Produce News for Week of August 30, 2010

BARTLETT PEARS (Monday, August 30): New crop Bartlett pears are here. The first growing region to harvest is called the Sacramento River District. It’s the Sacramento River just south of Sacramento. Some of those old Bartlett pear trees are over 100 years old, 120 years old, but they’ve have produced a great crop this year. They’re also just now starting the harvest in Lake County, also in California, and in a couple of weeks we’re starting in the Northwest with Bartlett pears. But for right now it’s new crop Bartlett pears. May I suggest when you buy the first of the season Bartlett pears, be patient. Please be very patient. They have just come off the tree, and they’re not ripe yet so they need to ripen. What is the best way to ripen these? A couple ways come to mind. However you ripen your Pears, you really need to keep all of the pears together. Pears like to be in pairs, or triplets, or quads, but don’t have them alone. They won’t ripen nearly as well when they are alone. Put them together and they will ripen up perfectly, but be patient. You could enclose them in a brown paper bag or a shoe box, but you know, they look so nice out on the counter, and they will do just fine that way.
BARTLETT PEARS PART 2 (Tuesday, August 31): Yesterday, I was writing about ripening Bartlett Pears. So an email came in, “Why don’t you have tree ripened pears?” Well, that’s actually a very good question. You know, we have vine ripened cantaloupe, and we have tree ripened peaches, we have tree ripened nectarines. So why can’t we have tree ripened Bartlett pears? That’s a very good question. Well, it’s kind of like bananas. You can not pick a banana that’s ripe on the plant. You have to pick a banana when it’s dead green and then allow it to ripen off the plant. It’s the same thing with a Bartlett pear. You have to harvest a Bartlett pear when it’s fully mature, and they have all kinds of tests to see if it’s fully mature. But you can not pick a tree ripened pear. Let me cut this in half and show you what happens. You see, Bartlett pears ripen from the inside out. If you waited until this was tree ripened, then the inside would be nothing but mush. Believe me, you really don’t want to have a “tree-ripened” Bartlett Pear.
BARTLETT PEARS PART 3 (Wednesday, September 1): This weekend Paul Harvey would have been 92 years old so I thought I’d do my very special Paul Harvey, “It’s the rest of the story.” How in the world did the Bartlett pear get its name? You know, in most of the world if you go to England, South Africa, many parts of Canada, you will not find a Bartlett pear. Oh, no! The Bartlett Pear is called a Williams pear. That’s what it’s been known as for decades in England. Well, when the new colonies began in the United States, there was one of the boats coming over from England. It was loaded with all these fruit trees and they had all these pear trees and so when it arrived here, the little varietal tags had fallen off the trees. Those early Boston nurseries had no idea what the variety was named. So one of the most respected nursery men in Boston, Massachusetts, he said, “Well, I’ll just name it after myself.” His name was Enoch, his last name was Bartlett. That’s why we haveBartlett pears. Now you know the rest of the story.
GALA APPLES (Thursday, September 2): I can’t believe it. Summer’s not even over yet. In fact, we still have a lot of summer left, about three weeks. Well, take a look in the produce department. We’re starting to see Fall already. New crop Gala apples have just begun in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Most of the apples we’ve been getting have been coming out of storage, but if you want that fresh flavor, that fresh taste - you know, you bite into an apple and you can just tell. Well, those are the apples that we’re now getting, new crop Gala apples. Now remember the Gala apple is loaded with a lot of water and sugar content. That’s why in the produce business, we say that the Gala is not a long keeper. So when you buy the Galas, use them up. They are perfect for kids heading back to school. And they are perfect in your oatmeal every morning. Just chop them up and toss them into your oatmeal.
SUMMER SWEET CORN (Friday, September 3): Alright, Labor Day weekend is here. It’s probably the last weekend for many people to enjoy beautiful summer sweet corn. The next time you husk an ear of Corn, take a look at the silk. Did you know that there is one silk for every cornel of corn? That’s right one silk for every cornel of corn. Usually by Labor Day this is like the last hurrah for summer sweet corn - whether it’s yellow or white, or the bicolor corn, it’s usually the last hurrah, and this is generally when we see the last of the big promotional prices. Usually by Labor Day we start seeing acreage in the United States cut in half. And that’s why in September and October as we move closer towards winter and fully in the fall we see acreage go down. A lot of the “local” growers will be finished. Well, that’s why prices go up right after Labor Day. Pretty soon, you’ll start seeing .69 and .79 cent Corn again. But while they are still in, may I suggest for Labor Day weekend you get a little of summer sweet corn and enjoy the last hurrah of summer. And be sure to get out the butter.