The Rain in Spain is meant to fall mainly on the plain how ever someone forgot to tell the rain that.

Ever since the Brexit vote in June and the devaluation of sterling against the US Dollar and the Euro, we have seen a marked increase in prices of fresh produce. In the early months, with this being close to 20%, the effect on our market was still limited due to the abundance of UK grown produce and the relatively small amount of imports from Mainland Europe.

As we head into the winter months the amount we import from countries such as France, Italy and Spain always increases to the point where we become totally reliant on them for crops such as Aubergine, Courgette, Tomatoes and all our fresh salad lines not to mention of course the obvious citrus lines. By the end of November the effect of the higher prices was already being felt due to Sterling’s relative weakness and the rain in the last two weeks in Southern Spain this is only likely to add to this upward pressure on prices as supply tightens.

Working with our growers in Spain we are doing all we can to keep prices down as much as possible and hoping that the worst of the rain has now left the area.

Who knows, with Christmas just a week away maybe it will snow in Spain!

By Mid-October it is safe to say, I think, that Autumn is here and with the weather forecast I have seen for the rest of this week soon there will be no doubt. On the up side (unless of course you like cold, wet and windy weather) there is lots of lovely produce to look forward to.

This next month is when English apples are at their best and whilst many of our vegetables lines may well improve with a bit of a frost on them apples don’t and in fact by the time any frost hits should be all off the trees and in store. With varieties such as Autumn Red, Windsor, Rajka and the ‘marmite’ of the apple world the Ergemont Russet, it is really worth taking the time to try as many of these different apple types as possible.

Squashes are the other big player at this time of the year, you don’t have to make do with just using Butternut but instead you can try varieties like Crown Prince, Harlequin, Turks Turban and Spaghetti.  Pumpkins are ready now and we know are great for carving but don’t forget you can eat them as well.