Will fruit be more affordable soon (in spring/summer)

[Meepsh]

My kids have had nothing but easy peelers and apples over winter. I think they may have scurvy 😂

Am I being overly optimistic to think maybe berries, melons and grapes might come down in price soon?

Or at least have bigger pack sizes for the money?

I prefer to eat vegetables over fruit. It is cheaper, I think, and more manageable for me to eat more of.

Melon and grapes are never in season in the UK though.

You're paying for the cost of year-round cultivation and transport. That won't be going down.

Indeed. I eat practically no fruit and upwards of 20 kinds of veg a day.

Then we're guilted for not being able to afford it

By who?

I buy all our fruit at Lidl, it's not really that expensive if you buy the stuff that's in the weekly offers.

I used frozen fruit all winter. I grow a lot and freeze it but have run out now.
I wouldn't just defrost it and ea cold mush, I cook it briefly and eat with yoghurt.

That's a lot of veg, how are managing that?
I eat a lot of vegetables but I love fruit.

I don’t eat meat, which helps.

I have a smoothie made of celery, cucumber, spinach, rocket, avocado, lime, ginger, mint every morning. A salad or soup for lunch with at least 4-5 veggies in and usually a stir fry or curry for dinner. Easy to pack different veggies into both.

| buy fruit in season so we have apples, bananas and grapes from October/November - May mainly. I find that most berries, melons and stone fruits like peaches don't taste at all outside season and I refuse to pay the price.

Frozen berries are as healthy as fresh but I agree, they do get mushy so they end up in smoothies or fruit purree here.

Berries from outside the UK are likely to get much more expensive or even disappear entirely as, for instance, Polish exporters decide it's not worth the looming £145 per consignment latest post Brexit charge. Unless we can grow our own (almost impossible in the sun starved north west) we're not planning on eating many berries this year....

When I was growing up it was mostly apples, pears, imported oranges and bananas with raspberries strawberries occasionally in summer and then satsumas and some grapes in December. We're all going to have to get used to that again.

In the UK and elsewhere rain has been so bad that potatoes and other staple vegetable crops are likely to be very small and expensive this year. It's been bad several years running but this year is especially bad.

But melons are better when harvested in season where they grow.

A canteloup from France is so much nicer when you buy it from May/June onwards as it's properly grown than the tasteless orange thing you buy in January.

In winter most grapes come from South Africa, where there is the main harvet season. In summer they are imported from Greece/Italy, again in season.

I also like them with Greek yoghurt or Skyr.

If we have another wet season I expect they will be pricy. Wet weather means fewer stone fruits pollinated, risk of mould on berries, all sorts of mischief.

Climate change is wreaking merry hell on so many crops - olive oil prices have gone through the roof, for example.

Yes. That's what I meant by year-round production and transport.

Yes, fruit production seems to be more affected by climate change.

I agree, I try to buy fruit in season, so yes, winter fruit is generally apples and pears ( why don’t more people buy pears!) , I really look forward to blood orange season, imported but seasonal, then the glory of forced rhubarb, I do grow it but the Yorkshire rhubarb is delicious, but wait until English strawberries/raspberries are in season, and plums, then cherries. I do buy grapes, bananas and pineapples, and also melons when they are in their natural Mediterranean season . Peaches, apricots and nectarines during summer months when they are at their best. Out of season fruit is often tasteless and only a poor imitation of what in season fruit should be. I refuse to buy imported fruit that we grow here like strawberries, apples, pears, raspberries and cherries, partly to support UK farmers but also because it seems crazy to unnecessarily import stuff from half way around the world.

I've got raspberry canes and rhubarb in the garden. There's obviously the season restriction to them, but the plants are cheap and you can't beat freshly picked and eaten in minutes.

I tend not to buy soft fruits like strawberries in the colder months and enjoy them more in season when they're sweeter and have to travel less. Apples, oranges and bananas, I'll buy all year as they are more reliable for surviving storage/ transport.

I just buy it when it's red stickered, a chance it might actually be ripe by then.

U.K. strawberries should be in the shops soon. 🙂

I get the wonky raspberries and blueberries and whatever is on offer at Aldi
Frozen berries to add to Greek yoghurt
Apples and bananas
Summer I just eat British strawberries for the whole season I love them
Aldi honeydew melon is £1.89 which isn't too bad

If you have strawberry pick you own farms within a drive, they are worth going to when in season (usually June). We pick loads, then I cut and freeze any excess and then we have frozen strawberries most the winter. Almost every weekend this weekend I make homemade waffles or pancakes, and we have with Greek yogurt, hot warmed berries and honey/ syrup.

The basic bags of frozen berries are also good, but they usually bulk them out with redcurrants and blackcurrants so a bit sour sometimes ( but we use and mix with the strawberries)

We also grow various berries. If you have space they are good value as all berries you plant once and they come back each year.

Don't forget tinned fruit. It might not be your first choice but it's perfectly nutritious.