I was expecting some more unusual sources to show up on the shelves last week, although it appeared that the airfreight hiatus did not last long enough.

Nevertheless, there were still some arrivals outside the norm. Little Gem lettuce has been around for years, but at present The Co-op is sourcing the product from Greece, with twin packs priced at £1.32.

What also caught my eye were the store’s self-help polybags for loose produce, which us mere males always find difficult to open. In this case, it was part of the retailer’s work with the government’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign. Some useful information is printed on the polybags, recommending the best way to store and ripen no fewer than 17 lines.

Also on the salad front, Tesco is pushing the boundaries even further in its tomato range. For some time it has displayed Pick and Mix varieties, mainly from France. Now beyond the other cherries, vines and salad types, there is a Classic Selection punnet at £1.49 containing both Spanish plum (40-47mm) and round (57-67mm) tomatoes.

And the bagged salad range also continues to expand. Not so long ago, pea shoots were a novelty. But Sainsbury’s now sells them in their own right, with a 50g bag priced at £1.

Waitrose has launched a new British brown onion presentation with the emphasis on convenience, courtesy of the Moulton Bulb Company. The bulbs, priced at 85p for 500g in the retailer’s essentials range, have been skinned using an air blower, so the customer only has to wash and cook.

Meanwhile, although Yorkshire rhubarb has been on the short side, Morrisons is still flying the flag with a neat 450g presentation which, at the very least, is easier to carry home than the traditional two-foot, long-sleeved packs that are more commonplace. The thin, trimmed stalks, on special offer at £2, have no problems fitting into a shopping basket.

There is also a special offer on avocados in Sainsbury’s, with fruit ticketed at 60p each. What I found intriguing is that while the source is Israel, the smooth-skinned variety is unnamed and simply called green skin. With Hass, and to a lesser extent other varieties, now pretty well recognised, I wonder how many customers will realise that this is only the broad description used within the industry.

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