Seasonal Update

With less than 4 weeks until Christmas we are seeing a lot of chefs starting to serve their Christmas menus, Brussels sprouts are leaving the warehouse by the sack load!

However, there are some things to be aware of in the run up to Christmas with shortages of various UK produce which should be on your radar already. To recap the UK experienced one of its wettest-ever Julys and then a rainy August followed by its joint warmest September before a wet October resulting in ruined crops and extremely low yields. In addition to the weather there have also been other challenges for farmers including energy cost issues, inflation and the rising cost of labour which in turn has pushed up pricing.

This is normally a great time for brassicas, however with issues mentioned above there have been problems with English cauliflower, Romanesco broccoli, broccoli, Brussels sprouts as well as potatoes. Although we can look to Europe to cover some of these, the prices will obviously be inflated.

We would definitely recommend chefs look to using more cabbages in their side dish offerings.

Recent demand for potatoes has certainly increased with the requirement for roasties over the seasonal period, however this has gone down as one of the worst harvests on record, the yield of potato crops with fields being waterlogged by the recent storms. Although the figures are still unconfirmed yet, it is estimated that the latest potato crop is going to be a record low of 4.1 million tonnes — for context, on average, in the UK we eat around 250m potatoes at Christmas every year alone!

What’s on our Heritage favourites list right now…It’s a perfect time for shoebox leafy clementines. We are also absolutely loving New Forest wild mushrooms – full of umami flavour. Kalletes, kale, January king cabbage and pointed cabbage also feature top of our list.