Yuma, Arizona has seen some heat in the early part of this winter lettuce season, and now, some well below normal temperatures, and it’s all affecting lettuce.

ICEBERG LETTUCE (Monday, Dec. 1): This is shaping up to be one of the most volatile fall seasons for iceberg lettuce. Everything was going along so smoothly, as we transitioned from Salinas to Huron, but then growers started taking a hard look at the first fields in Yuma, Arizona. They didn’t like what they saw. Yuma had about 140 days of 100+ degrees. Some of those triple digit temperatures hit right during the first of the planting for winter lettuce. Some growers chose to withhold planting all together, and wait for cooler days. That put many growers about 2 weeks behind in planting. Those who went ahead and planted are seeing very low yields per acre. If an acre normally produces 800 cartons of lettuce, these growers are getting maybe 400 cartons, and much of that lettuce is pretty puffy and light in weight. Those light weights means processors have to buy more to fill their bags. That increased processor demand is magnifying the supply problems, and keeping iceberg lettuce in a very volatile position. And remember, generally when prices are high, quality is low.

In the summer, you may buy greener bananas (left), but in the winter, buy riper fruit.

BANANAS (Tuesday, Dec. 2): Twice a year, we need to adjust the way we buy bananas. First, in the summer, when sweltering hot temperatures can cause bananas to ripen literally overnight. And the second time of year is the winter, when blistering cold temperatures can cause chill damage to this tropical fruit. Well, it’s winter. At least the weather thinks so. The calendar won’t catch up until the first official day of winter on December 22 at 2:04 am EST. Nights are colder in our homes, especially for those who don’t live in Florida. When bananas are exposed to temperatures below 68 degrees, they can become more susceptible to chill damage. The cold temperatures will stop the ripening process and can cause the peel to turn a grayish color. First, buy your bananas in whole hands. It’s like, to prevent frostbite, you and a few others may bundle together in a sleeping bag. This helps produce and save more heat. When you separate the fingers from the hand, they are more susceptible to chill damage. Second, buy fruit that is riper. During the hot summer months, you try to buy fruit on the greener side. When it’s cold, buy riper fruit. When you get your bananas home, put them on the countertop, but cover them with a newspaper. It’s like covering your sensitive plants outside when it’s going to freeze. Just that simple covering can help stop or minimize chill damage. Remember, cold kills flavor and cold stops the ripening process. If that happens, don’t fret. Simply use those bananas in cooking.

More people traveling for the holidays, means less room for produce on those planes.

HOLIDAY TRAVEL (Wednesday, Dec. 3): During this time of year, airlines are busy hauling people, packages and mail. The U.S. Post Office has priority with cargo space, and with a lot of holiday mail and packages being shipped, air cargo space becomes a pretty tight commodity. Also, with increased travel, people are filling the planes, and that means a lot more luggage, again putting a strain on cargo space. Fresh fruits and vegetables have a lower priority, so some may very well be left on the tarmac in Chile, New Zealand, Australia and other countries, which we import from. This will primarily affect imported air-freighted commodities such as Asparagus from Peru, berries from Chile, baby vegetables, baby beans and berries from Guatemala, gold Pineapple from Costa Rica and Hawaii, early Cherries and Apricots from Chile, Strawberries from Australia. Once the holidays are over, air cargo space will loosen up a bit and we should get back to normal supplies.

How to keep this leaf lettuce fresh… for 21 days!

Never throw leaf lettuce away again.

LEAF LETTUCE (Thursday, Dec. 4): OK, since we’re going to pay higher prices for lettuce, we need to know how to get the most from our lettuce. That means, not throwing as much away. Using vertually 100%. Getting our money’s worth. Well, with leaf lettuce, there is a way of storing it that will allow you to have fresh leaf lettuce for up to 21 days. That’s right. I did say 21 days. Now, hopefully, by the end of 21 days, you would have eaten a few salads and used up your leaf lettuce. Here’s what to do. When you get your lettuce home, fill the sink with water and ice. You want ice cold water. Next, stand the leaf lettuce up, with the cut end on the counter. Now, find the center of the lettuce and push the leaves down to tear them off the core. I didn’t say “cut” them off. I said, “tear.” If you cut the leaf lettuce, you are cutting through the cell structure, causing valuable moisture to bleed out of the leaf, causing the leaf to dehydrate, wilt and decay. By tearing the leaf off the core, you are tearing around the natural cell structure of that leaf, thereby minimizing moisture loss. Next, swish those leaves in your sink full of ice water. Don’t “soak” the lettuce. Simply swish it through for 60 seconds or so. If you could look at a leaf of lettuce under a microscope, it would pretty much look like a spoonge. If you soak the leaf, that spoonge will soak up so much water, that it will burst many of the cells, again leading to moisture loss and wilting. Once you have swished the leaves through the ice water, shake off any excess water and then pat the leaves dry with a paper or cloth towel. Once dry, stack the leaves up and put them in a zip-lock plastic bag, pushing as much air out of the bag before you seal it. Then refrigerate your bag of lettuce. Folks, you can go back to that bag of lettuce in 21 days, and it will look like you purchased it yesterday. But, hopefully, within the 21 days, you would have used it up. By the way, this whole process is a great way to get your kids in the kitchen. Just make sure they wash their hands before you let them into the kitchen. Your kids, or grandkids, would love to swish the leaves in the ice water and then pat them dry and stack them up. The more your kids are having fun in the kitchen, the more likely they will eat healthier.

In the early part of the citrus season, a Navel Orange may be “mature” and sweet, but green. Ethylene helps to “degreen” the fruit, making the Orange…orange.

CITRUS AND ETHYLENE (Friday, Dec. 5): Ethylene is a naturally occurring ripening gas. As some fruits and vegetables mature, they produce this growth hormone, ethylene, which continues the ripening process. Without ethylene, some items, such as bananas, would never ripen. The produce industry uses ethylene to start the ripening process. Bananas, for example, are picked fully mature, but before they are mature enough to produce their own ethylene, which would allow them to start ripening on their own. After their journey from Central or South America to North America, they are placed in special rooms, which are then filled with ethylene to trigger the ripening process. The rooms are then aired out and the bananas sold, but they continue to ripen themselves by producing their own ethylene gas, going from the unripe green stages to the ready-to-eat yellow stage. Some tomatoes also are picked fully mature, but before they are mature enough to produce their own ethylene, and they are treated the same way bananas are. Same with Avocados and Kiwifruit. Early citrus still has some green on the skin, so ethylene kills the chlorophyll cells, allowing the orange color to come out in the skin. We call this process “degreening.” The word degreening simply means to get rid of the green color. As much as this procedure is simple in its basis and principles, it is also complicated in its application. In the very beginning of the season, some Navel oranges reach good pleasant taste but they are still green. The green color is not attractive to the consumers. This is because consumers know that green oranges are mostly immature. In order to convince consumers at that early time that there are tasty Navel oranges, the color must be changed from green to orange. This is done by degreening them. To understand the difference, we must know first why the Navel turns in the nature from green to orange color. In simple words, the weather is the cause. There are some optimum weather conditions that cause the ignition of the coloration. But these most favorable weather conditions are present in the nature for only few hours during the day. This is why on the trees, the Navel orange turns from green to orange color very slowly in a month and more. In the degreening process, these most favorable weather conditions for natural coloration are kept 24 hours per day. When the Navel oranges are exposed all the time to these best weather conditions, they naturally turn their color from green color to orange color within few days. Degreening rooms are the equipment used for the process. These rooms are totally insulated from the outside world. Green Navel oranges are stacked in these rooms. Parameters of the optimum weather conditions for turning the color from green to orange are then regulated, kept, and monitored around the clock. The main parameters are Temperature, Humidity, Oxygen level, Carbon dioxide level (CO2), and of course, the Ethylene level. The idea is that we can make the color of the fruit attractive to the consumer by degreening it but we can do nothing about the taste. This is why, we never start the degreening season before we make sure that the taste is good. This is done in laboratories by analysis called maturity tests. When the analysis shows that the fruits of a certain field have reached the permissible maturity index (sugar levels), we can start the degreening process at once. If the fruits of another field do not reach the satisfying maturity index, the degreening process of this field is postponed until it gets the right maturity state. Sometimes, you may get some dark green spots on the peel. This is called oleocellosis. The green fruit peel is very sensitive to the shocks. The least friction or shock make a rupture in the peel. Usually, this is caused when the pickers pick wet fruit. The peel is all puffy from the moisture, so the picker’s grip will injure the peel. This injury spreads and makes a spot that does not degreen in the degreening room. The result is ugly blemished peel, but that does not affect the eating quality of that orange.

A LITTLE SCIENCE Here’s the scientific equation for Ethylene. Rearrange the Hydrogens and the Carbons, and you’ll have polyethylene, plastic that we use for bags and soda bottles. Substitute a Chloride for one of the Hydrogens, and you’ll have vinyl chloride, from which we get PVC pipe.