Summer doesn’t end loudly. It softens. The stone fruit slows, the air sharpens in the early mornings, and the market floor feels different. The colours deepen. The conversations shift. Buyers lean into roots, into structure, into produce that carries weight.

Autumn is a season of recalibration.

For this fifth edition of Coltivare and our first for 2026, we’ve turned our focus to the independent grocers. The backbone of our customers. The ones unlocking shop doors before sunrise. The ones who know their regulars by name. The ones who stand behind every tomato, every capsicum, every crate, as their own badge of approval.

In these pages, we highlight a customer who has stood with us for more than three decades, proof that relationships, when built properly, outlast trends and market swings. We’ve also stepped back onto the farm, where produce is in abundance from tomatoes and mini capsicums thriving in glasshouse row lines that have become extremely popular within retail stores across Sydney and beyond.

This edition is about connection. Grower to agent. Agent to the grocer. Grocer to family table.

With an exciting year ahead, we remain committed to sharing these stories of growers pushing innovation, grocers leading with quality, chefs cooking with restraint and purpose, and industry people who quietly hold it all together.

At its core, Coltivare is about innovation and storytelling. About moving with the seasons. About showing up.

Autumn is here. Let’s get to work.