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Last week’s YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLE still dealt with apples: Most apple varieties have white blossoms. This one has pink blossoms? What apple is it? You can spot this tree in the orchard by looking at its blossoms. This apple variety has an unknown origin, but in the early 1800s, it was considered the “most favored cider apple in West Jersey.” Next to the Granny Smith, this apple variety also has a bit of tartness. This apple keeps better than other varieties, staying crisp and firm long after apple season. This pink-blossomed apple is the…Winesap. This week’s YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLE still deals with apples: This apple variety is a cross between a Red Delicious and a Ralls Janet and was first hybred in the 1930s. What is it? See next week's "Fresh Tips" for the answer. |
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NAVEL ORANGES (Monday, Dec. 6): Yesterday, December 5, in 1901, Walt Disney was born, and so was the happiest place on earth. Disneyland. In the 1950s, when Walt was eyeing land in Anaheim, he had a few things to overcome. In fact, a few thousand things. Things called trees. Orange trees. This isn’t called “Orange County” for nothing. This was orange country, and in order to Walt to build Disneyland, he had to first convince a few Orange growers to sell their land to him. There was one holdout. Finally, Walt went to visit him and promised that the farmer’s family name would forever be on Main Street, Disneyland. It still is to this day. If you travel down Disneyland, look to your right, about half way down Main Street. You’ll find a second story window with the farmer’s name clearly etched, with an Orange tree etched next to it. And even today, this farmer’s great grandchildren get to visit Disneyland…for free. Well, speaking of Oranges, this time of year, we start getting some pretty sweet Navel Oranges, and the color is what we call “natural” color, or “nat color.” Night temperatures have been getting cold enough in the San Joaquin Valley of California, to help trigger the color production. Up until this time, most growers have been using Ethylene to color the fruit. 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.
TRANSPORTATION (Tuesday, Dec. 7): The transportation of fruits and vegetables, from around the nation and around the world, continues to be a battle. Truck availability is as tight as the supply of tomatoes. In fact, some shipments are being delayed for up to 5 days. This critical transportation shortage is unparalleled with anything we’ve seen before in the produce industry. This year, the deteriorating situation has been magnified by some of the following:
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, 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.
RUSSET POTATO (Wednesday, Dec. 8): The Jewish
holiday of Chanukah begins this weekend, the Feast of Lights. So
get out the spuds for your latkes. A Latke is a crisp, fried Jewish
potato pancake, with eggs, onion, matzo meal and seasonings. Usually
served with applesauce and sour cream. The wives of the Maccabees
supposedly served them to their husbands as they prepared to drive
the ancient Syrians from their land. Latkes are eaten during Chanukah,
the Feast of Lights, to commemorate the victory. Always press the
water out of the potatoes (using your hands or a colander) after
you grate them but before you mix in other ingredients--it makes
for a firmer latke! Anything can be made low-fat just by changing
how you cook the latke! For a lower fat version, just fry for a
minute or two on each side, and bake latkes for about 10 minutes
at 400-450 degrees, then another 5 minutes on the other side. Always
use canola or peanut oil for frying. Lighter-tasting oils are essential
for the flavors of the latkes to emerge without being overpowered
by a lot of a strong-flavored oil. Latkes are traditional Hanukkah
foods. They are fried in oil, and remind us of the miracle of the
oil which burned for eight days rather then for one. It is said
that oil is like studying Torah in two ways.
CHEMICALS IN FOOD (Thursday, Dec. 9): "No human diet can be free of naturally occurring chemicals that are rodent carcinogens. Of the chemicals that people eat, 99.99% are natural." So says Bruce Ames, Ph.D. and Lois Swirsky Gold, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, two of the leading authorities on the relation of cancer and chemicals. Have you taken a look at your holiday dinner? You would be amazed at the chemicals in your foods for the holidays. And these are chemicals that are carcinogenetic. A holiday menu analysis was prepared by the American Council on Science and Health staff, directors, and scientific advisors, with technical assistance from Dr. Ruth Kava, Director of Nutrition, and Dr. Leonard Flynn, scientific consultant. Of the 3,000 calories you will be consuming in your holiday meal, you better watch out. Or should you? The holiday season is a good time to remember that the American food supply is by far the best in the world—and the best it has been in the history of this country. It is the best not only in terms of its abundance and variety, but also in terms of its safety. Our diet—like diets around the world—is made up of water, macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats), micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and tens of thousands of other naturally occurring chemicals. A few of these latter chemicals either have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory rodents in research studies or have been shown to be "mutagens" when tested with bacteria. Mutagens, because they can damage DNA—genetic material—are often thought of as "possible animal carcinogens." Mutagen tests such as the Ames test are often used as quick indicators to predict how likely a chemical is to cause cancer. Back in 1958, when the United States Congress passed legislation (the so-called Delaney amendment to the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act) to keep "carcinogens" out of our processed food supply, it was assumed that carcinogens (a) were rarely found in foods and (b) were put there by humans, either purposely, through food additives, or inadvertently, in the form of pesticide residues. The Delaney amendment banned from American food any artificial substance that could be shown to cause cancer in lab animals—no matter how small the amount of the substance in a food or how high the dose given to test animals. Some progress has been made since 1958, however: In 1996 the Food Quality Protection Act removed the scientifically untenable "zero-risk" requirement from the approval process for pesticides. This narrowed the scope of the irrationally restrictive Delaney clause. In the 40+ years since Delaney was passed, it has become clear that many naturally occurring chemicals—chemicals that are plentiful in our food supply—cause cancer in rodents when fed in high doses over a lifetime. Furthermore, scientists Bruce N. Ames and Lois Swirsky Gold have analyzed human exposure to chemicals, both natural and man-made (synthetic), that have been classified as "rodent carcinogens." The researchers have concluded that when ranked on an index (the HERP Index) that compares human exposure to the dose that increases tumors in rodents, the possible cancer hazard to humans from the background of dietary intake of nature's own rodent carcinogens ranks high in comparison to the possible hazard from residues of synthetic pesticides or additives. Human dietary intake of nature's pesticides is about 10,000 times higher than human intake of synthetic pesticides that are rodent carcinogens. In other words, consumers who choose to worry about eating chemicals shown to cause cancer in rodents (and ACSH does not recommend that you worry about this hypothetical risk) should understand that the human diet is full of naturally occurring rodent carcinogens. Present scientific knowledge suggests that residues of synthetic rodent carcinogens in our diet are unlikely to pose a risk of cancer in the quantities we consume on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. The data are inadequate to allow us to evaluate human risk at low doses, and the uncertainties are enormous. We hear much about "carcinogens" in our food. But the media use the designation "carcinogen" most frequently in conjunction with man-made rodent carcinogens—substances such as Alar (a fruit-ripening chemical), saccharin (a synthetic, noncaloric sweetener), and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole, a synthetic antioxidant). What ACSH will demonstrate in this menu is that chemicals that are rodent carcinogens, or that are suspected of being such, abound in nature. Many of these naturally occurring rodent carcinogens are natural pesticides—chemicals that plants produce to repel or kill predators. Of the approximately 10,000 such natural pesticides occurring in the diet, only about 60 have been tested in rodent experiments.2 These chemicals are found in a wide variety of our food plants: Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, cauliflower, cherries, chili peppers, cocoa, garlic, grapes, kale, lentils, lettuce, and radishes—to name just a few that are not in our Holiday Menu. The consumption of small doses of rodent carcinogens, whether of natural or synthetic origin, is quite unlikely to pose a cancer hazard to humans. When you understand that carcinogens and mutagens are everywhere in Mother Nature's own food supply, you can see the absurdity of panicking over tiny levels in the food supply of synthetic chemicals (such as pesticide residues) that are "carcinogens" when fed in large doses over a lifetime to rodents. If you chose to believe that every rodent carcinogen was also a potential human carcinogen, and if you then chose to extrapolate directly from rodent to human, the background of naturally occurring chemicals that people consume at levels close to the rodent-carcinogenic dose would still cast doubt on the importance for human cancer of synthetic chemical residues. Note, for example, on the Holiday Menu that the bread in the stuffing contains furfural, a rodent carcinogen. But when you take into account the difference in body weight between a human and a rodent, you will see that, based on the carcinogenicity data available from the laboratory, a person would have to eat 82,600 slices of bread to consume an amount of furfural equal to the amount that increased the risk of cancer in rodents.
BERRIES (Friday, Dec. 10): With the holiday season upon us, berries become questionable, in both supply and quality. There are still a few growers in Watsonville still in production, but cold nights, cloud cover, dew, and rain are really hampering berry production. For Strawberries, this will mean very light colors in the fruit from Watsonville. The moisture will also make the fruit more tender, more susceptible to bruising and decay. Santa Maria/Oxnard also has a few growers still in production, but supplies are very limited. Strawberry growers in Florida, around Plant City, have started picking in a very small way. Most growers there will be in full production by the first week of December. There are also imported Strawberries from New Zealand. Remember, imported Strawberries have smaller basket sizes, generally, color is only about 75%. Even though imported Strawberries are air-shipped, shelf-life is a little more limited. There are other berries available, although in very limited supplies and high prices. Raspberries, Blackberries and Blueberries all have very light supplies, marginal quality and shorter shelf life. Air-shipped imports of Blackberries have started up from Guatemala. From now into the Spring, berry supplies and prices will be quite a roller-coaster, depending on weather conditions in the growing regions of Chile, New Zealand, Mexico, Guatemala, Florida and California. Generally during this time of year, the berry will also be very tender, susceptible to decay, bruising and a short shelf life. This is the time of year to order conservatively. Order just before you need them. Storage will be critical. Keep it the driest part of your walk-in, out of the flow of air from the fans. That air flow carries moisture, which can hasten the decay of delicate berries. Handle like fine china.
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