At this time of year, there always seems to be plenty going on in produce departments. Summer is in the air, with the first European stonefruit from Spain hitting UK shores, berries starting to claim a larger share of shelf space and southern-hemisphere apples beginning to arrive in bulk.

Amongst the more unusual items in Sainsbury’s, I found tray packs of New Zealand Beauty apples (£1.69 for four). It will be interesting to see whether this fruit reaches the heights of Gala and Braeburn in the future.

And activity is not just confined to fruit, as I noted in the new potato range, which seems to have adopted the term speciality more and more. The inevitably lumpy appearance and colour of potatoes means it is a difficult job to give them eye appeal at retail level. However, Marks & Spencer is doing its best to change this, flagging up Maris Piper grown by Mark Rowe, £1.99/750g, as coming from Cornwall.

May and June is also Jersey Royal time, and it is possible to buy organic product from the island at £2.99/500g. I also came across Pink Fir Apple potatoes in the M&S Limited Edition range. I found this variety being grown in the UK about 30 years ago in very limited supply. But now production seems to have spread worldwide, as the M&S pack, priced at £1.99/750g, came from Israel.

And to reinforce the fact that the potato range is getting larger and larger, Tesco has a new Ready to Roast Exquisa pack with an olive oil dressing and pepper, salt and thyme, on sale for £1.50/400g.

They say variety is the spice or life, and I am all for new ideas and flavours, but I wish there was a bit more information when it comes to the widely used term “Improved Flavour”. I think everyone would like to know how, rather than why, this term is applicable.

One prime example bearing this label is an M&S mushroom medley pack at £2.29/250g. It is indeed an amazing mix, including 56 per cent vegetables (bean sprouts, Chinese leaves, red onion and cabbage) with chestnut mushrooms (16 per cent), Shiitake mushrooms (eight per cent), red peppers (10 per cent), spinach (four per cent) and, what really caught my eye, Chinese chives (three per cent). I don’t know whether the last ingredient came from the Orient, but on a similar tack, I thought the majority of our growing herbs were produced in the UK, until I found that Lidl was selling parsley, chives and basil, each at 59p a bag, and sourced from the Netherlands. And just to drive home the point that the UK does not have it all its own way at this time of year, in the same store there was some excellent green Spanish asparagus from Granada, priced at 74p/200g.

It was the bananas I had really gone to see at Lidl, following press announcements that a point of difference had been created by adding the Fairglobe logo to its organic Fairtrade range, priced at 92p. Conventionally grown, internationally labelled bananas are always a good barometer of competition, and at Lidl these cost 79p for seven.

Finally, pea shoots have formed an adjunct to the baby leaf range for some time, but now they have made it into the category all on their own with Sainsbury’s new 50g-pack at 99p. They are even washed in spring water.

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