10/06/2026
🍐Joe’s Market Update – 9th June 2026 🍎
We have some interesting produce this week!
First up, Sour Sops are in.
They’re a tropical fruit with a creamy texture, similar to a custard apple, from the same family, and it has a very short season.
If you haven’t tried it before, you should give it a go.
It’s a bright green, oval-shaped fruit covered in nodules that has a tangy-sweet- sour flavour.
Don’t worry about the nodules, unlike a prickly pear, you can handle them without fear of prickles.
Discard the seeds; they aren’t good to eat.
Look for a firm fruit that gives slightly when touched – a little like an avocado.
Piqa Boo Red Pears are in.
They’re a bright red pear that is best eaten crunchy and has delicious, sweet, juicy flesh.
They combine characteristics from European, Japanese and Chinese pears.
Green Papaya is new too.
It’s basically an unripe papaya picked before it ripens to orange and becomes sweet.
It has a crunchy texture and a mild flavour and is used more as a vegetable in South Asian cooking.
Famous in Asian salads.
Cooking bananas, also known as Plantains, are back in stock after a couple of weeks.
New season apples and pears are eating well, and Wombok cabbage, baby boy choy and bagged red grapes are great value this week.
And finally this week, we have Long Melon in!
A long melon, also known as a bottle gourd or opo squash, is a long, light green, cylindrical vegetable with smooth and white, spongy flesh.
It’s technically a fruit, but it is more commonly used as a vegetable.
It’s a mild, slightly sweet vege that is packed with moisture, making it quite refreshing.
It’s great added to curries.
That’s all for this week’s update!
Ciao
Joe Russo
Foodie | Third Generation Green Grocer
A better choice Ashburton Village 3147
