Eat, Taste, Shop & Experience the best produce and flavours in season

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Eat, taste, shop and experience the best produce and flavours now in season.

Produce In Season for November

Goats’ cheeses are particularly good at this time of the year due to the lushness of the pastures and good green grass and forage in their diet; as a consequence their milk takes on an extra sweetness in flavour. The goats also kid during this time resulting in milk with higher and richer buttermilk content.

I love to serve fresh chèvre seasoned with flowering herbs, nasturtium and other edible organic flowers, drizzled with good olive oil, a sprinkling of salt flakes and a grind of pepper and some good country bread. Delicious!

Mangoes are readily available too and will be great until the end of summer. Look for unblemished fruit with no black spots. When ripe you should be able to smell the sweetness through the skin, they should feel soft but not mushy and still have some firmness.

In my kitchen herb garden, Basil, one of my favourite herbs and so evocative of summer is looking great. One of the nicest things to do with a fresh bunch of Basil is to make pesto, crushed in a mortar and pestle with pine nuts, add some grated parmesan, then drizzle in extra virgin olive oil and sometimes when serving with pasta, I do what they do in Genoa and add a little bit of butter. The pesto mixed with a little of the salty cooking water of the pasta, then tossed together with the drained pasta, is superb.

when you have an abundance of fresh Basil, it can be chopped up and covered with olive oil, it keeps remarkably well this way and is handy for use in cooking and for flavouring and is certainly better this way than using the dried option.

At the organic markets you can find lovely white asparagus, it has a beautiful delicate flavour and has long been considered a delicacy of Europe. It is the same species as the green, just grown without sunlight.  I love to serve white asparagus with poached eggs topped with a gremolata of sourdough breadcrumbs, garlic, flat leaf parsley and some lemon zest.

Also in season are:

Fruit

Asian greens, avocados, bananas, berries, cherries gooseberries, grapefruit, lychees, melons, passion fruit, papaya, pineapple oranges, strawberries

Vegetables / herbs

Artichokes, beans, carrots, celery, chervil, chillies, cilantro, cucumbers, fennel, garlic, lettuce, onions, oregano, parsley peas, potatoes, radishes, rocket, sage, silver beet spinach, sweet corn, tomatoes, tarragon, Thyme, zucchini flowers

What’s In Season For October

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Walking around the organic market on Saturday was so tempting and thought provoking, I could have bought so many lovely things but there is only so much one can eat before what you buy starts to spoil.

Spring and summer can be seen everywhere in the wonderful selection of fruit and vegetables on display. Beautiful fresh broad beans piled high on shelves, super fresh, bright pale green, and sweet tasting. When selecting broad beans I like to choose the smaller ones with pods that are heavy for their size and unblemished. Although their season is brief, they can be frozen as raw beans quite successfully. But why bother, just enjoy them for the short time in which they are available. I sometimes enjoy serving them raw, tossed with flakes of good quality salt, extra virgin olive oil and a few shavings of pecorino. Nice with a glass of wine served as a little appetizer just before dinner.

My favourite handy food is Avocado, high in natural healthy oil content, protein, minerals and vitamins. Many varieties are available throughout the year, but the Hass is currently at its peak. It has a yellow creamy flesh and a nutty subtle flavour. I enjoy avocado cut into squares, dressed with finely diced chilli, lime juice, coriander leaves and a good splash of fish sauce. Sometimes I add a little crab or cooked chicken. On other occasions I dress avocado with mirin, pickled ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Delicious!

Also in season are:

Fruit:

Pineapples, strawberries, cumquats, grapefruit, lemons, mangoes, oranges, papaya

Vegetables:

artichokes, Asian greens, asparagus, broccoli, capsicum, cucumbers, garlic, lettuce, onions, peas, silver beat, spinach