Vegetables have fallen in price this week returning many kitchen favourites to more affordable prices as the growing regions improve on quality and volume due to more favourable weather conditions.
Prices have fallen on brussels sprouts and broccoli, both now reasonably priced, along with cauliflower and snow peas, which are firmly priced but cheaper than the expensive price tags of previous weeks.
You can also pick up great quality Asian vegetables, Peruvian asparagus, beetroot, carrots, celery, eggplant, fennel, leeks, zucchini, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkin at reasonable prices.
Capsicums range from value for money to firm prices, depending on their quality.
Beans, cabbage, parsnips, silverbeet, squash, sweet corn and mushrooms are firmly priced.
In the salad aisle, tomatoes are the highest prices they have been all year, with the lack of stock caused by heat and the loss of a tomato growing enterprise in the southern states who once sent large volumes to the Central Market.
Mixed leaf salad and all herbs are plentiful and value-for-money but expect to pay firm prices for avocados, cucumbers and eshallots.
All varieties of lettuce will still cost you more despite their prices having fallen from previous weeks.
In the fruit aisle, new season gala, red delicious and granny smith apples are eating well and are at reasonable prices while other apple varieties are considered expensive.
The best buys are limes, all melon varieties, williams pears (also known as the Williams' bon chrétien of bartlett pears), pineapples and some plum varieties although the best quality ones will be expensive.
Expect to pay firm prices for bananas, all berries, lemons, imported mandarins, valencia oranges, grapes, figs, kiwifruit, pawpaw and New Zealand apricots.
End of season peaches and nectarines are firmly priced and expected to become more expensive in the days ahead.
Try something different on your fruit salad platter with custard apples, dragon fruit, carambola (star fruit) and expensive pomegranates.
The first quinces are ripe and ready, with the knobby, irregular shaped fruit, often with a grey fuzz, sporting a tough and spongy flesh that releases a delicate fragrance of vanilla, citrus and apple into your kitchen when cooked. Don't try them raw. However, they are excellent stewed in sugar, water or wine and can be used for jam and jellies, paste, chutney, sorbet, placed in apple tarts and can even be made into a liqueur.
Note: HTML is not translated!