Market Report - UK seasonal update 4 August 2014
In association with
August is one of those nice crossover months in produce. Many summer lines are yet to have burnt out, and early autumn crops appear.
Wild Mushrooms & Truffles
- Girolle prices nudge up but still offer excellent value for money
- Yellow chanterelle quality is lovely from Bulgaria
- Trompette are solid
- Pied de mouton persist
- Summer cep and flashes of mousseron are around, but with the abundance & good health of the above it’s worth waiting for these two
- Italian summer truffles are still very good and cheap prices hold
Fruits
We are biding our time with a little black fig action from Spain.
The variety which really gets our collective pulses pumping is the mighty Bursa black fig from Turkey. Plump, presentable, affordable and delicious.
We want them now, but will probably have to wait a couple of weeks. I could wax lyrical about these wonders but would prefer you read this article from the Telegraph.
To avoid exhausting summer heat attention spans, here’s an outburst listing some of our other dear fruity friends in full flow:-
- Charentais melons
- Greengage plums (known in France as Reine Claude in honour of the wife of King Francis I, before our Gallic cousins sharpened their blades and quickly dispatched their aristocracy)
- Mirabelle plums
- Magnificent Muscat grapes
- Cherries
- The full spread of peach and nectarine varieties (including my favourite ugly blood peach)
- Red & green gooseberries
- Tomatoes galore
- Cob nuts
- Apricots
Vegetables
It’s easy to forget about savory plant life when fruits are rife. Let’s not. Here are some highlights:-
- Coco beans
- Borlotti beans
- Peas
- Broad beans
- Purple and golden cauliflowers
- A plethora of baby vegetables
- Wet garlic
- The humble but delicious runner bean
- Wild fennel
- Baby artichokes
- Lovely waxy ratte potatoes
- Sweetcorn
Ambient Corner
So the restaurant is a little quiet and you have time to tinker with some menu tweaks. Why not give a bag of organic Shipton Mill flour a whirl.
Made in Gloucestershire in a lovely old mill using traditional stone-ground methods, Shipton Mill’s flours have long been the top choice for both artisan bakers and high end restaurants.
Wild Harvest carries an extensive stock holding.
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