Market Report - UK seasonal update 19 December 2016

The Staff Canteen

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

This week's market report from Wild Harvest features white truffles, blood oranges and castelfranco as well as a whole host of other fruit and vegetables currently in season which you can see below:

White Truffles
White Truffles

Wild Mushrooms & Truffles

White truffles continue. It’s been a smooth, dependable season. Little by way of price/quality/availability fluctuation to report.

Just a lovely, wild luxury item which will go into a less fruitful part of its life cycle in a week or two. 

Winter truffles are in good supply from both Italy and the Perigord region of South West France.

January will bring real stinky maturity. 

It’s tough on the wild mushroom front. Using frozen, dried or exotic cultivated mushrooms would not make you a bad person at the end of the year.

We need Portugal to kick in with volumes to provide value, variety and quality. This could  happen any day now weather permitting. 

Here’s what’s about: 

Pied de mouton from Spain

Chanterelle gris and jaune from France, Spain  and Portugal

Trompette from Turkey

Blood Oranges
Blood Oranges

Fruits

We are buying  blood oranges now for the office to track the ruddiness.

Coming from Spain and Italy this Wild Harvest favourite has a raspberry aspect to its flavour profile.

The red pigment is generated by cool nights, hence the peak eating being in late January. 

Everyone’s busier than they care to be, so here’s a list of just some fruity thrivers. 

  • Muscat grapes
  • English apples
  • Comice & William pears
  • Clementines both on and off the leaf
  • Cranberries
  • Fresh chestnuts
  • Kumquats

 Eyes peeled for Seville oranges, which make a fantastic ice cream as well as the timeless marmalade.

My dear mother in law enjoys marmalade so much that irrespective of how heavy the full English breakfast is, you can spot her securing a slice of toast and honing in on a jar of this beautifully balanced preserve long before the last rasher of bacon has been accounted for.

Vegetables

For those like me (and most of Italy) that appreciate bitter flavours, December brings great produce.

The chicory or endive group thrives in the colder months.

Puntarella and radicchio tardivo (the late elegant form of the crop) are in great shape from this family.

Castelfranco adds a Jackson Pollock note to your plate. I love it paired with blood oranges, walnuts and culatello in a winter salad. 

As with the fruits above here are just a few bullet pointed vegetable beauties. 

  • Crosnes
  • The humble yet magnificent January king cabbage
  • Oca, capucine & yacon tubers
  • Jerusalem artichokes
  • Purple kohlrabi (German composite word fusing cabbage & turnip)
  • Multi-coloured chantenay carrots
  • Rainbow chard
  • Romanesco for Christmas tree mimicry

Eyes will be peeled for the awesome Yorkshire triangle rhubarb when our heads pop out into 2017. I may dust off my 'night soil' story. 

The warmest seasonal greetings to one and all from Wild Harvest’s premises on South London’s New Covent Garden Market.

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.

>>> Read more from Wild Harvest here

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The Staff Canteen

The Staff Canteen

Editor 19th December 2016

Market Report - UK seasonal update 19 December 2016

IN ASSOCIATION WITH