The Hugh Lowe berry season has started. We have some wonderful strawberries and blackberries now in stock and being collected daily. Their blackberries, as they did last year, should go through without any gaps, which is great news. Raspberries from Giles at Roughway Farm are still a few weeks away, as are his cherries.

The first UK Asparagus from Chris at Wye Valley is now in stock and readily available. Seeing this always puts a smile on our face, as it means spring is en route! The first couple of consignments we’ve had in have been a little on the thick side, but this will settle down. 

We start the new year with some of your favourite January seasonal offerings, with UK Forced rhubarb being the January highlight for me. Italian blood oranges are coming through now, not as much “blood” as we would all like, but this will improve over the next couple of weeks with some more cold weather.

We are working directly with an Italian finger lime grower from Sicily. Alessio cultivates and grows 1000 plants organically in two locations: at sea level in Terme Vigliatore, a town in the Metropolitan City of Messina, and at 500 metres above sea level in Salemi, a town in Southwestern Sicily, a part of the province of Trapani. Hand-picked by him and his team, the quality of them is excellent and reasonably priced too.

Veg wise it is that time of year to be talking about potatoes! Our grower who we get our S&B perfect potatoes is now on new season spuds so skins aren’t as “set” as normal. However, Chris and I have been happy with the first arrivals of these, flesh is looking nice and yellow.

Myself, Nick and a few of the S&B team had a great trip out to Sicily a couple of weeks back. It was great to catch up with our Sicilian growers out there, as we haven’t seen them for a couple of years. The family who grows our datterino, cherry vine, San Marzano and red and yellow peppers put on a typical Sicilian spread for us and we left there filled to the brim.

As we swing into April, all of your spring staples are readily available. UK asparagus from New Forest has been coming through very well. We saw the first few boxes of purple available, and week on week we will see volumes increase. The New Forest jumbo asparagus, in my opinion, is beautiful.

It’s great to see some real colour in the warehouse now as we start to see some early spring products coming through. This week, we’ve seen the first few boxes of indoor UK asparagus start; Wye Valley ahead of the curve as always, but won’t have too much volume quite yet. We also collected the first box of New Forest strawberries, again super early!

You hopefully would've seen that we had our first arrival of beautiful, bitter radicchio leaves from Torre d’Orlando. We have started off with trevisse, tardivo, castelfranco and pink radicchio. The quality is stunning, and Stefano is super passionate about what he produces. The time and attention to detail that go into his products are truly remarkable!

Sexy citrus like the first French finger limes are now available. We also have some beautiful Bergamots coming from Italy, and Italian leafy lemons are also very good right now. We have been graced with the early-season Miyagawa Mandarin from Italy; the short season with these will probably end by December.

Over in Rungis, Nico found the first of the beautiful Sollies figs. Grown in the Soillies region in the South of France, and so recognised that they have an AOP! Last week, the first French greengages of the season hit Rungis, along with the first of the beautiful Mirabelle plum, a real favourite of mine.

Stone fruit is awesome at the moment, and there’s lots on offer. We mainly buy most of our stone fruit from the South of France, as we always like the "AA" calibre, which is great in size and a shade bigger than the standard "A" quality that you will find on most markets over here in the UK.

I’m sure you've noticed we've switched over to U.K. baby veg. Not quite as near as our Elderflower tree, but only 60 odd miles away in Ardleigh, Essex. Chris and I popped up to collect the first pick of the season and to catch up with Sam. I’ve always said it’s one of the best farm trips; the baby veg in the fields are a wonderful sight for sure.

New Forest asparagus will come to an end very shortly as they start so early in the season, they finish early to ensure they don’t damage the plants for next year. As well as Ben’s asparagus we will also be stocking Wye Valley from Chris Chinn, along with his lovely forced rhubarb.

We've had the first arrival of the wonderful French White Asparagus from the Loire Valley this week. They grow underground and must be covered by soil at all times as light will turn their creamy whiteness to purple and then green, once colour appears they lose their value. The asparagus farmers' job involves a lot of peeking to check when the crop is ready!