Hass – late winter to early summer. A medium size pear shaped fruit with a brilliant flavour and creamy soft flesh. Their pebbly skin helpfully becomes dark purple/black when ripe. Hass avocados have a long season and are by far the most common commercially grown avocado. If you feel like you see them everywhere you’re not wrong – 80% of all avos grown and sold in Australia are Hass.

Sharwill – winter. Sharwill avocados are a glossy green pear shaped fruit with a smaller stone and wonderful flavour.

Reed – late spring to early summer. Reed avocados are a large, rounded variety with thick green skin and a robust flavour. Too big to eat at once? Good news, cut Reed avos are less likely to loose flavour stored in the fridge.

Shepard – late summer to autumn. Shepard avocado are a small to medium avocado with a rich buttery flavour. As an added bonus, when cut they’re less likely to go brown than other varieties.

Bacon – autumn to early winter. Apart from being a great name, Bacon is the most cold tolerant variety. Bacon avocados are a tasty pear shaped avo and can grow well in our southern states – you may even have one yourself in your Melbourne backyard!

Fuerte – late autumn to spring. Fuerte avocados are a smaller pear shaped fruit with smooth dark green skin, firm flesh, a great nutty flavour and a prized high oil content. Fuerte are often crowned the tastiest avo, and have a dedicated following of Fuerte fans.

• If you’re lucky enough to pick your own backyard lemons, make sure you snip them off cleanly so they store as well as possible. Resist the temptation to pull and snap the fruit from the tree – it can damage the branches but it can also mean your fruit won’t keep as long. Grab some kitchen scissors or a pair of secateurs, and cut just above the fruit leaving a little twiggy stub.

• Don’t forget most citrus doesn’t need to be harvested all at once. Again if you have your own or a neighbourhood tree to pick from, consider taking the fruit as you need. Don’t leave them so long that they dry up, but lemons, mandarins, oranges and cumquats will continue to ripen and become sweeter the longer they are on the tree.

• Once picked, store with care. Use any fruit with cuts or blemishes first. And make sure your fruit is entirely dry before gifting or storing – they can quickly deteriorate where moisture is trapped against the skin. Then pop them in the fridge for safe keeping. They’ll last for several weeks, if not months, so you can make the most of them with our favourite recipes below.

Soil residue on produce can contain microorganisms and pathogens that can pose significant health risks, especially if eating the fruit and veg raw. 

As we’ve been reading here and here, most people aren’t usually impacted by germs in the soil, but if certain pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella come into contact with the produce, it can certainly make people sick. 

Rinsing produce can reduce our exposure to any pathogens present, so it’s a quick and simple habit that’s important to remember.

Heating and cooking will also kill pathogens, as outlined in this advice on food safety.

Natural debris and ‘friendly bugs’ can also be present on fresh, quality produce, and we want to rinse these before eating, too. Though they’re always a good sign that the produce isn’t soaked in sprays, it doesn’t mean we always want the extra protein in our salad. 

When we started Fair Food in 2010, it wasn’t very common to shop for weekly fruit and veg online, and when you did, a ready-made, mixed fruit and veg box was most commonly sold.

That was how we designed the initial Fair Food range. We had fabulous fresh produce coming in from our network of growers, and to be as efficient and streamlined as possible we simply offered a variety of mixed boxes to suit different households.

Over 14 years later, we’ve grown and changed but we still curate fruit and veg boxes and deliver them Melbourne wide. In fact our range of boxes has expanded because they still make for easy seasonal shopping. We choose the best value and seasonal mixes, posting a weekly guide to What’s In The Box, and leaving our customers to simply select the size and style that suits best.

Who loves fruit and veg boxes most?
– The decision fatigued. We see you, we will deliver tomorrow.
– Lovers of improvisation and creative cooking.
– Value hunters and frugal feasters.
– Curious eaters – our mixed boxes may include new varieties from small local growers.