After a slow start to the season generally across the state, supply and quality is returning across many summer fruit and vegetable lines in time for Christmas, according to the South Australian Produce Market.
"We are now seeing good supplies of locally grown stone fruits and strawberries," SA Produce Market, Marketing Manager, Penny Reidy said. "There are good quality and supply of peaches and nectarines, apricots are steady in supply, cherries will come into better supply from next week and South Australian-grown strawberries are looking and tasting fantastic."
She added that South Australian stone fruits and strawberries are the key fruit lines grown in the state at this time of year, as well as a small supply of locally grown blueberries, as well as many vegetable lines.
"As far as vegetables, we have all the glasshouse lines in good quality and supply, these include tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, zucchini and eggplant. We also grow a lot of quality lettuce and loose leaf lines here in South Australia with great supplies of baby spinach and rocket as well as the hydroponic lines of oak and cos lettuces."
It has been a tough year for the SA growers of cherries and stone fruits as the weather has not provided ideal conditions. Ms Reidy says the weather has been cold and wet, which is not ideal for stone fruits that need dry weather and plenty of sun. There have been a few bursts of sunshine that have helped but overall the conditions have been challenging for the SA growers.
"The seasons have started late and the quantity is definitely down on previous years. The quality is however starting to look good after an unperfect start," she said. "Peaches and nectarines are smaller in size – but the flavour is abundant. Cherries have been slow to start however next week and through January we will hit peak supplies and peak quality of this fruit. There are some beautiful tasting cherries being picked this week in the Adelaide Hills and the flavour of the nectarines is second to none."
The SA Produce Market community recently held its annual Christmas BBQ yesterday and raised $3,000 for the Heartkids SA charity.
"The community is busy – but always very generous," Ms Reidy said.
