While baby vegetables are proving extremely difficult at the moment, we are enjoying more positive times with the fruit. Luxury imported items such as apricots are superb now as the Australians send the Orange Red variety up.
There are also fantastic cherries now with dark Santina and the colourful Rainier both sweet and tasting of cherry! Peach and nectarine are also good. Other air-freight fruit worth a mention should include the Red Heart kiwi from China.
Staying with the kiwi theme - we have been enjoying good French fruit and now this has been joined by the Red Label classification that requires an even higher brix % of sugar. Gold kiwi are also continuing to prove very popular with it's sweeter golden flesh. Closer to home, we found these red Comice pears from France. The colour alone makes them a stunner and they could grace any fruit bowl or dessert plate.
We are now very pleased with the selection of winter baby leaf we have managed to build up this year. More and more varieties are now available all the year round.
Our favorite Celeriac with leaf has now gone until the next season. Its leaves were too damage by the frost. We are now using washed Celeriac from another grower and they are very good too.
Broad beans are now coming from Spain and they actually taste really good! The Spanish Peas in Pods are quite sweet too which is good news for the time of year.
Baby artichokes are now coming from Spain or Italy. We are trying as much as possible to avoid Thema as we prefer using the variety closest to the Brittany "petit violet".
French Romanesco season is now over and Spanish Romanesco is replacing them . They tend to be a bit bigger than the French. Cauliflowers are still coming Brittany and they are expensive currently due to the weather.
These are Montsera tomatoes (a picture on page 3 shows a cut one), which are grown especially for their shape and not for their flavour. They will require cooking but even after this, the flavour will only really come from the stuffing.
For Centuries it was traditional for UK families to eat goose or the head of a boar. However this changed in the 16th Century when the Turkey was introduced to England.
Henry VIII was the first English king to enjoy Turkey, although Edward VII made eating Turkey fashionable at Christmas.
As a boy I thought a Turkey was a Turkey!!! How wrong could I be!!!
The crème de la crème has to be the Bresse Turkey, as with all Poultry from Bresse they carry the AOC accreditation, being raised on grassy pastures (for correct conformity and full physical development of the bird) for a minimum of six months on a diet of maize ,wheat and milk products plus naturally occurring foodstuffs (grass, insects and worms)
They are then brought indoors for finishing (placed in coops for fattening) for a further 4 weeks, this is where the Bresse birds really develop their unique texture and taste , the flesh being impregnated with fat right into its smallest fibres
These truly are worth a look and you won't be disappointed.....details on the poultry lists. The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.
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