It has generally been a long hot summer this year, which has given the limited crop of apricots grown on these shores a boost.

I remember a conference where even at the trial stage it was foretold that established orchards would probably swing from years of plenty to times when hardly a single fruit matured.

This year, however, the English crop has made an appearance in Waitrose, priced at £1.99 for 250g, or seven 40-45mm fruit, under its Limited Edition speciality stonefruit range. The variety on sale is Tomcot.

But sometimes things are not always what they seem and I came across a couple of examples this week. Lidl’s “fun sized pears”, aimed at children’s lunch boxes, are a case in point. The Forelle variety in the 10 fruit polybag comes from South Africa, and is also identified as Vermont Beauty. There must be some markets outside the UK that know it differently.

The other example is a bit of a mystery. A neighbour saved me a sticker from a watermelon bought this week proclaiming that 4 August was the fruit’s “national day”. Even a fortnight after the supposed celebration - if there was one - it would be good to know more about what this event entailed.

Elsewhere, Morrisons has presented a new mixed berry selection of raspberries and blackberries in separate 170g and 150g packs, but sold together for £2.50.

Hardly different in principle, but the unique selling point - despite the packaging cost - is that the two flat-sealed punnets are smartly banded together with the right tempting messages and the Union Jack flag.

As an aside, I would have thought that with the glut of soft fruit it would have been natural to promote berries alongside cream - something which years ago even took place with bananas.

Nowadays, linkages are more subtle and include kitchen utensils. With the runner bean crop on course, Waitrose is running a competition via its Essentials range to win a Tefal Vitacuisine steamer. The packs are priced at £1.99 for 300g as part of a three-for-two offer.

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