Your local fruit shop traditionally gets busy in the lead up to Easter at a time when some fresh produce is finishing for the season and other crops are still to emerge for their autumn harvest.
The harvest gap has meant some vegetables, such as capsicum are expensive but there are still plenty of value-for-money options available, including cheap machine picked beans (usually of lesser quality than handpicked beans) and pumpkin.
Look for Easter recipes that include reasonably priced Asian vegetables, asparagus, carrots, celery, eggplant, snow peas, silverbeet, sweet corn, zucchini and mushrooms.
Roasting vegetables such as onions, potatoes and sweet potatoes are also reasonably price but parsnips will cost you more.
Expect to pay firm prices for quality beetroot, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, fennel, leeks and squash. For the best eating, avoid any squash that are soft or have watery areas.
Salads are still popular for entertaining at Easter time with lettuce dropping back to a reasonable price along with value-for-money mixed salad leaf, cucumber, eshallots and herbs.
Avocados remain costly but are much less than the expensive price tags of previous weeks.
Melon is still popular with rockmelons reasonably priced although watermelon is firming.
In the citrus line, lemons and limes are great food accompaniments and are both reasonably priced, along with good quality valencia oranges.
All berries are firmly priced, as are Australian grapes nearing the end of their season, pears, pineapples, pawpaw and good quality apples, with the exception of the new season, sweet and slightly tart royal gala variety, which are plentiful and more affordable.
Bananas are reasonable in price. Add some different tastes to your fruit platters with affordable figs and passionfruit, imported kiwi fruit and new season but firmly priced persimmons and custard apples.
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