Spring is springing!
More about food miles and food expectations …
After months of saying “Grrrr” as I walk past boxes of Peruvian (yes! Peruvian) asparagus in the Sydney Markets, I’m delighted to announce that OUR spring asparagus is now flowing out of SE Queensland. It may not last long and the organic variety is not likely to appear for a while yet, but it’s Australian, it’s fresh and the food miles aren’t up there with the Apollo space missions. Look for it on our shelves now and enjoy that lovely flavour of spring.
On the subject of food miles, North American cherries should soon be coming to an end. It’s the height of summer now in North America and even in places like Washington state, spring and early summer are now far behind us. I’ve nothing against North American cherries but let’s just hold out for the lovely early summer fruit that comes from Young, NSW (376 kilometres) and not expect year-round produce from wherever-may-be.
So if you’re concerned about food miles, then things to avoid in the market at present are: Thai mangosteens, Californian grapes and Peruvian asparagus, amongst others.
As an aside, if you’re interested in knowing more about cherry growing and some of the difficulties faced by growers (in this case, those same Washington cherry growers) take a look at the link below. One more example of the clash of food logic with “market expectations”.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/901/story/643498.html
[end August: Organic asparagus now flowing freely! And from Australia, no less! Buy up! Buy up! Buy up!]
