Brisbane Produce Market wholesalers are looking to the skies to see how further rains predicted for the weekend will affect the growing regions although there is plenty of fresh produce available.
In the vegetable line there are good quality, value-for-money Asian vegetables, beetroot, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, capsicum, carrot, eggplant, sweet corn and mushrooms available with broccoli also dropping back to a reasonable price.
However, a seasonal shortage of zucchinis have made them expensive.
Beans are firmly priced, of average quality with the handpicked crops the best to eat.
Expect to pay firm prices on cabbage, celery, fennel, leeks, parsnips, snow peas, silverbeet, squash and imported asparagus.
Salad lettuce has reduced in price, and like mixed salad leaves and cucumber, is reasonably priced. The darker a lettuce leaf is, the more nutritious it is. The leaves are about 95% water and cos lettuce has the greatest dietary fibre of all the varieties.
Tomatoes are of average quality mainly due to it being the end of the Stanthorpe season and still early days for the start of the Bowen harvest.
Other firmly priced salad items include avocados, eshallots and coriander, which is in short supply.
Pineapples are delicious and reasonably priced at this time of year, and will team well with value-for-money bananas, mandarins, navel oranges, New Zealand kiwifruit, rockmelon, Northern Territory watermelon, passionfruit and pawpaw.
Expect to pay firm prices for good quality apples, all berries and pears.
Limes are expensive and expected to rise in price further. Limes are more fragrant and acidic than lemons and turn yellow as they ripen becoming juicer and sweeter.
For the adventurous, there is still time to try custard apples, pomegranate, starfruit (carambola), soursop, cumquats, dragon fruit (pitaya), rambutan, black sapote (chocolate pudding fruit), chestnuts, rosellas, golden kiwifruit from New Zealand and end of season Australian persimmons.
The three new seasonal fruits to watch out for the cara cara, a red-fleshed navel orange, ruby grapefruit and nashi pears, which combine the juiciness of a pear with the crispness of an apple