Produce News for the Week of Aug. 9, 2010

BANANAS (Monday, August 9): Hey, Ecuador won its independence this week. You know they’ll be celebrating their Independence Day from Spain in 1809 so I thought I’d talk about the leading produce item that is exported to the United States from Ecuador. In fact about half of all of our bananas come from Ecuador, beautiful bananas this time of year. Now we are in the middle of hot August days and nights. That means you really need to buy your bananas a little bit more on the greener side. This time of year, when you buy bananas a bit riper, that means that…man, with these hot days, the Bananas will simply dehydrate very fast. These are going to ripen extremely fast. So simply buy your bananas a little bit more on the greener side. And also, don’t put your Bananas in direct sunlight. Keep them in the coolest part of your kitchen. And make sure you store them upside down, with the bananas resting on the stem of this banana. Why do I do that? That way you don’t bruise the crown of the banana. Most of the weight’s on the stem.
GROWER FLY SHEETS (Tuesday August 10): This weak 1948 Allen Funt, Candid Camera, began on television. Oh, man! They should have had a candid camera on me. Just not long ago, I was in some lettuce fields, some leaf lettuce fields. There was red leaf and romaine…I was walking the field and I saw this tall yellow strip, about two feet tall, lining the rows of the leaf lettuce. I had never seen anything like it before. What in the world is the purpose of this? Well, I took a closer look. The yellow strip had thousands of tiny buds stuck to it. Remember those Shell fly strips? Catch the flies and other flying insects? That’s what this was in the lettuce fields. A giant “shell pest strip.” Only it wasn’t hanging. I learned from the grower that it’s actually called a Roller trap. Growers line the lettuce rows with this. There are no chemicals on the strip…just adhesive. Glue. Insects fly on it…and can’t get off. It’s one of the many things that growers are doing to help minimize the use of pesticides. That’s a cool idea!
WATERMELON NAPOLEON (Wednesday, August 11): Hey, in honor of Hope, Arkansas…they have a wonderful watermelon festival starting actually this week and so I thought I’d have a watermelon Napoleon. They are quite fun, simple and very tasty. This is a stacked item. You can use it for a salad or perhaps even for dessert. You know that just about anything stacked in the culinary world is called a Napoleon, right? That’s because General Napoleon Bonaparte was the first general to use stacked regiments in battle. So anything stacked, is a Napoleon. So we start with the Watermelon. Slice a piece off, about ½” thick. Then I simply get a biscuit cutter, or a cookie cutter. Actually, for Valentine’s Day, I would use a heart shaped cookie cutter. Use what you want. Cut out the Watermelon with your biscuit cutter. Now slice it in half so that you have two perfectly sized Watermelon slabs. Now let’s work on the filling. Take some pre-cooked tiny baby shrimp. Mix with a little mayonnaise and chopped Baby Dill. Take one of your Watermelon Rounds and lay it on a plate. Put a nice spoonful of the shrimp mixture right on top. Place another round on top and then another spoonful of the shrimp mixture. You could stack a few more on top if you want. Then we’re going to add a little bit of freshly ground pepper. I call this a Watermelon Napoleon. You will absolutely love it.
HEIRLOOM TOMATOES (Thursday, August 12): Hey, this week 1961 the Berlin Wall went up in Berlin, right there separating East and West Germany. And when that thing came tumbling down there was a produce item that quickly became very popular in the United States. What was it? Heirloom tomatoes, gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. You see, many of these old Heirloom tomatoes date back to the Czars of Russia. So when the Berlin wall went up we were not exposed to a lot of these old, old seed varieties that came from Czechoslovakia, and Poland, and even Russia. But now oh, my goodness! There are so many different varieties of these beautiful heirloom tomatoes. One of the first things you’re going to notice about these heirlooms…they’re ugly! I mean they’re not perfectly round, they have all kinds of wrinkles on them. They are different colors, sizes, different shapes. They’re very cool. Go ahead and cut any one of them in half. Give it a sniff. Now you know why they have become so popular. Summer salads were never so simple…and so beautiful. All you need is a few Heirloom Tomatoes, some Mozzerella, a little Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, some bread. That’s lunch. Or dinner.
ONIONS AND CELERY (Friday, August 13): Hey, Julia Child was born this week, 1912. Wow, she would have been 98 this year, and you know she had the phrase, “cooking is a joy”, and of course we have the cookbook, Joy of Cooking, right? Well, there are two things that she says every home cook should have in their kitchen, onions and celery. Of course, Julia Child knew what she was talking about. If you do any cooking at all, these are two items that you better always have, always have in your kitchen, in your refrigerator - plenty of celery. This provides the basis for soups and salads, and if you’re doing tuna fish salad or any…it just provides so much flavor. And then of course onions. Now she didn’t say which onion. You could have, I guess, whatever onion you want - some beautiful sweet onions, some torpedo onions, some red Italian sweets, you can have white onions. Just make sure that your kitchen is stocked with celery and onions.