Produce News for December 26, 2011

SWEET POTATO (MONDAY, DECMEBER 26): All right, so Christmas is over, and you are checking out the pantry. And you realize, I bought way too many sweet potatoes. That’s cool if you did. Sweet potatoes are actually the most nutritious vegetable grown on planet earth today. So, you can’t have, in my humble produce opinion, you can’t have too many sweet potatoes. So, what you are going to do with your left over sweet potatoes? You’ve already had some sweet potatoes casserole, maybe some baked sweet potatoes. Here is what I suggest. You know the kids are still home, out of school. So, we are going to make some sweet potatoes sticks out of them. So alls you have to do is, you cut the sweet potatoes into a nice thick slab, like so. And then you’re going to peel it very easily, just go head and peel that sweet potato. And then you’re going to cut it into long sticks, just like I have been doing here. And now these don’t discolor and they actually look like carrots sticks. Very healthy for you, your kids will love them. So, turn them into sweet tatter sticks.

GARLIC (TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27): Don Christopher. A year before I was born 1957, so 1956. Don Christopher, Christopher’s ranch began growing garlic. The first major commercial garlic grower in the United States. He went all the way to Italy to the Piedmont region of Italy to find his seed variety that he wanted to grow. So he found one. It was grown in the Piedmont region, near a town called Monviso. Which is why we call this garlic monviso garlic -- that’s right monviso garlic. One of the strongest garlics you will find. All garlic is not created equal. There is garlic that we import from Argentina and China and Mexico and it does not have the flavor of this garlic. In fact, executive chef Ed Coss from Milford Oyster House in Milford, New Jersey just got Zagat, just got Zagat to say that they are the best in all of New Jersey. Well, here’s what you can do with this. Just take a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar call this little dipp’n sauce for my bread. And of course that garlic

RED DELICIOUS APPLES (WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28): Hey, it happened this week 1846, Iowa became our 29th state. That’s a big deal in the apple industry. You wouldn’t think so, but this particular apple right here. One of the most popular apples in the world today -- the beautiful red delicious apple. It originated in Iowa, actually a little tiny town called Peru, Iowa and that is where this apple came from. There was a farmer and he saw this apple growing in his orchard, he had never seen it before, ever. It has a beautiful long shape to it. It’s the only apple that has five distinct bumps at the top of the apple. So he got his little pocketknife out, and he cut into that apple -- cut a little slice out, and he took a bite of that apple. So delicious and it is red. So, what did he name it? No, it wasn’t red delicious. The original name was actually called hawkeye, you know, Iowa, the hawkeye state.

TEXAS GRAPEFRUIT (THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29): Happy birthday Texas, become our 28th state this week 1845. So, let’s see. What should I talk about? There are so many good things to talk about when you talk about Texas. Of course, my mom. You know born and raised in Texas. So, that’s a good thing, so I have a lot of family in Texas. I know, what about Daddy Warbucks’ favorite fruit. Yes, sweet Texas grapefruit, Rio star grapefruit, oh my goodness this grapefruit is so good. Thank you Texas for creating grapefruit. Let me just happen to cut this one right in half. You know, as I cut, oh my goodness, the juice is just flowing out of there like I turned something on. Take a look at the color in there, oh man this is not the grapefruit, I repeat, this is not the grapefruit of your grandparents. You know, where you had to sprinkle like two tablespoons of sugar on every half. No sugar here. This is called sweet grapefruit for a reason. It is red, it is sweet.

LIMES FOR NEW YEARS (FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30): Hey, 1963 this week Let’s Make A Deal started on television. So, let’s see if I was Monty Hall, I would give you $100, if you have a lime in your bag. I’ll give you $150, if you have a key in your bag. I will give you $200, if you have a key lime in your pie. That’s right, here’s the two major limes right here. This is called a Persian lime. It’s a Mexican lime and then of course, you have a key lime, named after that’s right the Florida Keys. That’s where they grow a lot of them all though they grow a lot of them in Mexico as well. Now, how do you pick out the best limes? Of course, this weekend you are celebrating the New Year. Might have a few drinks. So you need a few limes. So here is what I want you to do. When you’re at the lime section, I want you to find the lime that is smooth and shiny, not bumpily like this. This right here is going to have a lot more juice in it. Isn’t it the juice that you want for your drinks this coming week end?