Eat This Now for the Week of 07/19/10
2010
Best if Used By 07/26/10
Eat This Now for the week of July 19th, 2010 features: Green Bell Peppers, Yellow Peaches, Blueberries, Eggplant, and Variety Eggplant.
“Buy Fresh – Buy Local” right?
The term “local” will not be defined here, that is for you to decide based on what is grown near you and your access to it. No matter what you idea of “local” is, it’s hard to argue its benefits – connection to your region and community, less food miles, supporting your area economy and agriculture, plus the freshness factor.
In my neck of the woods, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania local fresh produce is coming on strong. This week I took a trip to southern New Jersey to do some tours of farms that sell to the produce wholesaler I work for. We visited a peach grower and packinghouse in Glassboro; two blueberry growers in Hammonton, one of which grows organically; and a vegetable grower in Vineland. The day was full of fun, sand, mud, sun and some serious rain too – here is some of what I saw:
1. Green Bell Peppers
Most of Bob Flaim’s Green Bell Pepper crop survived the dramatic 4th of July heatwave and is now looking good. As the plants continue to grow, they are trellised up with string – another foot taller is expected. The Peppers have thick walls and a mild flavor. Look for prices at farmer markets and grocery stores to get nice and affordable in the next few weeks.
2. Yellow Peaches
I’ve been to a lot of orchards, but never in a rain deluge – oh my! From what I could see (which wasn’t very far in front of me at the time) the peak of summer Red Haven varieties of Yellow Peaches are sizing up well. Field bins are brought to the packinghouse where the Peaches are graded by hand, machines sort them by skin color and size and add PLU stickers, and finally the fruit is packaged into boxes for shipping.
3. Blueberries
I LOVE New Jersey Blueberries – mm-mm-mmmm! So it was a wonderful treat to listen to two different growers talk about their farms while snacking on Bluecrop and Elliott variety berries right out in the fields. The scale and scope of what it takes to pick and pack fresh Blueberries is incredible. Even with all of the fruit we saw on the bushes, the overall NJ crop is winding down and much of it will go to processing. If you can’t find NJ Blueberries – don’t worry, Oregon, Washington and Michigan are rockin’ with their harvests right now.
4. Eggplant
For those of you that have grown Eggplant in your garden before, you’d have been impressed with the shoulder-height trellised Eggplant plants at Flaim Farms! Peak quality and great availability is upon us – Parmesan anyone?
5. Variety Eggplant
Into Asian or Italian cuisine? Like experimenting on the grill? Keep an eye out for Variety Eggplant like the ones Bob Flaim grows on his farm: small Italian, fancy White, dark purple and slender Japanese, ribbed Indian, miniature striped Fairytale, thin White Fairytale, thin lavender Neon, round lavender Sicilian, striped Graffiti and even unnamed Green Variety Eggplants.
Other regions are harvesting summer vegetable and berries too – like Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Oregon and Washington, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. ProduceGeek.com has readers throughout he US and even parts of Canada. Post comments on what’s good at local farms where you live!
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