Market Report - UK seasonal update 16 March 2015

The Staff Canteen

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

This week's market report from Wild Harvest features wild garlic, ceps and peas in the pod as well as a whole host of other fruit and vegetables currently in season which you can see below:

Wild Mushrooms and Truffles

The second flush of ceps from South Africa is underway, and we have a significant shipment from Mushroomssource arriving for Tuesday’s deliveries. Our freight handler will be busy next week as we have a direct morel shipment coming from Turkey for Tuesday also. Prices are now coming down as the relatively late start evolves into more significant crops. These are the two mushrooms of choice, and are delightful enough to steal the plate glory from protein. It looks as though pied de mouton have finished until the end of the summer. Trompette and chanterelle are also fading out, and prices are rising as autumn becomes a distant memory.Perigord truffle Eyes are peeled for the first decent girolle, mousseron and St Georges mushrooms. All of which normally arrive mid April but this is largely weather dependent. We have bought the last Perigord truffles of the season, and Italian winter & spring white truffles are probably in their final week or two. As is often the case it’s likely we will have a gap of around three weeks without fresh truffles before the summer truffles begin and reach acceptable levels of maturity. A gap we are well placed to fill with frozen Chinese truffles, and an extensive range of preserved truffle products.

Fruits

I suspect we will be eating the final trial box of gariguettes this week to gauge the flavour to price ratio. My gut tells me that next week will be the correct time to say hello to the year’s first great strawberry. Enough spiel and forcasting. Here’s a list of just some fine fruit available now:
  • Clementines
  • Blood oranges
  • Finger limes
  • Unwaxed lemons from Nice & Southern Italy
  • Cherry tomatoes on the vine from Italy
  • Inca heirloom tomatoes

Vegetables

Wild GarlicOur Norfolk forager has announced that wild garlic will be available from Thursday. The price of this delicious crop is kept low by its abundance in the UK and ease of harvesting. When temperatures rise we normally switch supply to Scotland to prolong the season until the end of May. Applications are too numerous to mention. I however will be busy making wild garlic pesto next week. As above please find below a list of roots, shoots and stems currently floating our seasonal vegetable boat:
  • Wet garlic
  • Forced Yorkshire rhubarb
  • Jersey royal spudsPeas in the pod
  • Peas and broad beans in the pod
  • Foraged sea radish
  • Purple sprouting broccoli
  • Black cabbage
As usual, this is just a small selection of what we have on offer. Call in on 020 7498 5397 to speak to the team about what other treats we have in store for you today. Visit the website here.
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The Staff Canteen

The Staff Canteen

Editor 16th March 2015

Market Report - UK seasonal update 16 March 2015

IN ASSOCIATION WITH