Shopping list

I find most supermarket peaches very disappointing – unsweet and rock hard or juiceless and cottony. Maybe it is the way they are stored. Nectarines don’t seem to suffer so badly but, for real pleasure, look for white-fleshed peaches and nectarines from Italy and France. American plums may be making an appearance. Good exotica should include pawpaw (papaya) and the smaller Mexican and large Guatemalan mangoes. Passable melons might include Spanish honeydew and Gallia, French charentais, Spanish early watermelons and Israeli ogen and golden-fleshed watermelons.