Best if Used By 03/08/10

Eat This Now for Tuesday March 2, 2010 features: Red Grapefruit, Asparagus, Gold Pineapples, Premium Winter Apples, and Romaine Hearts.

1. Red Grapefruit

Need a ray of sunshine this week?  Refresh yourself with Red Grapefruit.  “But Produce Geek, Grapefruit take too much work to eat, plus – aren’t they sour?”  Good Grapefruit are sour… AND sweet.  Add sugar to peak of the season Grapefruit? – that’s like adding sugar to Frosted Flakes.  Nature has ‘em all sweetened up for you when the crop is at it’s best.  Right now Organic and Conventional Red Flame and Dark Red Grapefruit varieties from Florida are about as good as they come.  Texas Rio Star Grapefruit are high quality too.  Skin scars and blemishes do not impact flavor, so choose your Red Grapefruit by what feels heavy for it’s size to get ones packed with juice.

You’re right, Grapefruit are indeed tedious to cut and section, especially if you’re an impatient fruitivore like me.  Here are some videos of methods some folks use to get at the juicy goodness post-haste:

• Peel ‘n Section (in 2 min., but video takes 3 min?)
• Quick-Slice ‘n Section: (why sweat the membranes!)
• Halve ‘n Section (with Plastic Knife, umm -no spoon? are you on a plane?)
• Hack ‘n Chop (right up my alley, straight forward and fast)

2. Asparagus

Great price, great quality – why not go for it!  Give yourself a preview of Spring.  New crop Green Asparagus is abundant from Mexico right now and just begging to be steamed, sauteed, boiled, grilled or baked into your favorite casserole.  Organic Asparagus will be about as low priced as it ever gets in the next two weeks.

P.S. Garlic and Lemons totally dig hangin’ out with Asparagus in tasty recipes.

3. Gold Pineapples

Last call!  Super Sweet variety Gold Pineapples will be shorter in supply in coming weeks due to light supplies.  So why highlight them?  Well, there are still decent amounts of XL and Jumbo Gold Pineapples in the pipeline this week and lots of hot advertised specials in major supermarket chains to promote them.  Grab one or two before the price goes up.

4. Premium Winter Apples

Got hooked on Honeycrisp, but not sure what apple to buy now since they are done for the season?  Time to try something new, but not sacrifice on flavor and texture.  Here are four premium winter varieties you might find in that spot where the Honeycrisps used to be at your supermarket:

• Ambrosia: Fine-textured flesh, aromatic, very sweet – think Golden Delicious meets a marshmallow. (though crop is finishing soon)
  

   

• Jazz: Hard and crunchy, tart yet still quite sweet – interesting.
  

   

• Pacific Rose: Crisp, lightly sweet, juicy crunch – almost floral.
  

   

• Pinata: Crisp, clean flesh, old-time apple flavor with tropical undertones.
  

Hate mealy apples? Vote for your favorite Non-Mushy Apple below:

Campaign Against Mushy Apples – Who likes mushy apples? Exactly. Vote for your favorite NON-Mushy apple variety available in Winter, and Yes, there are some major varieties missing that can be way too inconsistent on texture this time of year. P.S. Alas, Honeycrisp are done for the season. And, yo – Gala and Granny Smith, you’re both on my mushy-watchlist this time of the year.

5. Romaine Hearts

Take advantage of heavy harvests and discounted pricing this week on Organic and Conventional Romaine Hearts.  Hearts are sweeter and crisper than the dark green outer leaves of Romaine.  Romaine Hearts usually hold up well in your refrigerator, but I do recommend that you use what you buy quickly this week.  These Romaine Hearts were subjected to lots of rain earlier in their growing cycle, loading them with water.  Excess water can turn to rib-rust or pick ribbing several days after the lettuce has been harvested, so don’t dilly-dally – fresh is best anyway!

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

The Produce Geek,
Jonathan K. Steffy

Best if Used By 01/18/10

Eat This Now for Tuesday January 12, 2010 features: Cara Cara Oranges, Blood Oranges, Jazz Apples, Granny Smith Apples, and Iceberg Lettuce.

1. Cara Cara Oranges

Sweeeet!  These are some seriously awesome oranges.  Find them.  Ask for them.  Try them.  Become a believer.  Cara Cara’s are a delicious variety of Navel that looks like a normal orange from the outside… but cut one open and you’ll discover that the flesh is pink to light red in color.  Cool!  Taste the juicy fruit and you’ll be hit with a sweet-tart blast of orange flavor with cranberry undertones.  Yum!

Peak of the seasons Cara Cara Navels are being harvested in the San Joaquin Valley of California right now and the fruit should only get sweeter as the season continues into February, March and April.  Double-check that little sticker on the orange at the store to make sure you’re not picking up a regular navel.  Slice ‘em into wedges for a power-snack.  (No worries, they’re virtually seedless.)  Cara Cara’s are jammed with Vitamin C and are a great source of Vitamin A, fiber and Lycopene too.  Sweet and extra healthy – might this be the Super Orange?

2. Blood Oranges

Don’t let the name weird you out.  This could become your favorite variety of orange.  It’s mine!  This fruit gets it’s name from the dark maroon flesh that bleeds, umm – I mean, drips red when you cut them open.  Blood Oranges have a rich flavor with hints of berry and plum.  Mmm – sweet and exotic.  Like Cara Cara’s, the “Moro” variety Blood Orange is approaching it’s peak harvest right now and will be around through April.  Moro Blood Oranges from California tend to be smaller than Navels and get a dark red blush on their skin later in the season brought on by cool nights.  Try some of these ruby gems and you just might find out that you’re a Citrus Vampire.  Go Team Blood Orange!

3. Jazz Apples

If you have yet to try this exciting apple, go hunting (and asking) for them – you’ll be glad you did.  Tangy and sweet, firm-fleshed Jazz are full of flavor and crunch.  This cross between Gala and Braeburn tends run on the small size, making them an ideal snacking apple.  Jazz are worth a try for Honeycrisp fans that can’t find their favorite around anymore this season.

4. Granny Smith Apples

The quintessential green apple, Granny Smith are nicely tart and firmly crisp.  Granny’s are the perfect apple when you need a snack to pucker your lips, to pair with caramel dip, to top salads with when paired with a sweeter dressing, plus they are versatile in cooking and baking.  Storage Granny Smith Apples from Washington State continue to be in steady supply and their quality is holding up well – still crunchy!  Granny’s don’t need to be all green to be good, some blush on the skin is fine.  Just be gentle – they bruise easily.

5. Iceberg Lettuce

There are some good volumes being harvested right now on Iceberg Lettuce (sometime called Head Lettuce) in California and Arizona so growers are making deals.  Look for in-store specials at the store this week.  The heads are fairly heavy and quality has made dramatic improvements over November and December.  Iceberg is a crunchy lettuce that is loaded with water – ideal for sandwiches and fresh salads.  To add some more flavor and color to your salad, mix chopped Iceberg Lettuce with dark green Romaine Lettuce or your favorite European-style packaged salad blend.

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

The Produce Geek,
Jonathan K. Steffy

Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great Fruit and Vegetable content that we come across during our daily activities at work. We share these tid bits of knowledge with those of you interested on Twitter.

The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the tweets that we sent out this past week.

To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @TheProduceGeek

• Eat This Now: Jazz Apples, Bananas, Sunburst Tangerines, Idaho Potatoes, Organic Hass Avocados. read more… http://bit.ly/8zg4Uj
• Curious about which favorite Thanksgiving #freshproduce items are good this week? read more… http://bit.ly/70FSJL
• RT @JAZZAPPLES_NZ: Want to know where to get a taste of JAZZ Apples in North America, follow the Crunch Tour @jazzapple
• Jazz Music, Jazz Festivals, Jazz Bands – Jazz Apples? http://bit.ly/8tz9s1
• Spitting seeds can be fun! Just ask baseball players or fans of Sunburst Tangerines. http://bit.ly/5jpiow
• Curious about which favorite Thanksgiving #freshproduce items are good this week? read more… http://bit.ly/59jNJ2
• Sunburst Tangerines are NOT just like Clementines, but still worth a try. http://bit.ly/5jpiow
• INSIDER ALERT: New arrivals of Florida Sunburst Tangerines look outstanding, eat good too.
• Hate mushy apples? Tired of the same old varieties? Try Jazz Apples. http://bit.ly/5q7sul
• Delicious! RT @favoriteproduce: Satsuma Mandarins is like peeling open candy. One segment at a time: http://bit.ly/7RPHrV
• #iamthankfulfor FRESH produce! eat more of it, you’ll be glad you did
• Learn more about the health benefits of Jazz Apples… http://bit.ly/5Kz6Xg
• #goodfood is FRESH! Wondering what fresh produce is BEST each week? checkout www.producegeek.com