Blood oranges, beets and brussels sprouts: Australia’s best-value fruit and veg for July
“When we think winter in Australia, we always think citrus.It is the best time right now,” says Julio Azzarello, director of sales at Gourmand Providore in Sydney.“You’ve got your standard lemons and limes, but you’ve also got Cara Cara oranges and grapefruit.”Mandarins – including Daisy and imperial varieties – are still in their prime, selling for $3.50 a kilo, and tangelos are in full swing, at about $4.
50 a kilo,But the citrus we’ve been waiting for is blood oranges, which are due in the next week,They’re known for their delicate, sweeter flavour and they’re as good on their own as they are baked into desserts or used in savoury dishes,Blood oranges’ sunset flesh makes them a beautiful cake topper, as Claire Ptak’s orange upside-down cake shows, while their sweet and sour flavour is a perfect foil for salt in Nigel Slater’s baked feta with blood oranges,Navel oranges have about three to four weeks left in season and are less than $3 a kilo in supermarkets for now.
Use them to make Yotam Ottolenghi’s chocolate, orange and chipotle fondants.Bananas and apples are still going strong.Missile apples have a short season, so seek them out now while they’re at their best.Try Ravneet Gill’s winter warmer: baked apples with kadaif (a shredded filo pastry used in Middle Eastern desserts) finished with honey syrup.Berries are getting sweeter.
While cold weather has stunted the growth of blueberries, the double-digit punnet prices we’re seeing at the moment should drop in coming weeks.Azzarello says strawberries have been stung by the cold too, slowing down supply and affecting their quality.“They have had white shoulders, so they don’t colour all the way through,” he says.Raspberries are full blush, though, and consistently about $4 a punnet, with excellent quality blackberries not far behind (about $6 a punnet).Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning“June and July are always the toughest months with the change in the season and the solstice,” says Mark Narduzzo at Pino’s Fine Produce in Melbourne.
“In Victoria, especially, greens have been super expensive,”Narduzzo, who sells fruit and veg produce boxes, says the past two months have been the worst for leafy veg, with rain affecting supply levels,Herbs are scarce, with the cold shrivelling up supply,“If you think something is frail in your hand … it’s going to be frail at the moment,” he says,Broccoli, beans and cucumbers have all shot up in price too, so Narduzzo recommends kale, leek, bok choy, capscium, zucchini, onions and potatoes instead.
Sign up to Saved for LaterCatch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tipsafter newsletter promotionBrussels sprouts are back.At about $12 a kilo in supermarkets and coming down, there is no end to their potential.Try Jose Pizarro’s roasted sprouts with manchego crust, or simply wrap them in bacon.Avoid cauliflower, which has gone “silly” at up to $9 a head in supermarkets, Narduzzo says.They’re likely to remain expensive for two or three weeks.
Avocados are back in shape though, for about $1.20 or $1.50 each.Beetroot, radishes, carrots and all root vegetables are abundant, Azzarello says, and some of the best buys right now are sweet potato and pumpkin.Throw them together with beets and chickpeas in a midweek sweet potato, beetroot and chickpea roast with crumbled feta.
Or try plant-based comfort eating with Meera Sodha’s bright red spiced beetroot and walnut bolognese.Make use of plentiful carrots in a Moroccan-spiced stew, using the veg from top to tail.And there is hope for tomatoes, which have had a beating in recent months.“Some of the plants have drowned in Queensland, which puts everything back six weeks,” Azzarello says.“If I’m six weeks behind, you’re going to be eight to 10 weeks behind as the consumer.
”As supply and demand shifts, Azzarello says tomato prices could come down to as little as $2 or $3 a kilo in another three or four weeks.Buy: Avocado Banana Beetroot Blackberries Carrots Capsicum Kale Kale sprouts Potato Pumpkin Radishes Raspberries Rhubarb Spinach Sweet potato Watermelon ZucchiniWatch: Blueberries Strawberries TomatoesAvoid: Cabbage (red and green are both expensive) Cauliflower Iceberg lettuce Herbs Honeydew Snow peas Sugar snaps Rockmelon
Wallabies score late to snatch win against surging Fiji as Lions await
The Wallabies have got their 2025 season off to a victorious start and struck a crucial blow in the quest to win the 2027 World Cup at home with a tense 21-18 triumph over Fiji in Newcastle.The 79th minute shading of their fierce south Pacific rivals ignites Australia’s hopes ahead of the first Test against the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane on 19 July.The result was only decided by a late try by captain Harry Wilson but buries the demons left by the Flying Fijians’ cataclysmic defeat of Australia at the 2023 World Cup. It also sends a warning shot to the world that Joe Schmidt’s rebuilding side are again a force to be reckoned with.Dave Porecki, who was captain in that 19-23 defeat at Saint-Étienne, started the exorcism
Smith and Head build Australia’s lead over West Indies after Green steadies ship
Finally, in a helter-skelter series, something approaching a normal day’s Test cricket took place. In the second Test against West Indies in Grenada, Australia added 209 for five after resuming at a vulnerable 12 for two, taking their overall lead out to 254. The normality of the score is masked by the fact that several tropical rain delays kept play to 58.3 overs, so a full day’s play would likely have seen Australia bowled out and West Indies at least commencing the fourth innings. As it is, this match will now make it into a fourth day
Faith Kipyegon breaks her 1500m world record as Beatrice Chebet smashes 5,000m mark
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Ben Shelton overpowers Fucsovics to equal best Wimbledon run
As a statement of intent, Ben Shelton’s opening service game on Saturday was quite something. His first serve thundered through at 145mph; on the third point, he upped it to 146mph and on the fifth, he bashed one down at 147mph. If Marton Fucsovics had picked up his rackets there and then and left the court, people would surely have understood.As it was, the Hungarian, ranked 105 having dropped from a high of No 31 in 2019, battled hard to compete but Shelton was a man on a mission, his 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory putting him through to the last 16, equalling his previous Wimbledon best.A hammer of a forehand gave Shelton the first break for 3-1 in the opener and when Fucsovics had the temerity to force a break-back point in the next game, he slammed down a serve at 148mph
Novak Djokovic plays God-mode tennis to dismantle friend Miomir Kecmanovic
Novak Djokovic last lost a match at Wimbledon to anyone other than Carlos Alcaraz in 2017. And even that defeat, to the Czech player Tomas Berdych, was down to an elbow injury that forced him to retire.It is a staggering run, stretching over eight years and 45 matches. Yet rarely has Djokovic played as well as he did here against his fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic on Saturday night. Over the course of three destructive sets, Djokovic hit 60 winners to just 19 unforced errors as he put a masterclass of spin and subtlety, guile and laser-like power, to a wildly appreciative Centre Court
‘You don’t just have to win or lose’: Trescothick admits draw in England’s thoughts for final day
Finally, the D word has entered England’s vocabulary. While Marcus Trescothick, the assistant coach, said the team “are always trying to be as positive as we can”, in the face of needing 536 runs with seven wickets standing to beat India on the final day, he acknowledged: “You don’t have to just win or lose.” A dressing room that is normally fixated on winning is finally coming to terms with a different result – not defeat, but a draw.As the final day at Edgbaston dawns on Sunday, the prospect of victory will be laughably remote, with India’s seamers in form and still fresh and England pursuing a target fully 190 higher than anything that has been successfully chased in the entire history of Test cricket.The Old Trafford washout during the 2023 Ashes remains the only stalemate in 35 matches played under Ben Stokes’s captaincy
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