Luxor4u

As often happens on a Tuesday morning, I find my mind wanders off to the West Bank souk. I love walking around there, feasting my eyes on the all the wondeful colours, amazed at the size of the vegetables and fruits and just soaking in all the smells. I love the strange combination of the hustle and bustle and also laidback attitude.

I know it's January, so it's Strawberry time (I had Egyptian Strawberries on Christmas Day in the UK - the first Egyptian ones I'd ever seen in the UK and the first ones I'd tasted in a long time too), but what other fruits and veg are in season at the moment? How are prices? If you live in Luxor do you buy in bulk at the souk whilst something is available and then cook and store for later use?

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Have stocked up on fruit & veg today so here's a quick rundown of what's available:

Fruit:
Strawberries
Pink Guavas
Yellow Guavas
Bananas
Oranges
Clementines
Dates

Vegetables:
Spinach
Cabbage (think mahshi koromb!)
Sweet Potatoes
Plus the usual culprits (courgettes, tomatoes etc).


My absolute favourite at this time of year is to make strawberry, banana and pink guava smoothies - to die for!!!

Countessa wrote:Cabbage (think mahshi koromb!)

My absolute favourite at this time of year is to make strawberry, banana and pink guava smoothies - to die for!!!

[face=Comic Sans MS]Ohhh are you trying to torture me! You know I love Koromb and a fruit smoothie would go down very well right now. [/face]

HEPZIBAH wrote:

Countessa wrote:Cabbage (think mahshi koromb!)

My absolute favourite at this time of year is to make strawberry, banana and pink guava smoothies - to die for!!!

[face=Comic Sans MS]Ohhh are you trying to torture me! You know I love Koromb and a fruit smoothie would go down very well right now. [/face]

Same here.

Carrots are especially good, lots of bunched baby carrots almost too small to scrape.

We had our own cauliflowers this week. Planted closer together to keep them smaller they are delicious, pure white curd and succulent green leaves covering them. I think I prefer cauliflower to cabbage greens. Yum.

Just beat me to it re the baby carrots MD. We bought some more today and a quick scrub and each was a little mouthful of flavour.
The strawberries we got today were the best I have ever seen and full of flavour as well.

I've seen cats and dogs at it, if that helps!

LivinginLuxor wrote:I've seen cats and dogs at it, if that helps!

[face=Comic Sans MS] That's not quite what I meant but.... [/face]

LivinginLuxor wrote:I've seen cats and dogs at it, if that helps!

HaveI missed brocolli season this year?? Not seen a single sprout either yet.
Bah humbug!

Is there a broccoli season? I seem to see it almost year round these days. The lady who I buy my green stuff from has it almost all the time now, including today.

Here in the UK garden/greenhouse we have cauliflowers, sprouts, cabbage, leeks, the kale and carrots and of course rocket!! )
Had tomatoes up til last month too.
I froze peas beans and soft fruits like raspberries(sadly now all gone ) blackcurrants, gooseberries and damsons, so still have a lot to go at.
I do like things in season cant wait or the new spring crop, strawberries I only eat in summer, I had a great crop last year from some we grew in pots.
I find the imported ones too large and seedy for my taste, I love the small sweet ones, the best ones that I had this year were in guernsey, they were so small sweet and succulent.

I grow broccoli here year round bar July august September.
I also never scrape vegs, just a wash and scrub, after if they're organic what's the need?

Glyph we have not seen any Broccoli here for quite a while. We tend to buy when it is at its best and blanch and freeze to spread the season.
I suspect you get a better range in Cairo via the imports etc. Certainly when transport is iffy we get shortages here. Like tomato juice...what is that all about? It suddenly vanished off the shelves and has been barely seen for the last few months.