Fruit blog

Fruit Buyer’s Report | Fruitful Office Winter 2019-2020

Dear All,

The weekly fruit mix is carefully selected by our experienced Fruitful Office buying team, who are in continuous contact with suppliers to ensure that the fruit included in the baskets is of high quality, ripe and in season.

Fruit is very seasonal, which means that certain varieties may only be available at certain times of the year. For example, berries are very much a spring/summer variety. You can find them in your supermarket throughout the entire year, but during the winter they will either have been 'air-freighted' or grown in energy-intensive greenhouses. For environmental reasons, we NEVER buy air-freighted fruit and we follow our local seasons as much as possible. We believe this has several advantages: minimises 'food-miles', supports local farmers wherever possible and, last but not least, means tastier fruit!

Given our policy, it naturally results that the spring and summer months (roughly the 6 months running from April to September) are the most plentiful in terms of fruit variety. The autumn and winter months are a bit less varied, but the ‘Essentials Mix’ varieties (apples, citrus fruit and pears) really shine – with fantastic quality and taste. We also try to keep the 'Seasonal Mix' as exciting as possible by including lesser known varieties (such as Ya Pears, Kaki Fruit and dates).

In this report we focus on apples – a staple which sometimes doesn’t get all the recognition it deserves.

The saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ did not originate by chance! Apples have amazing health benefits. For example, they contain a type of fibre called pectin which feeds good bacteria and therefore can act as a probiotic – helping to protect against obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. They are also extremely nutritious, being a great (but fairly unknown) source of Vitamin C.

We love apples and include British apples wherever possible – minimising food-miles and supporting local farmers. The main varieties are Braeburn and Royal Gala, which mostly come from Kent, ‘The Garden of England’.

Other special varieties to look out for in our ‘Seasonal Mix’ are:

1. The Lilibet British apple: this is one of a very few British green apple varieties. It has very similar appearance characteristics to the Granny Smith, the difference is in the taste. Whereas we all know Granny for it’s ‘tart’ taste, Lilibet holds a juicy firmness mixed with a sweeter taste
2. The Opal British apple: this is a branded UK yellow apple with an attractive slight blush. It combines a firm but juicy texture, bursting with a unique flavour of a high brix and a perfect sugar acid ratio. You will be impressed with the Opal’s crunch and flavour!

Stay warm and stay healthy everyone.

Fruitful Office team