Dear Chef,
Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was lovely, as always. After my recuperation last weekend, I made up for it by traveling to Leegate for a house warming party. I think if there are hills or you need to get the tube to the end of the line and two buses, you cannot consider this area to be London, but I did get to see Mash, the sausage dog.
This week the Wild Harvest team are looking forward to descending on Taste of London on Thursday evening; we have our fingers crossed for all our customers involved in the festival, and particularly looking forward to visiting our friends at Four o Nine. Here are this week’s delights:
Wild Mushrooms and Truffles:
Girolles are in full swing and now coming from Macedonia, they are smaller, cheaper and cleaner than the end of the Bulgarian season, which were comparable in size to the great big Americans. Morels are beautiful, traveling from North America, and much smaller than the end of the Turkish season and a beautiful colour. Mousserons are still coming from Bulgaria, they are a little hardier, more complete and dry.
Prices have dropped for our Wild & Cultivated mix which contains Girolles, King Oysters, Shimeji, Mousseron and Pied Bleu.
Italian Black Summer truffles role on.
Seasonal Fruit & Vegetables:
Spring is in full swing, but summer seems to have trouble loading. Though we may not be ready for ice lollies and sandcastles, our warehouse and chillers are bulging with the bounties of spring’s crops:
Charentais Melon (now being sold individually)
Gooseberries currently from France, but we are switching to great British gooseberries next week
Alfonso Mangoes
Gariguette Strawberries
English Strawberries
Post office-tasting, French Flat White Peaches and Nectarines from Spain
Superb Spanish Cherries, rich and juicy and full of colour
We have switched to Lincolnshire Green Asparagus to conclude the season
Thick White French Asparagus
Wild Asparagus from France could end any day soon
Beans! Fresh, white Coco Beans from Brittany, Borlotti Beans & English Broad Beans are all in
Jerusalem Artichokes have finished, but we can do a good price on Parsley Root, which is suitable for purees
Baby Artichokes & Poivrades are struggling through, though we will do our best to get them for you
The foragers are working hard to pick the following selection:
Wood sorrel
Hogweed
Sweet Cicely seed pods – a great alternative to green cardamom
Sea Purslane
Sea Aster
Sea Beet
Elderflower
Right ho, it’s off to work we go. As always, if you have any further enquiries please get in touch with your account manager or me, and if you want to sign your colleagues up to my weekly updates please drop me an email with their contact details. Don’t forget to follow us on twitter; if you’re not already following us, you missed pictures of the soft fruit office-tasting and Ben Parris’ fantastic deconstructed trifle.
Have a beautiful day, and a great service chef; best wishes,
Louise Thomas
