Last week’s YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLER still dealt with a winter vegetable: What vegetable is considered to be…the original baby pacifier? Today, if baby cries, Mom might change a diaper, feed baby, or put a pacifier in baby’s mouth. But if Mom lived 150 years ago in England, there was no such thing as a pacifier. There was no plastic. So, what would Moms in London do? They would walk behind their tiny thatched roof house to their garden. There, they grew peas and potatoes, onions, turnips and carrots. They also grew the original pacifier. They would pull it out of the ground, clean it off, break off the very bottom, and stick it in baby’s mouth. This vegetable was not the carrot. Carrots are too hard for baby’s hurting gums. The original pacifier…the Parsnip. Soft, and when you sucked on it, it was actually a little sweet. Very pleasing to baby. Since we are still in the middle of winter produce, this week’s YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLER deals with a winter vegetable: Before the potato came along, what was the “potato” of Europe? See next week’s Fresh Tips for the answer.

It’s peak of the season for Strawberries from the Sunshine State – Florida.

FLORIDA STRAWBERRIES (Monday, Feb. 23): Did you ever wonder how Plant City, Florida became the “Winter Strawberry Capital of the World?” It all started over a hundred years ago, when Henry Plant decided to build a railroad to Tampa. The new railroad offered unique potential for local growers to market their winter morsels of sunshine. The Plant City-Dover area is a mecca for sweet, luscious strawberries. Yes, the statistics are impressive. Hillsborough County produces about 15 percent of the nation’s strawberries and virtually all the berries grown during the winter. Although, from November to April, Florida growers will be supplying about 75% of the nation’s sweet Strawberries. Growers in Florida harvest about 16 million flats of Strawberries each year. Many people are surprised to find out that strawberry growers plant bare-root plants rather than seeds. The reason is every strawberry seed contains different genetic material, the product of a myriad of potential gene combinations. Because the genetics of strawberries are so diverse (humans are diploid, strawberries are octoploid), each of our varieties came from a single seed, which was cloned from a single mother plant. The mother plant puts out runners (called daughter plants) that were essentially identical to her, which in turn also put out runners. Last year, strawberry growers in the Sunshine state planted over 40 million plants from one variety, each of which was identical to their great, great, great grandmother found to be a good selection maybe ten years earlier. The major varieties of strawberries grown in Florida are Earlibrite, Strawberry Festival, Camarosa and Treasure. However, there is considerable interest in the newest Florida variety just released this year, the Carmine. Strawberries are naturally fat-free, sodium-free, and cholesterol-free. They are high in Vitamin C and folate, which helps the body metabolize protein. Recently, cancer researchers sang the praises of strawberries for their large quantities of allagic acid, which they claim reduces the risk of cancer. Strawberries are a good source of potassium, too. If you happen to be heading to Florida, check out the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, February 26 – March 9.

Here’s your chance to win a great Strawberry cookbook. Five lucky winners will win the hardcover cookbook “Simply Florida Strawberries.” This cookbook includes 300 sensuous Strawberry recipes, straight from the growers in Florida. For your chance to win, simply send a SASE with the answer to this question: What city is called the “Winter Strawberry Capital of the World?” All correct answers will go into the drawing where five lucky winners will be drawn. Send your request to: Simply Florida Strawberries; c/o Your Produce Man; 2867 Heinz St.; Sacramento, CA 95826. For all of those who don’t wind a cookbook, we will send you some recipes as well, so everyone will have some super Florida Strawberry recipes.

From blossom to harvest, Strawberries take 30 days.

FLORIDA STRAWBERRIES (Tuesday, Feb. 24): Today is just for kids. Here are some fun facts about your sweet Florida Strawberry. From blossom to harvest, is about 30 days. There are around 200 seeds on every Strawberry. This year, Florida growers expect to harvest around 16 million flats. There are 12 baskets per flat. So if it took one person one minute to pick one basket of Strawberries, how long would it take that one person to pick this year’s crop of Florida Strawberries? A little over 365 years! If placed end to end, Florida Strawberries would extend from Plant City, Florida, all the way to Seattle…and back again. Strawberries are in the same botanical family as roses, apples, pears, peaches, blackberries, and raspberries. The family is called Rosaceae. The strawberry’s closest edible relatives are blackberries and raspberries. We’re glad that strawberries don’t have thorns, too! Although strawberry seeds can grow to make new plants, most strawberry plants reproduce by runners. The plant sends out long stems—kind of like tentacles—that form small daughter plants at their tips. These daughter plants put down roots and send out more runners and form more daughter plants, and then more daughter plants and more runners and more daughter plants… You get the idea!

Strawberries and Kids were made for each other.

Strawberry plants are perennial. Though most strawberry growers replant yearly or every few years, strawberry plants can live for many years. If they are in a good place and don’t get attacked by diseases, deer, or other problems, they form matted colonies that can live as long as 50 years. Strawberries are great to eat just plain, but it’s also fun to dip them. Try dipping them in Powdered sugar, Vanilla yogurt, Vanilla pudding, Marshmallow cream, Whipped cream, or Melted chocolate. Strawberries are great in smoothies too, kids. Here's a simple smoothie recipe: 1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup apple juice. Toss it all in the blender, blend until smooth and then add some ice to turn it into a great slushy type smoothie. Oh, by the way, kids, how did the Strawberry get its name? Well, we can thank some 1st and 2nd grader boys in London, England, way over 150 years ago. These young boys would go to the surrounding hillsides, just outside London. In the mornings, before school, they would pick the beautiful red berries, then take them to the downtown streets of London. There, they would put a piece of rye straw through the berry and start selling their berry on a straw. “A pence for a berry,” the young boys would say. This berry on a straw became known as “strawberry.”

WASHINGTON POTATOES (Wednesday, Feb. 25): February may be the month for love and romance, but it is also the official Potato Lover’s Month. Usually, when we talk spuds, people first think of Idaho. They do grow about half of our supply of spuds. But right behind Idaho…is Washington. That’s right. The apple state is also the spud state. You see, a certain tilt of the globe creates long warm days and cool nights during the growing season in Washington State. These ideal day lengths and temperature ranges promote important photosynthetic processes. Mt. St. Helen's ash helped form soils perfectly suited for growing potatoes. The result: a light, fluffy, high-solids potato that's packed with nutrition. The history of the potato begins on a high plateau. A high plateau in the Andean Mountains of South America is the birthplace of the 'Irish' white potato that we eat today. The plateau, known today as the Titicaca Plateau, stretches across part of the countries of Peru and Bolivia. The Aymara Indians developed more than two hundred varieties of the potato at elevations greater than 10,000 feet. Potatoes formed the basis of the Aymara Indian and Incan diet. Potatoes also were an important influence on Incan culture. Potato-shaped pottery complete with eyes are commonly found at excavated sites, sometimes having tiny heads growing out of the little eyes. Incan units of time correlated to the length of time it took for a potato to cook to various consistencies. Potatoes were even used to divine the truth and predict weather. When the Spanish Conquistadors didn't find the gold and silver they were looking for in the late 1400s and early 1500s, they quickly cornered the local potato market. Potatoes were soon a standard supply item on their ships. The Spanish noticed that the sailors who ate papas (potatoes) did not suffer from scurvy. Widespread potato production in eastern Washington is a relatively recent phenomenon. Lack of sufficient rainfall and irrigation was resolved with the development of the one million acre Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. The Project’s main goals were to provide cheap and dependable hydro-electric power and a constant supply of irrigation water to growers. Though the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River was completed in 1941, irrigators had to wait until 1949 and 1950 for enough water to irrigate their fields. Outside the Project, individual growers have developed another one-half million acres of well-irrigated land. In 1982, to better address the geographic aspects of shipping from a far western location, Washington packers formed an association to negotiate more favorable freight rates with carriers. Better rail rates were also gained. Today, Washington potatoes are shipped to all parts of the United States and exported to the world marketplace. The climatic conditions, rich volcanic soil, abundant water and long growing season result in eastern Washington State producing the highest yield per acre of potatoes in the world. Though the number of commercial growers number approximately 300, together they plant more than 170,000 acres annually, harvesting averages of 600 hundredweight (cwt) per acre, twice as much as the average yield in the United States. Washington State produces 20 percent of all U.S. potatoes, and is the #1 producer of potatoes for French Fries in the U.S.

A Winter Kissed Artichoke.

ARTICHOKES (Thursday, Feb. 26): You know what chapped lips are, right? You’re out in cold, wintry, windy conditions, and it becomes easy for your lips to become chapped. Well, during this time of year, Artichokes get “chapped lips.” The Italian growers in Castroville affectionately called these Artichokes, “Winter Kissed.” The colder night temperatures cause the tender membranes on the Artichoke leaves to become burned. These artichokes look quite ugly right now, but these are the Artichokes that the Italians dream of, not for their appearance, but for their flavor. When it’s cold outside, you will tend to put on more layers when you go outside. Maybe another sweater or a coat. Artichoke plants will do the same thing. In order to protect the delicate artichoke heart, the leaves will add layers of “coats.” There will be more meat on the leaves. That’s why when you pick one of these “winter kissed” chokes up, they are heavier than most artichokes. That’s because the leaves are bulging with more meat. The colder temperatures also make for a better flavor. So, they may not look like much, but these artichokes are worth eating. Peak of the season for this Spring delicacy is just now beginning. During a six-week period, from early March through mid-April, that’s when about 40 – 50% of the annual crop is harvested. And that will mean the best pricing. By the way, the Artichoke is neither a fruit nor a vegetable. It can be called the original “edible flower.” The Artichoke is actually the flowering bud of the Mediterranean Thistle plant.

The Romanita has the meat of a Roma, but the sweetness of a Grape Tomato.

Romanita Tomato plants have more leaf canopy trimmed away, allowing more sun to the fruit, making the fruit…sweeter.

Romanita Tomato plants are trellised, allowing more airflow through the plants, for better blossoming and fruit set.

Because of it’s super sweet flavor, the Romanita would be perfect on Bruchetta.

ROMANITA TOMATOES (Friday, Feb. 27): In Havana, Cuba, Ernest Hemingway used to frequent the “Romanita” Restaurant. This weekend is the 76th annual Academy Awards, to be held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. If the Romanita Tomato was an actress, it would win Best Actress, hands down. It is a new tomato, a sweet baby tomato. The Romanita is a “baby-sized” Roma Tomato variety, specifically hybred to have the meatiness of a Roma, but the sweet flavor of a Grape Tomato. The seed varieties used to produce this new Roma variety, were imported from Italy. What the growers at Victory Garden were hoping to come up with, was a tomato that would consistently be full of flavor and be very sweet. That’s what they have accomplished here. The Romanita may be more expensive, but it is more expensive to grow than other tomatoes. First, all of the plants are trellised on pole stakes. This lifts the plant up, allowing more sunlight to reach most of the plant, and allowing more air flow during blossom pollination. Second, growers will go through the fields, trimming the leaf structure of the plants. As much as 30 – 40% of the leaf canopy may be cut away. This means that more food is sent to the growing tomatoes, not to the plant itself. And this cultural practice has helped make this Romanita a true sweet baby tomato. At harvest time, growers don’t just wait for color on the fruit, they wait for the right sugar. They first will use the “bite test,” eating several tomatoes. If it has the right flavor, the growers wil then do a refractometer test, actually testing the brix (or sugar) levels in the fruit. By doing all of this, you will get a full flavored, sweet tomato every time you buy them. Roma Tomatoes have about 3.5% sugar content. But this tiny Romanita has around 7% sugar content. It is sweet. It is about the size of a large cherry tomato, but has the meat of a Roma. Its skin is not as thick as a Roma Tomato either. The Romanita is great halved or quartered into a salad. Halve them and then blister them in a sauté pan with a little olive oil. Now add this to your pasta. The Romanita would be the near perfect tomato for Chili. It’s a new tomato, so this Romanita may not be available in all parts of the United States. But over the next few years, when you find the Romanita, you’ll fall in love with her as well.

The “Victory Garden” label was the first to bring you the personal sized Watermelon. Now, they are bringing you one of the sweetest tomatoes grown on earth: The Romanita.