Tangeloes — blotchy but very sweet

Press, 28 October 1977, Page 2

Tangeloes — blotchy but very sweet

Produce scene I

People who complain about the price and quality of fruit these days should take a look at two lines of citrus — grapefruit and tangeloes. Tangeloes are at their very best right now but the buyer should not be put off by the blotchy yellowed skins. The fruit might not look attractive when it gets to this stage but that is when the flesh is at its sweet and juicy best. The market price is $8 to $l2 a bushel case.

Grapefruit, too, is a good buy at the moment. Market price is $4 to $6 a case and for that the buyer gets very sweet juicy fruit, quite as good as traditional oranges and mandarins. Both the grapefruit and the tangeloes are North Island fruits — from Kerikeri, Gisborne, and Tauranga.

Strawberries are now into their second week and the price is coming down slowly. The cost of a punnet of Hawke’s Bay and Auckland strawberries yesterday was $1.20 to $1.95. A buyer would get about 11b of strawberries in the punnet. Pineapples, from the Philippines, have been available this week. The fruit was very good quality and sold at about $7.50 to $9 for cartons of five, six, and seven pineapples. Supplies of the salad vegetables are improving, but the demand is keeping up with it and prices have not fallen much from the very high early-season prices, particularly for tomatoes and lettuces. The very best of the skg cartons of tomatoes — from local growers and from Blenheim — sold at $l5 while the poorer lines were down to $6 a carton. Auckland tomatoes in 7kg cartons were $lO to $l4 — still quite expensive but a drop from some of last week’s prices. Lettuces, mostly from Nelson and Oamaru, are still fetching market prices of up to 55c each. Lettuces, mostly in cases of 12, were sold yesterday at $2.50 to $6.50. Telegraph cucumbers yesterday were $4 to $6 a case, and spring onions $2 to $2.50 for cases of a dozen bunches.

Local asparagus is now at the peak of its short season and the price has come down to 34c to 46c a bunch. People have come to think of asparagus as a luxury vegetable but it actually compares very .well with other green vegetables at the moment — a serving of cabbage would cost at least as much at present prices. Loose asparagus was also sold yesterday at $5.80 to $6.80 for the half-case. Some people don’t care for this vegetable, considering it stringy and tasteless, but one way of preserving its flavour, colour and goodness is to slice the shoots like beans and cook it quickly for three minutes in boiling water — guaranteed to produce a good result.

Beans have also been coming in to the markets and yesterday there were also some beans from Rarotonga. They sold at $l6 a carton while the New Zealand beans were $5.50 a quartercase.

Broccoli has been a popular green this winter but it is nearing the end of the season and is beginning to get very coarse in the stalks. It was $5.80 a carton yesterday. The quality of the celery available here is not particu-

larly good at the moment. The local season has almost ended and normally Auckland celery would be available in Christchurch by now. However, Auckland growers are getting such high prices for their celery in Auckland — something like $1.20 a stick — that they haven’t bothered to send it south as yet. The Christchurch celery yesterday sold at $7.50 to $10.20 a case, and the quality was mediocre.

There is a continuing keen demand for cauliflowers and prices are coming down. Yesterday cauliflowers were sold at $1.20 to $4.40 a bag and

they ranged from very small seedy looking heads to white good quality lines. With seven or eight cauliflowers to a bag the price is coming down from its recent extreme heights.

Cabbage prices are beginning to show signs of dropping a little although the Pukekohe cabbages are still $7.80 to $12.10 for bags of about 12 to 15 cabbages or 65c each at the minimum. Spring cabbages were $3 to $3.90 for cases of about 12 to 16 cabbages and bags of eight cabbages were $l.BO to $3.50.

There ./ere some good quality leeks available yesterday at the reasonable price of $2.50 to $6.50 a bag. They were quite small, but about 10c each they were quite a good buy. Si'ver beet was sold at $1.20 to $2.50 a case but the quality was not up to much.

The first of the New Zealand courgettes are now available but at $l5 a quarter case and $27 a half case they are quite expensive. The price for new Pukekohe potatoes has been dropping and yesterday it was down to $4.80 to $5.20 a bag. Ruas and Chippewas were available yesterday at $1.40 to $2.20 a bag but strangely enough there were no Ham Hardy potatoes on the floor — the first time they have not been available in a long time. However, they will be there today. The apple season is nearly ended with only Sturmers and Golden Delicious left; and this week the last of the pears were sold, about $17.50 a case. Buyers will now have to wait to see whether there is any possibility of imported apples reaching Christchurch. Another shipment of Ecuador bananas is due at Lyttelton in the Toyu Maru on Monday, and Australian Valencia oranges are due on Tuesday. A shipment of Californian grapes is due in the Hobart Star on November 7.