week of August. You will also find a reasonable supply of Passionfruit, Pineapples and Watermelon from North Queensland.
Vegetables
August is mid-winter and peak growing season for Queensland farmers. However, there is not much coming out of the southern states with the cold weather, rain and frosts putting a brake on their production. Unfortunately, for the Queensland growers, it has also been a challenging year with the weather and unseasonable rain events. This has resulted in some gaps in the planting schedules, which has seen shortages of Zucchini, Cucumbers and Broccoli. Expect these shortages to extend late into the month.
The unseasonal weather has had an impact on other crops as well, and although they may not be short, they certainly aren’t available in the kind of quantities that we would normally see at this time of year. Silverbeet, Kale, Salad varieties and Cauliflower are all in good supply, but prices are higher than we would expect, due to the reduced production.
The Queensland Carrot season has well and truly kicked off, with growers in the Brisbane and the Lockyer Valley harvesting. Meanwhile, our Victorian and Tasmanian growers are getting ready to shut their cold rooms off and finish up for the year.
You will find plenty of Cabbages, Brussell Sprouts and Leeks around. Chinese Veg has a shorter supply with the cold weather down south and will remain short until things start to warm up a little. Lettuce and Rocket have similarly been impacted, so don’t be surprised if you notice the quantity and quality of these veggies to be down somewhat.
We are seeing lots of varieties of Potatoes coming from Queensland. Jap and Butternut Pumpkin are also in good supply and at good prices. Sweet Corn, Cherry Tomatoes and Green Beans are also coming down from North Queensland in reasonable supply. There are also plenty of Onions still around but expect prices to increase and quality to decrease, until the Queensland supply kicks in.
Tomatoes are still in short supply, as are Cucumber and Zucchinis. We will need to see some warmer weather before this situation changes. Despite this, there is lots of produce around at good prices.
Have a great August and remember to eat all your colours.
The Team at United Organics
