Brisbane Market Report 273

Brisbane Produce Report – 6 August

  August 5, 2021  strump

Making healthier food choices has never been more important. Luckily, the Brisbane Produce Market has a huge supply of fresh and flavourful fruit and vegetables that are perfect for creating tasty and nourishing meals.

Locally grown strawberries are a favourite and, with Ekka cancelled again this year, they’re great for making your own strawberry sundaes at home. The creamy hass avocado is also still in plentiful supply. For little bites of pure joy, try the three-ingredient avocado and dark chocolate truffles – mash one small avocado and mix with a cup of melted dark chocolate, pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes to thicken, and then roll it into balls. The third ingredient is your choice of coating to roll the balls in, like desiccated coconut or crushed pistachios.

While the Queensland season for watermelon is over, we have supply arriving from the Northern Territory. Rockmelons are a great value buy this week. Keeping it tropical are kensington pride mangoes from the Northern Territory and sweet-eating pineapples from Queensland. Pineapples are rich in antioxidants and low in acid, and bring a fresh flavour when added to stir-frys. Supplies of bananas are also improving, while both blueberries and raspberries are becoming harder to find.

Honey murcott, daisy mandarins, cara cara navel oranges and kiwifruit are all eating exceptionally well. Also look out for juicy blood oranges from the Riverina area of New South Wales – they’re only in season until September, so grab them while you can – they’re great in cakes, sauces, salads and curd. Both apples and pears are in fair supply and represent great value – they are absolutely delectable when poached with vanilla and cinnamon.

In vegetables, the market is brimming with winter favourites such as hand-picked green beans from Gympie, garden peas from Bundaberg, beetroot, cauliflower, and eggplants. Local capsicums are also widely available with red ones being the most in-demand. For an easy dish, try stuffed capsicum: sauté mince, carrot, garlic and tomato in a dash of olive oil and add your preferred seasonings; once cooked, set the mixture aside to cool. Remove the tops of the capsicum and put them aside to use as a lid later. Scoop out the seeds and fill the capsicum with the mince mixture, put the lid back on top and then put it in the oven until it’s tender. It’s great with some parmesan cheese on top, too.

If you’re craving fries, then you’re in luck – two of our thrifty buys this week are potatoes and sweet potatoes from Gin Gin. You can bake, deep fry, or air fry them to a crispy perfection for an excellent at-home movie snack.

For Sunday roasts, try cool-climate veggies such as carrots, Victorian fennel, button squash, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and pumpkins from the Lockyer Valley, which are all plentiful and represent good value.

Local cherry and mini Roma tomatoes are back in good supply, as are Bowen-grown truss tomatoes. Supplies of zucchini and sweet corn are picking up, while broccoli has dropped off. Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, silverbeet and coriander are also well-supplied along with red chillies from Bundaberg.

This week’s hero is the pandora passionfruit, which is currently at the peak of the season and in excellent supply with the overlap of growing seasons across Queensland, including Cooktown, Mareeba, Bundaberg, Innisfail and Tully.  Supply is expected to remain good throughout August. Look for firm and plump fruit which feels heavy for its size. Ripe passionfruit should be stored in the refrigerator and cut fruit should be stored in an airtight container to extend shelf life. While they are great value grab a bunch to freeze the pulp in ice cube trays for use later, make some passionfruit butter or create a batch of passionfruit relish so you can enjoy them all year round.

Brisbane Market Report

Posted by Brisbane Produce Market