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Last week’s YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLE still dealt with with summer fruit: What is the oldest deciduous fruit tree in California? This fruit is called one of the "Mission Fruits," brought to California by the Spanish missionaries and monks, along with their Figs and Grapes. The first fruits sold on the San Francisco market was this fruit, grown at Mission Santa Clara. As pioneers made their way westward, they met with tremendous obstacles. After crossing the Sierra Nevada and making their way across the great valley, they were met at these missions with a bowl of this fruit and cream. The oldest deciduous fruit tree in California, the first fruit sold on the San Francisco market, and the fruit that greeted weary pioneers at the missions…was the pear. This week's YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLE still deals with summer tomatoes: What makes a tomato an "Heirloom Tomato?" See next week’s Fresh Tips for the answer. |
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TOMATOES (Monday, August 23): Back-to-back hurricanes haven't struck so close together in Florida since Oct. 17, 1906 and it is already having an impact in produce supplies and pricing, especially with tomatoes, including vine-ripes, mature green, grape and cherry tomatoes. Tropical Storm Bonnie hit the Florida panhandle, dropping 10” of rain throughout the northern growing region of Florida. Less than 24 hours later, Charley slammed into western Florida as a category 4 hurricane, and then sent tropical storms up the eastern seaboard from the Carolinas to New England, affecting local tomato crops in South Carolina, Tennessee, New York and New Jersey. And that will greatly limit supplies and of course, lead to higher prices. Already on the wholesale market, tomato prices have more than doubled, dancing around $1 a pound. That leads to about $1.99 per pound retail, double of what it should be for this time of year. August should be one of the best months for tomatoes in the United States, with most major growing regions in full production, except Florida. But when storms like this hamper the harvest of about half the tomatoes available for the U.S., prices jump up dramatically and quickly.
These storms not only affect supplies right now, but they also affect tomato supplies right into the all. Florida growers were just laying plastic for most of their fall/winter crop of tomatoes. Florida grows about 50,000 acres of field tomatoes, accounting for over $500 million in sales. One grower says, “If there ever was a time for a hurricane here in Florida, it’s this time of year. We don’t have our fall crops in the ground yet. We will most likely have to back and relay plastic, but that should delay our planting by only a week or so. We’ll have to wait for the soil to dry out anyway before we get tractors back into the fields. Depending on weather over the next few months, this could easily delay harvest of our fall crop of tomatoes. If these storms hit just a few weeks later, these fields would have been loaded with new plantings, and we for sure would have had to re-plant.” Hurricane Andrew, hit Florida with a vengeance on Monday, Aug. 24, 1992, producing more than $25 billion in damages, including about $4 billion in agricultural damage to Florida State, the #2 agriculture producing state in the Union. “It was a modern day apocalypse,” one grower said after Hurricane Andrew blew through agriculture-rich Southern Florida .
ROW CROP VEGETABLES (Tuesday, August 24): Tomatoes are not the only crop being affected by Hurricane Charley. Most other row crop vegetables being grown on the eastern shore will also have an impact on prices across the country. This includes crops like Bell Peppers, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Green Beans and Squash. There are several things, which will affect supplies of these crops across the eastern seaboard. First, is direct damage to the fruit that is already on the plants. Second is to the blossoms on the plants. These represent fruit 30 – 45 days from now, which are our supplies in late September. Third will be damage to the plants themselves. Leaves will be ripped off, stems torn. This will put plants into stress, reducing food sent to the fruit, saving food for the plant to survive. This will greatly reduced yields and quality. Fourth will be the spread of disease, and this too will have a great impact on yields and quality. Many of these crops grown from the Carolinas into New England will have various degrees of these problems over the next 6 – 8 weeks. Buyers who depend on eastern row crops will be looking to other regions of the country for supplies, including Michigan, Ohio, the Northwest and the West. This increase demand pressure will raise prices. In fact, on most of these commodities, prices have taken big jumps upward. The only thing that could help moderate price increases will be national demand. East Coast consumers are more concerned about survival, so that immediately decreases produce demand. Depending on how long that lack of demand lasts, will determine how large and how long the price spike will happen. In Florida, where about half of the winter row crops are grown for the United States, growers were just preparing soil with plastic. Growers say that very minimal acreage had already been laid with plants. They do think many fields will have to be re-laid with plastic. This could delay the start of the fall/winter crop by just a week or so. Most are hoping this setback won’t last too long.
SWEET POTATOES (Wednesday, August 25): Hurricane Fran hit North Carolina in 1996, during this time of year. The Sweet Potato crop was just about ready for harvest. With over a foot of rainfall, the potatoes became waterlogged in the soil and rotted in the fields before harvest could take place. That year, growers lost about 45 – 50% of the crop. Growers are quickly accessing damage to the potatoes still in the ground. North Carolina is the #1 supplier of sweet potatoes to the United States growing about 40% of the nation’s supply from about 33,000 acres. Louisiana grows about 35% of the nation’s supply, followed by California. What makes Sweet Potatoes more susceptible to water in the ground is the fact that they are not tubers like a russet potato, but actually the roots of the sweet potato plant. Roots are more susceptible to being waterlogged because it cuts off the oxygen supply to the root system, which chokes the life out of the plant. And that leads to quick decay of this root. The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is another of the native American plants found by Columbus and his shipmates. Although it was probably found on various islands of the West Indies on some of the earlier voyages, it is not definitely mentioned in their records until the fourth voyage. In the islands off the coast of Yucatan and Honduras the sweet potato was called axi and batatas or betatas by the natives; in 1514, Peter Martyr named nine varieties that grew in Honduras. It was taken to Spain about 1500 and several kinds were cultivated there by the middle of the 16th century, including red, purple, and pale or "white" varieties.
Cultivation of sweet potatoes was tried unsuccessfully in Belgium in 1576. John Gerarde of London, claimed that in 1597 he grew the plant in England (probably without much success) and that it was known in India, Barbary, and other hot regions. Early Spanish explorers are believed to have taken the sweet potato to the Philippines and East Indies, from which it was soon carried to India, China, and Malaya by Portuguese voyagers. The original introductions from America into the Pacific and Far East were so unobtrusive that the origin of the plant was long overlooked, many believing it native to southern and southeastern Asia. Sweet potatoes were cultivated in Virginia in 1648, possibly earlier, and are said to have been taken into New England in 1764. They were grown by the Indians of our South in the 18th century, but we do not know how much earlier. In the South today they are generally preferred to Irish potatoes as a staple food; in the North the reverse is true. Generally speaking, the northern consumers prefer the so-called "dry-fleshed" type of sweet potato, such as Big Stem Jersey and Little Stem Jersey, while the southerners prefer the "moist-fleshed" type, such as the Porto Rico and Nancy Hall varieties. A strange fact about these two types of sweet potato is that the "dry-fleshed" ones have more water in them than the "moist-fleshed" ones do! The soft, rich, "moist" varieties are erroneously called "yams" in the United States. This confusion in names is unfortunate, since the yam is an entirely different plant, belonging to the genus Dioscorea. True yams are still a curiosity in the United States. The flesh of most sweet potato varieties is white or nearly so, although in the United States we prefer yellow or orange-fleshed varieties because of their valuable carotene (provitamin A) content. Some kinds have purple flesh, but they are not grown here. Skin colors range from nearly white through shades of buff to brown or through pink to copper, even magenta and purple. Americans are prejudiced against the purplish skin colors because certain "red" varieties formerly grown here were of poor quality.
DONUT PEACHES (Thursday, August 26): These cool looking peaches were originally known as a “Chinese Flat Peach,” and was very popular in China. It’s time to get your 5-a-day by eating 5 donuts a day…Donut Peaches that is. Domestically, there are two main growing regions, California and Washington. Frieda’s Finest, a specialty produce supplier got America to fall in love with the cute and cuddly Kiwifruit. Now, they are bringing back one of the truly stone fruit treats, the Flat Peach. It has a white flesh, very thin skin and is loaded with sugar and flavor. That’s one of the reasons they are still so expensive. A thin skin makes them tougher to harvest, handle and pack. High sugar content means they ripen very quickly and become too soft to pack. Heh, here’s a peach, when ripe, that you’ll have to roll up your sleeves to eat. The Donut Peach is also named Peento, Chinese Flat, or Saucer Peach and is deservingly regaining popularity. This white-fleshed variety, originally from China, was first grown in the United States in the 1800s. It was popular for some years directly after World War II. As many new varieties of yellow-fleshed peach gained popularity, this excellent variety was nearly forgotten. Donut Peach is much flatter in height than traditional peaches, with a slight center depression top and bottom. It has yellow skin, slightly blushed with red. This juicy peach has a superb flavor and is very low in acid and very high in soluble solids, with a hint of almonds and a sweet finish. Donut Peach is excellent for baking, glazing, sautéing in butter and brown sugar, but best of all eaten out of hand. By the way, you won’t find these at Krispy Kreme.
RUSSET POTATOES (Friday, August 27): The new crop of Russet Potatoes has begun. From Maine to Washington, potato farmers are beginning to dig up some of the first Russets, the Norkotah variety. The famous Burbank usually begins harvest by early September. We call the first of the potato crop “fresh dug.” These potatoes are dug, washed, packed and sent to the market. There is no storage time on the potato, which would allow the spud to dry. That’s why you may find some wet potatoes in your bag of spuds. Don’t worry. Just open the bag and allow the spuds to dry out. If you keep them wet, that would cause quick decay and spoilage.
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