Now all the brouhaha seems to have settled over the number of English apples that supermarkets stock, or do not stock, according to the recent Friends of the Earth survey, it was refreshing to find exactly what the lobby group was looking for in Waitrose.
Brogdale may be one of our national institutions, but it obviously has a commercial edge, for on sale, under the Waitrose speciality range was the English Collection.
In this case William Crump apples, punneted at £1.99 for five.
Bred in Worcestershire it is an interesting cross between a Cox and a Worcester, although I suspect that any volume is confined to just a couple of trees.
Cherries, probably from Chile, are now starting to make an appearance on retail shelves. I say probably as, while much of the fruit on retail shelves these days is credited with source of origin, it seemed to be missing from the polybags of cherries in a number of stores I visited.
At the other end of the scale there is no mistaking Tesco’s new potato lines in its Finest range.
What particularly interested me was Equisa, priced at £1.49, and grown in France.
For the consumer, the appearance and descriptive text on the one kilo pack, which reads: “A creamy white skin...with a velvety soft texture and buttery flavour”, seems to put it into the category somewhere between the main crop and new, judging by its size.
Certainly there is no mistaking what Marks & Spencer is offering - two giant UK-grown Marfona of around 600g at £1.59.
Interestingly they are labelled not just as bakers but jacket potatoes - a term I haven’t heard for a long time.
And while on size, I found something which should appeal to all those media writers that associate tasty tomatoes with their shape, and criticise fruit which looks as if it has come out of a mould.
Sainsbury’s Canary Islands 500g value packs, priced at 32p each, carry the message “unsized” and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
As temperatures fall and customers turn to winter vegetables, it was encouraging to hear from the British sprout growers that the crop is making something of a comeback - those shrink wrapped stalks are already on the shelves, although somewhat early to herald Christmas.
Nevertheless, M&S has gone a stage further and is stocking 250g of trimmed buttons ready to microwave under its Cook! label.
The sprouts certainly seen to be making a move up-market with added chestnuts and sage butter. Priced at £2.49 the pack also carries the message “additive free”.
The rush towards prepared, added-value dishes is beginning to be felt in the organic sector too, with a new 200g line from Sainbury’s grown in Kenya retailing at £1.99.
The contents are prepared beans, carrots and baby corn. Although they are described as washed and ready-to-eat - the packaging bears the interesting warning “do not eat raw”. Not so ready-to-eat after all. l
David Shapley
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