Best if Used By 08/30/10

Eat This Now for the week of August 23rd, 2010 features: Green Grapes, Plumcots, White Flesh Peaches, Celery, and Baby Greens.

1. Green Grapes

Just a little heads-up… Some of the best quality of the year is here on Green Seedless Grapes! The Princess and Thompson varieties are top notch from California – crisp and surprisingly sweet. Look for advertised and in-store specials the next few weeks.

I had the opportunity to visit some of Dulcich’s beautiful vineyards in Delano, CA this week. Wow – they have some the gorgeous fruit hanging on the vines. Shown here is the Princess variety Green Seedless Grape, known for it’s large berry size and oblong shape. When they are grown with the best cultural practices like the Dulcich family uses and allowed to fully ripen on the vine, this variety is also very sweet!

2. Plumcots/Pluots

Thanks to the generous hospitality of the Jackson family of Family Tree Farms in Reedley, CA I was able to study briefly this week at their Flavor Tech University, tour their orchards and taste-test fruit. Their Plumcots rock! Pluots and Plumcots are definitely worth a try right now – packed with natural sugary sweetness and intriguing flavor. I know you’ll love ‘em!

Interesting Stuff: As if keeping track of new fruit varieties isn’t hard enough… Did you know that Pluots are proprietary-branded hybrids of Plumcots? So: Kleenex is to Facial Tissue as Pluot is to Plumcot. Plumcots, are hybrids, not GMO’s, that have 2/3 Plum and 1/3 Apricot parentage. There are many colors, sizes and flavor profiles – keep trying new ones like the Fruit Punch or Dapple Dandy or Flavor Grenade since varieties come and go about every two weeks through late September. Oh, and that powdery coating you often find on the fruit is not spray residue or something else cryptic – it is called bloom, the natural protective wax on the skin of the fruit. That’s why they shine up so nice when you rub that bloom on the skin.

3. White Flesh Peaches

Beautiful red skin color and large sizing is what I saw, and tremendous sweet crunch is what I tasted on White Flesh Peaches this week at Family Tree Farms in CA.

Interesting stuff: White Flesh Peaches are highly prized in Southeast Asia, and the very biggest ones are hand-packed then air-shipped to Taiwan for a premium. The extra large and large fruit will stay in the US and Canada. White Flesh Peaches are picked ready to eat. Leaving them out at room temperature will soften them, but not sweeten them. Avoid the 39-50 degree range (aka your refrigerator) since the cell structure of Peaches begins to break down and the fruit loses favor and texture.

4. Celery

When’s the last time you had a low calorie snack that was crunchy, juicy and freshly delicious? I can tell you that nothing tastes quite like freshly harvested celery – a simple pleasure. Celery and Celery Hearts are high quality and plentiful right now – go for it!

Interesting Stuff: Hard-working harvesters hand-pick the entire Celery field in one sweep, separating each celery bunch by size and packing them into sleeves and cartons. The smallest bunches are taken to a Celery Heart machine that washes and trims the Celery into hearts-sizing right out in the field. At Dole in Salinas, CA, where I visited this week, I learned that they continue to improve their varieties to have a sweeter and less stringy stalk of Celery.

5. Baby Greens

Spring Mix, Mesclun or Baby Greens – no matter what you call these blends of miniature lettuce greens, one thing you have to call them is flavorful. Bold, spicy, tangy, nutty, earthy – there are flavors galore. Now is a great time to top your sandwich or start a salad with Organic or Conventional Baby Greens, plus they’re frequently on ad in bags or clamshell containers.

Interesting Stuff: Each type of green is grown in separate field plots since the varieties don’t have the same maturity rate, plus if there is a growing or pest issue with one type of green the others would not be affected. At my visit to Earthbound Farms in Salinas, CA I got to see the amazing harvester machine that cuts the greens with precision, vacuums them up, separates out any debris or dirt-covered greens and fills bins which are rushed off to the packing facility where they are cooled, washed, blended and packaged.

Forward this to a friend if you think they’ll like it – Here’s to fresh!

The Produce Geek,

Jonathan K. Steffy

Best if Used By 08/23/10

Eat This Now for the week of August 16th, 2010 features: Honeydew, California Cantaloupes, Cauliflower, Plums, and Variety Peppers.

1. Honeydew

Sweet, juicy, luscious… If you eat one Honeydew all year – make sure to do it between now and early September because the season’s peak is upon us!  And when Honeydew Melons are at their best even non-melon-eaters can love them – they’re just that awesome.

End of the summer harvests in California net large, sweet Honeydew – no crunchy, cucumber tasting fruit here.  For maximum deliciousness, allow you Honeydew to ripen at room temperature until the skin color fades to show a bit of light tan/yellow color.  It will also start to feel waxy, smell sweet and give just slightly to thumb pressure.  Do not be afraid of a few hard brown vein-looking things on the outside as they’re often an indication of high sugar contents.  I hope you’re blown away!

2.  California Cantaloupes

Need a color compliment for that crazy-yummy Honeydew in your melon bowl?  California Cantaloupes will fit the bill.  They taste good, have firm, dense flesh and are extremely plentiful – and plentiful equates to Ad Prices and cheap in-store specials the next two weeks.  Just in time too, because Athena-style Cantaloupes from the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-West are on the wane from their peak run.  California Organic Cantaloupes are available too – at a higher price.

3.  Cauliflower

Look for deals on Organic and Conventional Cauliflower right now.  There’s plenty of supply on quality product, but not much demand.  So if you need a break from Sweet Corn (no way!) or something flavorful to add to your veggie – Cauliflower is the way to go this week.

4.  Plums

Are you a fan of fresh Plums?  Well, go get your Plum on, because there is a flush of jumbo-sized, juicy Red and Black Plums from California hitting stores and markets across the country.  “Red” and “Black” refer to the skin color, the flesh will be yellow with tinges of pink on most varieties this week.  Prices will be affordable and quality is nice.  If Plums just aren’t consistently sweet enough for you, upgrade to Pluots.

5.  Variety Peppers

Peak of the local season is here for many parts of the country on Variety Peppers – what better time to enjoy old favorites and experiment with new ones than now! How well do you know your Chili’s?  Here are some you might find at your local market:

• Cubanelle: aka Frying Peppers, crooked-cone shaped, lime green, thin-walled and mild – great for stuffing and frying
• Banana: sweet, yellow-green – make sure they’re sweet banana instead of hot yellow wax
• Poblano: aka Pasilla, dark green, wide-flat cone shape, mild, great for Tex-Mex and stuffing
• Anaheim: green, red when mature, shape = Chili’s restaurant symbol, mild to medium heat, ideal in Southwest cooking and salsa
• Long Hots: long, slender, crooked, dark green, medium heat but hot when you get to the seeds (these were served whole, raw to me at a business lunch with Italian Hoagies in NYC once – I’ve been a fan ever since)
• Hungarian: aka Yellow Wax, hot stuff
• Jalapeno: small, dark green, immediately spicy; perfect for salsa, pico de gallo and kicking anything up a notch
• Serrano: like Jalapeno’s, except lighter green, thinner and hotter
• Scotch Bonnet and Habanero: Holy Cow! you better know what you are doing with these green, red or orange little gnarled-cone shaped mega-hot peppers – Watch out!

Forward this to a friend if you think they’ll like it – Here’s to fresh!

The Produce Geek,

Jonathan K. Steffy

Best if Used By 08/16/10

Eat This Now for the week of August 9th, 2010 features: Heirloom Tomatoes, Organic Peaches & Nectarines, Bartlett Pears, Champagne Grapes, and Variety Watermelons.

1. Heirloom Tomatoes

Ugly food is often beautifully delicious. Peak of the year Tomato time is here for the next few weeks, and the best part is that Heirloom Tomatoes are plentiful almost anywhere that people care passionately about good, real food. Author and farmer, Tim Stark who grows Heirloom Tomatoes here in Southeastern PA, talks about “character” in this video:

“Heirloom” is a catch-all term for non-hybrid Tomato varieties, many of which are quite old. They come in all sorts of fantastically interesting shapes, colors, sizes and flavors – from earthy to sweet, from robust to smooth, from massive to tiny. Seek out Heirlooms at farmer markets and produce-centric supermarkets. German Queen is my favorite! All Heirloom Tomatoes tend to be soft and have a short shelf life, plus they just look weird with characteristics that would normally be referred to as imperfections. But if you care about flavor, you’ll find those imperfections to be beautifully delicious indeed!

2. Organic Peaches & Nectarines

If you’ve been curious what Organic Peaches and Nectarines are like this year, then now is the time to buy some. California, Oregon and Washington are harvesting some outstanding quality Organic fruit right now, and volumes are good so expect better than usual prices.

3. Bartlett Pears

Been a while since you had a good Pear? Sweet, creamy Bartlett Pears are back. The fresh crop is coming from California now, both Organic and Conventional. Let them ripen to a golden yellow color maximum sweetness and juiciness.

4. Champagne Grapes

Break out the bubblay! Well, not exactly. Think “snack bubbling with flavor” instead of “French region famous for bubbly wine.”

California Champagne Grapes are miniature, amber-colored, snacking grapes with thin, tender stems – stems so tender that you can actually eat a cluster vines and all, if you’re an impatient fruitivore like me. This seasonal delicacy is available now Organically and Conventionally in 1lb containers at specialty food stores and upscale grocers.

5. Variety Watermelons

It is peak of the season for Watermelons in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Mid-West, along with other parts of the country. YumYum! So now also is the best time to look for Variety Watermelons at farmer markets and stores that support regional farmers. Here are a few types to keep an eye out for this week:

• Sugar Babies: dark green skin, round, crisp flesh that is very sweet – there are both seeded and seedless varieties
• Yellow Dolls & Yellow Seedless: look like normal watermelons until you cut them open to reveal the sweet yellow flesh
• Orangeglo: rich orange flesh

Forward this to a friend if you think they’ll like it – Here’s to flavor!

The Produce Geek,

Jonathan K. Steffy