Freezers changing habits of home gardeners

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34106, 19 March 1976, Page 12

Freezers changing habits of home gardeners

(By

TERRY McGOVERNE

The availability of deep-freezing facilities in the domestic kitchen appears to be changing the habits of home gardeners and housewives. People are obviously growing crops which they can lay down for the winter when prices for vegetables such as carrots, com, cauliflower, beans, tomatoes, and peppers are pretty severe. At present there is an abundance of freezing vegetables, with the possible exception of tomatoes. Many home gardeners were despairing a couple of months ago of seeing any fruit on ' their tomato vines, but the recent burst of summer ' weather has encouraged them a great deal. Cauliflowers are in great abundance at present and \ peppers are expected to be 1 cheaper than usual next week as the outdoor supplies reach the markets. There are only limited sup--1 plies of beans coming forward to the markets and it • appears that unless there are late varities to come, there will be few left for people wanting to lay them down for the winter. Growers are now into their main-crop carrots and home gardeners should also have done well with adequate rainfall and reasonably good growing conditions recently.

Some people prefer to leave i . their carrots in the ground and pull them as required in 1 preference to freezing. Those i who want to do the latter i ■ should be able to buy them ’ fairly cheaply. < Apart from some lines of fruit, notably nectarines, . , prices at the markets for . everything seemed to be very ; i reasonable, probably reflect- , . ing generally good harvests. | On the score of prices paid , { yesterday, nectarines must ] have cleared out from the . rest of the field in the popu- , 1 larity stakes. Buyers seemed j willing to go as high as $lO | a case and $7 a tray for nec- . tarines of the Delicious and 1 Deltur varieties. At any rate, , ’ the tray nectarines are ; ' worth about 30c each and ; those in boxes about 55c per lb wholesale. Apricots also made ground during the week and were ■ easy to sell at more than $4 1 a case, although some were ! cheaper and others dearer. : There was a continuing and 1 spirited demand yesterday for berry fruits, now coming ; ■ to the end of their run. • Strawberry prices ranged : from 50c to 60c a punnet, ; s with some down to 40c, and ; : blackberries brought 50c to ! 60c per lb. i Many cases of bananas from Equador were sold by ' i auction yesterday to make i I way for fresh consignments : i due for sale in the shops on : Monday. Other fruits availI able plentifully at present 1 .'include apples, pears, rock ,

melons, oranges, and lemons, j Nothing stood out in the! vegetable market yesterday, j apart from the slump in cauliflower prices which were from 13c to about 20c each. Cabbages were still at! give-away prices of 3c to i 10c each and the best silver beet could make only 10c per lb. Spinach is about the most expensive green leaf vegetable, at about 22c al bunch. Beans brought 15c to 40c per lb and sweet corn up to more than 10c a cob for the largest cobs. Even though the weather has been ideal for salads there was no startling movement in lettuce prices, mainly because supplies appeared to be abundant. The best of them brought $1.20 per case. Cases vary in content from six to 12. Celery fetched 20c to 22c per stick and mushrooms, which are in short supply against extremely strong demand, went at more than $1 per lb. Tomatoes were not abundant yesterday but prices generally hovered about 20c per lb with some of the firmer ones going higher to beyond 30c. Nectarines were selling “pretty consistently” about 60c a pound, Christchurch retailers said yesterday. Carrots are retailing about 15c per lb and corn varies between 15c and 20c per cob. Cauliflowers and let-

jtuces are aoout joc eac.n ana I peppers 19c. ■I Tomatoes are retailing about 38c per lb, beans are about 35c per lb. and celery is selling about 40c a bundle. ; i Apricots are selling fairly quietly about 48c per lb, as nectarines seem to be preI ferred. Oranges are ?5c per . lb, lemons about 55c per lb, and apples about 20c per lb, I I Bananas are 25c per lb, rock 1 melons are about 50c each, and strawberries about 79c a ' punnet — cheaper than blackberries, which are 70c ■ a punnet.