There are some surprising price fluctuations in the vegetable and salad aisles this week but there is still plenty to choose from for the budget conscious with abundant supplies of Victorian grown crops now in season.
Pick up some great quality and reasonably priced Asian vegetables, imported asparagus, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery, eggplant, fennel, sweet corn, zucchini, mushrooms and all hard lines, including onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkin.
Beetroot, leeks, parsnips, silverbeet and squash will cost you a tad more than usual but are of top quality.
Surprisingly, beans are hard to find with mainly hand-picked offerings available at the highest prices paid for many months. Cabbage and capsicums are also expensive.
For added taste and cheaper meals, look for value-for-money mixed salad leaf and herbs to add to your salads this week with most other salad items firmly priced or expensive.
By example, tomatoes are eating well but will cost you top dollar. Lettuce has reduced in price but is still costing more than usual, and cucumbers and eshallots are firmly priced.
Green skinned avocados are in abundance over the New Zealand grown hass variety but all are firmly priced.
There are plenty of bargain fruit options this week including bananas, limes, figs, imported kiwifruit, all melon varieties, Williams pears, pineapples and plums, with the exception of the higher priced Queen Garnet variety with the media claiming it a "superfood", having linked its antioxidant attributes to improved health.
You can also pick up punnets of value-for-money strawberries but they will be small. Expect to pay firm prices for the better looking and larger sized fruit.
New season gala apples, raspberries, blueberries, lemons, valencia oranges, grapes, passionfruit, pawpaw, end of season but poorer quality peaches and nectarines and mixed quality New Zealand apricots are all firmly priced.
Pink lady apples will cost you top dollar as will imported mandarins and navel oranges.
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