lorax

Ok, for comparison's sake here is what is generally on offer at the big fresh market where I shop every weekend. This list is representative of this season. Seasonal stuff is marked with a star, the same way you've done it.

Veggies:

1. Potatoes (4-5 varieties)
2. Oca (Oxalis tubers)
3. Yucca (aka Cassava or Manioc)
4. Sweet Potatoes
5. Beets
6. Turnips
7. Parsnips
8. Carrots
9. Radishes
10. Lettuce
11. Celery
12. Spinach
13. Chard
14. Leafy greens that I don't immediately recognize
15. Green beans
16. All other beans that do not have edible pods. If it's a bean, we've got it.
17. Peas
18. Corn (mostly white traditional starchy corn called Choclo)
19. Tomatoes
20. Tomate de arbol (You'd call them Tamarillos)
21. Peppers of every colour and heat level
22. Onions, both white, yellow, and red
23. Garlic
24. Squash (five or six kinds, never smaller than a giant's head)
25. Radiccio
26. Cabbage (all colours)
27. Broccoli and Rabano
28. Cauliflower (three colours - white green and purple)

Fruits:

29. Mangoes*
30. Papayas (from tiny red-flesh ones the size of your fist to gigantic ones that weigh more than 10 pounds)
31. Sweet Bananas - I should mention that this includes 9 or 10 types of all sizes and colours.
32. Plantains, ripe and unripe
33. Blueberries*
34. Cherries*
35. Pears
36. Apples
37. Peaches or Duraznos (the latter are small native peaches)
38. Apricots
39. Nectarines*
40. Pineapples - white flesh and yellow flesh
41. Oranges - sweet Seville, Navel, and bitter
42. Mandarins - Satsuma and 4 or 5 larger seeded varieties
43. Limes - Key, Kaffir, Sweet, Red, Striped, and Giant
44. Grapefruit
45. Lemons
46. Grapes* - green, red, and black
47. Pitahaya and Tuna (Cactus fruits)*
48. Uvillas (Cape gooseberries)
49. Strawberries
50. Blackberries
51. Guavas
52. Nisperos (Loquats)
53. Wild fruits* - this inclues Uva de Monte, Fuchsia Berries, and many more
54. Achiotillos* (Rambutans)
55. Palm fruits*, including Palm Peaches
56. Coconuts and Jungle Coconuts
57. Naranjillas (I have no equivalent. Look up Solanum quitoense)
58. Babaco
59. Passionfruits (three to five types including Maracuya, Granadilla, and Taxo)
60. Chirimoya*
61. Guayabana*
62. Jackfruits*
63. Breadfruits*
64. Lychee*
65. Other citrus I have missed (there are about 10 varieties)
66. Mangosteen*
67. Jungle fruits* - once a month we have a chance at Borojo, Aracai, and Acerola cherries, as well as a wider variety of palm fruits.
68. Sapote*
69. Cocoa* (whole in pod, or nibs)
70. Coffee
80. Fresh milled grain flours, from up to 15 varieties of grain, also, this grain whole hulled or unhulled.
81. Pepinos (again, I have no equivalent.)
82. Persimmons*
83. Tamarinds
84. Fresh boiled peanuts
85. All of the spices you can imagine, and a few you can't
86. Fresh-juiced sugarcane, as well as sugar in whole cane
87. Watermelons
88. Canteloupe
89. Kiwis*
90. Mulberries*
91. Something that looks like cherries but which is the size, flavour and texture of an olive. But when I ask, they say it's not an olive.
92. Something else that looks like cherries but is green inside and bitter. When I ask, they say it's not a cherry.
93. Heart of bamboo
94. Heart of palm (sometimes)
95. A fruit similar to mangosteens but which is much milkier and more rubbery-tasting.
96. Cloud plums

And stuff I forgot:

97. Asparagus
98. Fresh ginger roots from a variety of different types of ginger

Meat

99. Fresh fish, caught yesterday or sometimes this morning on the coast or in the mountain streams
100. Fresh (ie on the wing) chicken, ducks, geese, and turkey. Chicks are cheaper than chickens.
101. Fresh (ie on their little paws) cuy/guinea pig, rabbits, small furry edible animals including Huanchacas (possum)
102. Fresh (ie on the hoof) piglets, kid goats
103. Fresh (ie still wigglin' they little legs) crabs and lobsters
104. Fresh (ie slaughtered this morning) beef and pork - but this is hangin' in the wind. We don't buy it.

And more stuff I forgot

105. Dried spices including Cinnamon, Cloves, Achiote, and a number of other odd things.


And I've probably missed stuff. Like I know I've seen Okra on the tables, and there are still things I don't recognise. At the fixed markets (this is a free-market) the selection is similar. I can't get mushrooms there, but I can get them at the supermarket; same goes for variety of lettuce. Sometimes I can also find Colocasia (Taro.) There is also stuff that we don't eat and therefore I ignore. Ecuadorians have an amazing variety of fresh stuff in their diet!

If I am in the jungle, I can also sometimes get fresh palm maggots. Again, something to look at and not buy or eat.

Very little of this is grown more than 100 km from where I buy it.