It is another sign of the imminence of December 25 in the supermarkets when easy peelers start to grow leaves, although in my memory these first appeared in the 1960s.

The festive season may be reaching its peak, but I have yet to find a supermarket car park where the space is used to sell Christmas trees.

Nevertheless, other products that are out in force on the shelves include Brussels sprouts on stalks. And this year there is evidence from the sheer volume of cranberries in the aisles that any recommendations for the fruit from Delia Smith will not leave the cupboard bare.

Nuts have been allocated plenty of space, and Marks & Spencer has come up with Hungarian walnuts in a neat, 500g festive bag at £1.99.

Red peppers are reminiscent of Christmas candles in appearance and the resemblance is not lost on Sainsbury’s, which has really pushed the boat out with giant capsicum from Sicily. These are packed individually, weigh nearly 500g and are priced at £1.40 a piece.

What also caught my eye in the same store was an exclusive 500g Roscoff pink onion net for £1.29. The message that the onions are “hand strung” probably does very little to “retain freshness”, but it does lift the product out of the ordinary.

Supasweet onions grown in the UK need just this sort of presentation from all the retailers involved to get the product better known - it is so much more eye-catching than simply to offer the bulbs in a traditional plastic bag or net.

The move to prepared vegetables has also taken another step forward. There were decades when the only bright idea was a stew pack, but now the combinations are endless.

Tesco has a Christmas-inscribed 600g vegetable platter at £1.89 which contains Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, cauliflower florets and carrot batons.

And an indication of another trend taking hold can be seen with the store’s 370g classic crudities selection for dipping which includes celery sticks, carrot batons, red pepper slices and breadsticks.

Salads of course also feature at this time of the year, and it seems that a new nomenclature has crept in. Tesco is labelling its bumpy, green-striped Raf tomatoes, which I believe originated in San Juan north of Alicante, as Mediterranean tomatoes.

The message that these are special is loud and clear, although perhaps the description is so general and could be applied to so many varieties that in my view it just does not go far enough.

At least there is no mistaking the message at Waitrose. Cox orchards on the store’s own Leckford Estate were hit by a hail storm just before harvesting began. The fact that the retailer is offering pre-packs identifying apples as being slightly marked through “summer hail”, is a brave move and certainly also value for money.

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