Wild harvest | Market report

This week's market report from Wild Harvest features morel mushrooms, blood oranges and white asparagus as well as a whole host of other fruit and vegetables currently in season which you can see below: Some think that Spring starts on the first of March. Others tag it as Winter until the daylight outnumber the night hours which we call the Spring equinox, on the 20 March. For me it’s spring when I’m eating fresh morels, asparagus and wild garlic. Wild Mushrooms & Truffles

The mighty morel has appeared from China and is travelling well. Turkey needs another week or so until crops hit commercial significance. For sure these little cones are expensive at this end of the season, but the yield and impact on a plate exceeds any scrapings of wild mushrooms which may have made it through the winter and into March. We are seeing the death throws of other wild varieties, but it’s all about the morel until (and indeed if) we see a second flush of South African cep. As well as frozen and dried wild mushrooms, we like to flex our cultivated exotic mushroom buying muscles when choice is found lacking. A great example being the organically reared, pretty as a picture coral fungus from Holland. It’s chalky white, and I won’t insult you by describing what it looks like. Truffle suppliers can be alarmist especially when a price hike needs to be justified, but it appears we are at the end of the black winter (melanosporum) truffle seasons in France and Italy. This may well leave a gap of a month or so until summer truffles are ripe enough to warrant culinary use. As well as a rake (we have Irish people in our family) of truffle products we sell frozen Chinese truffles all year round.

If fresh is your bag the spring white truffle is being dug up in Italy. Bianchetto truffles are fairly ugly, but offer very good value for money. The initial

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nose is fairly overpowering, almost like raw garlic. Once diffused into butter or oil the result is very similar to the winter white truffle at a fraction of the price. Have fun with the limited season, as you won’t be seeing these by May. Fruits Tomatoes from Spain and Southern Italy are improving daily. Gariguette strawberries are yet to hit entry level. I won’t try to make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear. It’s still about citrus and other top fruit as it has been for months. Here’s what I recommend having a go on:-

Blood oranges
Clementines
Finger limes
Passe crassane pears
Cox apples
Quince hang on
Bergamot oranges for the perfumed zest of Earl Grey tea

Vegetables

The white asparagus season has started in France. Various techniques are used to starve the green asparagus plants of sunlight and produce this delicacy. The slightly bitter flavour profile suites me down to the ground. Especially when paired with a rich sauce such as a Hollandaise. Whilst we are on asparagus the sheltered Wye Valley has produced the first English green spears of “grass” as it’s termed in market parlance. We need a week or two to drive prices down and availability up. Until then buyers will be setting each other traps to secure supply. I have mobile phone signal blockers strategically placed close to our competitors. Enough fantasy, here’s a list of just a few great seasonal vegetables parking themselves very briefly in our New Covent Garden Market premises right now -

Forced Yorkshire Triangle Rhubarb
Wild garlic
Wild leeks aka three cornered garlic
Greenhouse Jersey Royal spuds
Red kale
Monk’s beard
Rainbow chard

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.