MARKET REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2024

It’s the tale of two cities this month - the end of the summer and start of autumn.

We are on the cusp of a bumper season for apples and pears. Here in the UK, the Discovery variety has finished and - at time of writing - we are onto Early Windsor. We also have lovely fruit from Mouneyrac in France, including Red William pears. The apple and pear season should be in in full flow by the middle of the month. Note that there has been a poor crop of English cobnuts.

Make the most of the summer stone fruit while it lasts. Peaches and apricots are now past their best. Cherries are finished.

UK plums are in season, with Victoria’s moving onto Marjorie’s Seedling. Reine de Claude /greengages should stick around for a few weeks. We reckon greengages are highly underrated - the flavour is insane at the moment.    

It’s the start of the European citrus season with the first bergamots, Verdello lemons and soon the first Miyagawa clementines from Italy.

Osteen mango from Spain are here. They are like summer in a mango! It’s a short 2 or 3-week season but we will be selling them as our stock mango.

We have some beautiful squashes – Delica from Italy, Onion / Potimarron from France and all the organic UK squashes.

For berries, English strawberries are eating well and will continue as long as there is sunny weather. We will stick with Annabel’s until the weather breaks. UK blueberries and blackberries also available

Sollies figs from France have begun. They are the very best and should run until the end of September. No green Italian anymore. Turkish black Bursa figs have started.

For mushrooms, Scottish girolle are still available. Scottish Chanterelle should be starting soon. We haven’t seen Ceps yet – it has been very hot in Europe which is holding them back. The weather needs to cool down a bit.

We have English Brussel sprouts. People tend to forget the English sweetcorn - it is still in the fields and they are cutting it fresh every day.

For tomatoes, there is typically a massive glut at the end of August and then quality drops. This is when the Italians start to make their tomato sauces to preserve the crop.

We are on the cusp of seeing the italian bitter leaves such as puntarelle and the radicchios again but the weather needs to cool down a little over there.