"It's winter gold, that's what it is."
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That's how Slow Food Earth Market Maitland chairwoman Amorelle Dempster describes the bounty of citrus fruit that is so prominent right now on the fortnightly stalls in The Levee.
"After the drought lifted we've had outstanding growing conditions for citrus, and we're laden," she said.
"First we had the rain and more recently some nice frosts. It has allowed the fruit to ripen and sweeten beautifully."
So, from now and for the next three months, it seems you'll be spoilt for choice.
"There's a wide variety ... oranges need frost to ripen and they're looking and tasting great, we have mandarins, lot of varieties of lemons, there's limes, grapefruit - both the ordinary variety and pink grapefruit - we have lemonades, you name it really," Ms Dempster said.
"And the thing is you can eat them raw, or juice them and they're a great source of vitamin C for the cold weather. So they're really good for your health."
And after the cold months?
"In Spring everything is starting to flower, so by summer we'll have all the stonefruits hitting the stalls," Ms Dempster added.
And if we're lucky, maybe even another mango rescue like we've had over the last couple of years.
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