The continuing warm weather around the country is keeping vegetables at their peak, but grapes are the produce to watch this March. “Grapes normally start at end of January,” says Frank Napoli, second-generation owner at Napoli’s Quality Fruit Market in Williamstown, Melbourne.
“They’re excellent now. They like the nice warm weather.”
At Napoli’s, good-quality grapes are currently $7 or $8 a kilo, but are likely to come down in price over the next few weeks. On special in supermarkets and in some grocers, you can find them for $5 a kilo.
They are excellent in this party focaccia with lemon and roast onions and are right at home in this salad with soft cheese and walnuts. Eat them as they come or pop them in the freezer (no recipe required) for an ice-cold snack.
Apples are also on the way.
“Your royal gala and granny smiths will start,” says Napoli, with both varieties currently at about $5 a kilo.
Pink ladies will follow just before April, giving you time to perfect this French apple tart. For the less patient cooks, it takes fewer than 10 minutes to mix the batter for Anja Dunk’s apple pound cake.
Watermelon sugar high, strawberry quality low
It is still worth tasting the last of stone fruit season, with the drupes still available for about $4 a kilo.
“Peaches and nectarines are coming to the end, but they’re really sweet. They’ve matured now on the tree,” says Maria Sciberras, owner of Sciberras Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.
Sciberras has farms in Kulnara near the NSW Central Coast and Freemans Reach in the Hawkesbury region, and says watermelon remains one of the best buys thanks to the heat.
“With watermelon, the hotter it is, the sweeter they get. That’s why they come from Queensland.”
At about $1 a kilo this month, there are many ways to make the most of watermelon: see Ravinder Bhogal’s good-looking combination of watermelon, maftoul, pomegranate molasses and pistachios, Benjamina Ebuehi granita and Tom Hunt’s watermelon rind jam.
Sciberras says rockmelons are “beautiful” and are in good supply at about $4 a kilo, while berries are in flux and more expensive this month.
“Strawberries and blueberries are hard to get, especially with the humidity. They go off really fast.”
Your best bet is with raspberries, which are often grown undercover and protected from the weather – they’re about $4 a punnet.
We’re all ears for corn
Capsicums and eggplants are in their prime and corn remains a top crop.
“Corn is running at the moment for about two [ears] for $1,” says Sciberras. Those sweet kernels are destined for your next batch of corn fritters.
You’ll find capsicums for about $5 to $7 a kilo. Aside from being stuffed or stir-fried, they’re ripe for a red capsicum salsa, this muhamarra or this stack of chargrilled vegetables … courtesy of Jenny and Jimmy Barnes.
The outlook is less rosy for tomatoes.
Romas, the sauce tomato of choice because they have fewer seeds, are the most affected, as they are grown outside and suffer in the heat. Other varieties, including truss and field tomatoes, are a better buy at $5 to $6 a kilo.
Pumpkins are coming to the end of their picking after last month’s fill, but butternut, jap and Queensland blue varieties are still cheap at between $2 to $3 a kilo.
In other root vegetable news, Napoli says while the weather has been kinder of late, onion crops have been damaged by floods. But he says the potato shortage is so far only affecting frozen-potato companies, and supply should return to normal by April or May.
Summer puts baby spinach in the corner
Hardy greens like silverbeet, celery and kale are doing well and are priced at about $4.50 a bunch. But salad mixes and baby spinach may suffer in the heat.
John Murace, owner of Narraweena Fruit Market in Sydney’s north, says: “If you get hot days, like at the moment in Victoria and Adelaide, that’s going to affect the salad mixes. Once you get heat, that stuff goes yellow.” He says salad mixes, which might normally keep for a week, may only last two days at home.
So while you may have to farewell soft green leaves for now, you can reacquaint yourself with the celery show that is Waldorf salad and Yotam Ottolenghi’s stir-fried kale with tahini.
The heat is also affecting broccoli and cauliflower, but due to large, late harvests, broccoli will be cheaper than usual at about $4.50 a kilo while the glut lasts.
Green beans are also plentiful and about $5 a kilo in supermarkets, ready to be wok-tossed in this Sichuan-style stir-fry with pork mince or combined in this salad with peanuts and lime.
Buy
Apples
Asian greens
Blackberries
Broccoli
Cabbage
Capsicum
Celery
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Grapes
Green beans
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Pumpkin
Raspberries
Rockmelon
Silverbeet
Truss and field tomatoes
Watermelon
Zucchini
Watch
Mandarins: starting just before April
Mangoes: Kensington Prides are out of season; stick to Keitts
Avoid
Avocados
Blueberries
Cherries: out of season
Onions
Oranges: out of season
Strawberries
Salad greens: wilting fast
