Australia’s 5 Most Favourite Fruits

It is no secret that eating fruit is great for your health; and with simple daily portions of fruit each day you can boost your immune system, gain a little extra energy and create the most delicious meals in next to no time at all. Fruit has always plays an important role in diet, and with today’s availability of the freshest, most exotic fruit from around the world, there is no excuse not to include fruit with every meal. Here are the top five favourite fruit that can be used to make a variety of delectable delights to savour.

1) Passion fruit

The passion fruit, which is native to many South American countries as well as being grown in New Zealand, offers the palette a taste of the exotic and provides a tantalising addition to any fruit juice drink. Added to a fruit salad, the passion fruit provides not only a tasty treat but also visual stimulation thanks to its exotic colours and abundance of delicious gooey seeds to feast on.

2) Bananas

Bananas are always popular amongst fruit lovers, and with their added ability to go together so well with sweet desserts such as ice cream sundaes and sticky toffee cakes, the mighty banana is a powerhouse when it comes to juices and smoothies. Rich in potassium, bananas also offer you a shot of vitamins and minerals making them one of the best health food fruits money can buy.

3) Watermelons

Watermelons are such a perfect addition for a hot summers’ day, and with their high water content allow for one of the best fruits to add to a fruit punch. In recent studies, watermelons have proved to be one of the healthiest fruits on the planet. Being high in lycopene, watermelons vitamin and nutrient content promote good cardiovascular health and made for a perfect addition to a well-balanced, healthy diet for the health conscious.

4) Strawberries

Strawberries have always been popular as a special treat whenever they come into season. With the addition of a little whipped cream, the simple strawberry delivers more flavour punch than its little size appears t offer. Strawberries also make great pies and puddings and with the addition of mango, banana, oranges, pear and apples you can make a tasty fruit cocktail in less than five minutes that will please the whole family.

5) Apples

Always a favourite the world over, this deliciously crunchy fruit can be served in a multitude of ways to add to many meals, create homely desserts and to enjoy on its own as a snack. From pies, salads and even juices; the apple is possibly the most diverse fruit on Earth when it comes to possibilities, and is always the favourite when it comes to a light, guilt-free snack on the go.

Do Carrots Really Help You See In the Dark?

If you’re a parent, you’ll know the feeling of telling your child just about anything to get them to behave. There’s something about the gullibility and innocence of kids that makes them all the more adorable. Mothers and Fathers the world over have come up with different stories to encourage their kids or to eat their vegies, which are generally not popular among with the young.

The idea that carrots can help people see better in the dark initially seems like a good example; a harmless white lie that parents tell so their children finish their dinner. After all, who wouldn’t want better nocturnal vision?

That said, there must be something behind the myth that led it to become so widely known and appreciated. Perhaps carrots don’t give us a superhuman ability to see in the dark (which is how kids probably interpret the information) but couldn’t the cliché have come about due to some mild benefit that carrot has to our eyesight?

This question has been put to the test on a number of occasions. Likely, the basis of the old adage (if you will) extends from the fact that carrots are very high in vitamin A, which is vital for sight. Nutritionists say that deficiencies in the vitamin can lead to poor eyesight, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that consuming more and more improves our vision in constant proportion.

Dr. Andrew Rochford, the media personality, put the idea that carrots help you see in the dark to t he test by consuming 15 kg’s of the vegetable over some 10 days. Andrew’s eyesight was tested in various lights prior to the experiment and again having eaten all those carrots. Unfortunately, there were no drastic improvements to the doctor’s vision in the dark or otherwise, which confirms that making the claim is somewhat misleading. However, if you are deficient in Vitamin A, your eyesight will suffer, in which case consuming carrots may improve it.

This explains part of the reason for the saying, however not all. In World War II, the British Ministry of Food spread a propaganda story that eating carrots had helped the Air Force defeat the Nazi Bombers at night. However, the true reason that they were able to do so was interception radar, which allowed the pilot to be able to pinpoint their enemies’ location. Not only did this rumour help protect the Brits’ secret weapon, but it also encouraged the folks back home to eat more healthy!

The Top Five Interestingly Shaped Fruit That Ill Whet Your Appetite

Nature is an amazing thing and fruit and veggies are no exception! There are some truly bizarre varieties of fruit in the world, some of which you’ve probably never even heard of before. In this article we take a look at some of the weirdest looking ones we could find – it just so happens most of them are also delicious!

5. The African Cucumber

The African Cucumber, also known as the Horned Melon, isn’t so well known in the world of exotic fruits, which shouldn’t be the case. This spiky fruit has a tangy, colourful flavour that brings to mind mango and cucumber. And the exterior tastes a lot like bananas. It can be found in places on the west coast of the United States and in parts of New Zealand.

4) Dragon Fruit or Pitahaya

The dragon or Pitahaya fruit is one of those exotic fruits that seems like a combination of several fruits all rolled into one. Looking like a giant strawberry, its centre is reminiscent of a kind of coconut macaroon and it’s is also lauded for its mouth-watering taste. Interestingly, this bizarre looking fruit is pollinated by bats of all creatures and it’s found in hot climates over in South America and Asia. However, don’t be fooled by its strange features and bat-pollinating ways, it’s said to have a delicious taste similar to melon and mango with a nutty aftertaste.

3) Budda’s Hand Fruit

Budda’s Hand is another interestingly shaped fruit that originates in hot climates of East Asia and India. Its tentacle-shaped body is eerily reminiscent of a squid or octopus. Considered to be inedible in many parts of the world, this fruit which contains no internal flesh to eat on is basically 100% rind. Not only can it be picked and added to several sweet and sour meals, it can also be boiled and grated, similarly to lemon zest. People add it to many meals to improve the taste for a little ‘je ne sais quoi’ that will keep your guests guessing all night.

2) Square Watermelons – deliciousness cubed!

Although the shape of these watermelons may seem a little odd at first glance, these Japanese cubes of watermelon refreshment are in fact an innovation in the world of fruit. No longer will your watermelons roll around on the table thanks to their uniquely manufactured shape. These watermelons have been designed for easy storage in your refrigerator, making them the ideal accessory for any practical fruit lover.

 

1) The Duck Tomato

It isn’t just manufactured fruit and vegetables that make us smile; natural freaks of nature can give us all manner of wacky shapes of our fruit. In this instance, a tomato has grown to resemble a duck in all its glory. There is nothing genetically modified about this duck tomato and packs all of the taste you’d expect from Mother Nature. From duck tomato’s to witches head carrots and penis-shaped peppers; Nature has a wonderful way of making us think twice about what we see before we eat it.

Bonus Freak of Nature: Screaming Peppers – Scared of your culinary skills

The next time you are preparing a little salad to go with your lunch, spare a thought for the time and effort it has taken in growing the fruit and vegetables for your meal. After this green bell pepper was cut into it seemed like they had a little something to say about the culinary skills of the person preparing the meal. With scary faces like these hidden behind any inconspicuous vegetable, it may make you think twice before obliterating your greens with a knife.

Our Favourite Aussie Cooking Shows

Cooking shows are all the rage nowadays on Australian television. Not only do they give us great ideas about what to cook up in the kitchen, but they are captivating and intense too. With celebrity chefs, nervous contestants and competitions to keep viewers entertained, it’s no wonder why there’s so many on the telly at the moment! In this article, some of the most popular cooking shows over the past few years. We’ve tried to list programs of various different kinds - as originality is always good!

MasterChef

Without a doubt the most watched cooking show in Australia, Channel Ten’s MasterChef has inspired a number of similar programs on other networks. You don’t need to be told about the premise, as we’re sure you’ve seen it many times before! Amateur chefs compete by serving various dishes to the judges, and the last man or woman standing is crowned the winner. Always one to pull at the heartstrings, MasterChef is reality television at its finest as we inevitably connect with certain contestants and the level of intensity is always high!

Featuring chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston, Masterchef often features celebrity special guest chefs to add to the excitement.

Food Safari

SBS’s Food Safari, hosted by the much-loved Maeve O’Meara, is all about discovering amazing cuisine from various countries around the world. In four seasons, Maeve has sampled great food from just about every continent on the planet including our own. Each episode covers food from a particular country, looking at how it is prepared and how it is enjoyed!

Featuring a wide array of specialist meals with tantalising twists, Food Safari has gone on to be one of the most successful food programs on TV to date and we’re certainly looking forward to the upcoming series.

Ready, Steady Cook

Daytime television can be tiresome at times, but Ready Steady Cook always manages to get its share of viewers. Twice nominated for a Logie Award, the program isn’t nearly as intense as MasterChef, but it still manages to put the pressure on the contestants as they are asked to prepare a dish in real time. The show has a friendly, easygoing vibe to it - perfect for daytime telly! Not to mention, Ready Steady has featured a number of celebrities over the years including Kyle Sandilands, Fizty and Josh Thomas.

Huey’s Cooking Adventures

Truly one of the classic Australian personalities, Huey’s Cooking Adventures ran from 1997 to 2010 (at which point the program’s format was tweaked), though we never got tired of watching the great man do his thing in the kitchen. As much of a charmer as any celebrity chef in the business, Huey would get around in those irresistible pants braces and cook up all sorts of contraptions, sharing his love of great love with stay-at-home Australians the country over. Nowadays you can catch him on Huey’s Kitchen, but don’t expect the dashing Huey we remember from the early days of his Huey Cooking Adventures program!

Our Favourite Fruity Desserts!

No matter what the occasion, everyone is partial to a dessert of some description. A fruity dessert is not only delicious but it’s also a healthy alternative to other sweets! The addition of a few staple fruits to your after-dinner delight is easy done. Basic fruits such as apples, pears and oranges can be sliced into nearly any yogurt to give you that rich chunky taste that very few can resist.

The majority of the popular desserts can be easily made at home. There are obviously many recipes available to choose from; here are some of our favourite dishes.

 

Crumbles

One of the best known desserts that can be made simply and cheaply at home has to be the crumble. This delicious recipe has been passed down from generation to generation and is always a treat to the taste buds. Many traditional crumbles are made with apples, pears, peaches and berries. If you’re feeling a little more daring, you can also try passion fruit, mango or fig.

                                                 

Fruit Salad 

The fruit salad is another popular dessert that is healthy and tasty. Whilst fruit salads can be bought pre-made, you can’t beat the freshness of a homemade version. With the addition of exotic fruits and a little side dressing such as a homemade passion fruit and wild honey yogurt, your guests will delight in the range of flavours that is simple to prepare no matter what fruit you have in the fridge. 




Peaches

We are lovers of peaches; they are a great dessert fruit and can be used in so many different ways!

The peach cobbler is another fantastic treat for your taste buds that anyone can cook at home, with little preparation time. With the addition of a crunchy biscuit and a generous serving of ice cream, the peach cobbler is a real party pleaser for its sweet and creamy taste. This blissful baked dessert is simple to prepare and can be made from scratch within the hour - making for a great last-minute addition to any meal.

Amaretto stuffed peaches are another way to enjoythe sweet flavours of this fruit, and a little dash of wine to add to the almond and macaroon filling can please any sweet toothed guest.

 

Fruit Compote

For one of the healthier desserts out there, why not opt for fruit compote? Comprising of apricots and pears, it allows the fruits to absorb all of the natural sugars to give you a mouth-watering dessert that is also beneficial to your health. Containing high levels of potassium, the delicious fruit compote helps to lower cholesterol and blood pressure to end your evening’s meal on a healthier note.

With so many fruits home delivered Melbourne wide and a range of great dessert ideas, you’ve got no excuse for not treating yourself!

Healthy Fruit and Vegetables

In this day and age, with many people working 40+ hour weeks and running a household too, sometimes it can be difficult to find the time to keep a balanced diet. Often you’ll arrive home late, the kids will be hungry and the temptation will be there to order out rather than cooking something that might be more healthy. It is a well-known fact that fruit and vegetables are healthy and benefit us significantly if they are a part of a regular diet, but how exactly do they help us?

Vitamins are one of the main benefits you will get out of eating fruit. It contains huge amounts of our necessary daily vitamins, minerals and nutrients, which are hard to find in other foods. But it’s important to remember that variety is the spice of life when it comes to having a balanced diet. Making sure that you have a small portion of different fruit is a great alternative to a sugary dessert, and allows you to top up on all of your daily recommended allowances for vitamins and minerals. Let’s take a look at two of the healthiest fruits that should be a big part of your diet.

 As well as containing high levels of vitamin C, apples also contain an important fibre called pectin. This fibre helps relieve the symptoms of indigestion, rheumatism and even hangovers! And with a daily dose of two apples per day, you can reduce your cholesterol by up to 10%, making them a great on-the-go food, at home or at work.

Avocados are our next great food when it comes to helping you on your way to a healthy diet. As an excellent source of vitamin E, avocado helps lower your body’s bad cholesterol, also known as LDLs. Not only is it one of the tastiest super foods out there, but you can also add it to just about any meal! They’re great in salads, tortilla wraps, side dishes and also with meat. An interesting fact about avocado is that just half of a regular avocado counts as one portion of your five fruit and vegetables a day.

So along with your regular exercise, the addition of a few extra pieces of fruit and vegetables to your diet can help in cutting down the chances of high cholesterol and heart disease. Having a healthy, balanced diet will help prolong your life, have you feeling healthier and looking your best!

Our Wooden Fruit Crates Are Now Available For Purchase!

At The Market Runners, we are committed to supplying our customers with the freshest organic produce straight from the farms of Australian producers. We deliver everything from fruit, vegetables and dairy to bread and other baked goods, eggs and flowers. Deliveries are made weekly and your scheduled delivery day depends on where in Melbourne you are located. Best of all, the process of ordering is simple and straightforward!

Your convenience is very important to us; we aim to provide a service that ultimately saves you time that you would otherwise spend in the supermarket. All you have to do is log onto our easy-to-use website, pick out the products you want and collect them from your doorstep! If you are not pleased with the level of service or our products, we want to know about it. We value all the feedback we receive from all our customers and we’re more than happy to offer a refund if you aren’t completely satisfied.

Another important aspect of The Market Runners is that we are strong believers in doing everything we possibly can to support the environment and animal well being. Our vegetables and fruit are sourced from producers that use environmentally friendly methods of production and refrain from using pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals. And the eggs that we sell come from free range farms, rather than factories with caged battery hens.

The Market Runners also aim to use reusable materials in our deliveries. Our milk comes delivered in glass bottles and instead of using plastic bags; our produce is brought to you in rustic wooden crates, which we then come to collect and reuse later. Further, after many requests from customers, you are now able purchase wooden fruit crates from The Market Runners to use as a fruit or vegetable basket. They start from $28.00 and can really add to the rustic, vintage feeling of your home.

Browse The Market Runners website for more information about our services and check out our wooden fruit crates. Alternatively, feel free to give our office a call on 1300 364 518!

The Advantages of Ordering Food Online

Many individuals will immediately question the reasons as to why they should shop for fruit and vegetable products online. What many people fail to identify is that the advantages of being able to order fresh food online do in fact outweigh the disadvantages:

Convenience

As you would be aware, an online shop is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of course this availability does not mean that your food will be with you within the next couple of hours however this ability to place orders for delivery at any time of the day comes with great convenience, giving you the ability to plan and have a healthy efficient lifestyle. For busy people, people with young families, full time working couples or families, illness, accident or old age, may prevent you from having the time to buy the freshest produce you deserve, however online you will be able to book for your order for delivery direct to your front door, fresh from the Aussie farmers that morning.

Freshness

What many people are unaware about is that the major supermarket corporations store their “fresh foods” in local warehouses for several months beforehand. For example it was reported recently that Coles had in fact stored some of its fish that was displayed as fresh foods in the supermarkets for up to 2-3 months frozen in a warehouse before sale. This obviously raises the issue of how fresh is the term “fresh”. Arguably the supermarkets will say that frozen foods do in fact retain its freshness as there is a very minimal rate of deterioration and therefore the food will remain fresh so long as it has been well maintained and frozen at all times. The reason why buying fresh food online such as buying beef online would be to an advantage would be that your items will most likely come directly from the stock. This means that you will get fresher beef online than walking into a store and purchasing it.

No pressure

There are times where you walk into a grocery store wanting to buy certain products on your list however possibly are embarrassed by the product you intend to buy. An example of this would be in a situation of wanting to spoil yourself with some spam meat that is often frowned upon for its lack of healthiness. Of course you would argue that it would be healthier to go without these items but a little spoiling never does any harm and you should enjoy your life after all.

Saving money

Unlike shopping in the real world, shopping online does offer the advantage of coupon and voucher hunting which in turn enables you to save money. You can save yourself a relatively huge amount of money if you know how to shop smartly. From fruit and vegetable to bread and milk, freshness and quality is guaranteed. Especially purchasing the custom built boxes full of the freshest in season produce at a super special price giving you great value for money!

The bottom line is that ordering fresh food online is an advantage that many people should make full use of as the benefits are far more rewarding than going without.

Healthy Fruit and Veg

When you were growing up, being told to eat your greens was something that you heard over and over again. While at the time we might not have realised how important fresh fruit and vegetables are in any diet, most people come to appreciate healthy foods later in life. But what makes fruit and veg so important? This article looks at the benefits and suggests way you can get the best out of them.

Probably the most important reason you should include more fruits and vegetables in your diet is that they are a great source of different vitamins and minerals, which help you to stay healthy and aid your immune system. You get all the essential food ingredients including fiber, foliate, potassium and vitamin A and C from fruit and vegetables. Vitamin A keeps your eyes and skin healthy and protects you from infections. Vitamin C assists our bodies to heal cuts and wounds and keeps our teeth and gums healthy. Fruit and vegetables are also a great source of natural oils, which are naturally low in fat, and fiber is helpful for the heart and intestines.

Purely from a practical perspective, fruit and vegetables can be good to have in your diet because they require less cooking. The large majority can be eaten raw, and this actually has health benefits as well. 

That said, the places and way in which you buy your fruit and vegetables also needs to be a consideration. Some large supermarkets stock frozen vegies, which drastically reduces the goodness you get out of them. You also need to be weary that many suppliers use different types of preservatives and artificial chemicals to keep the fruits and vegetables fresh and bright, not to mention the farmers that use harmful pesticides to protect their crops from insects.

This can compromise the quality of the fruit and vegetables, meaning they don’t offer the health benefits they should, and in some cases, might cause you more harm than good. You should also take a look at the packaging of the fruit vegetable delivery shops since they help to preserve their quality.  So it’s really important that you purchase fruit and vegetables from wholesalers that you know provide the best quality and freshest produce from around the country.  

The Market Runners stock the highest quality, pesticide-free fruit and vegies and we buy from trusted producers. We stand by the quality of our produce and if you are not completely satisfied we will happily refund your order. Visit our website and have delicious fruit and veg delivered to your door!