FLORIDA GRAPEFRUIT (Monday, February 8): Hey, today is the 100 year anniversary of the Boy Scouts. That’s right. What’s their motto? “Always be prepared.” Well, Florida citrus growers had to be prepared. Remember a few weeks ago they had that horrible freeze? Well, they happened to survive mostly that freeze, that horrible freeze in Florida, and one of the first things I wanted to check - Florida grapefruit. In fact for the first time in three of four years Florida grapefruit is now allowed into every state in the union. There for about three years it was not allowed in citrus producing states like Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, California, Hawaii but now all…now why is that important? Well, the more grapefruit you have available to the whole market, guess what? Prices go down. Now by the way, did you happen to see the color in here? Oh, my goodness! Look at the juice and the color. All of that juice, all of that color means fantastic flavor. Folks, these are not the grapefruit that your grandparents used to have where you had to get out the sugar bowl. No, no sugar. Just get out the spoon or you can do it like my wife does – just peel it like an orange. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. (Takes Bite) Mmm.
HONEY TANGERINES (Tuesday, February 9): Twenty years ago I was the very first to start talking about this ugly tangerine. It is indeed one of the ugliest in the entire bin. Take a look at these. It’s called a honey tangerine. But look at all the scars on them. That’s because the honey tangerine kind of…it bears on the outside of a tree. Because most of them are grown in Florida, very high humidity makes the skin very tender to scarring. But take a look at that. Oh, my goodness! Look at the color. It is unbelievable! Now, you’ve never tried a honey tangerine? Let me give you a secret. There is a reason why they call it honey tangerine. They are indeed one of the sweetest tangerines you will ever eat on the face of the planet. It is also one of the juiciest tangerines. You take just one of these, you can get almost an entire cup of juice. Oh, man! I can’t wait to get this carton home ‘cause my wife and I, we’re going to be juicing some tangerines. If you’ve never tried a honey tangerine, you need too. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. (Takes Bite) Mmmm.
BOK CHOY (Wednesday, February 10): Hey, this Sunday the year of the Tiger – 4708. That’s the year. Chinese New Year begins this coming Sunday so I thought I’d get you ready for Chinese New year. Probably one of the most popular vegetables is the bok choy. Beautiful bok choy. Now this bok choy looks absolutely gorgeous. What you want to look for is look at those nice green leaves and look at the stalk. The stalk needs to be like blinding white light. I mean just really brilliant white. If you see a lot of bruising on it, you don’t want it. Now one of the things about bok choy when you’re preparing it – you need to look in here. Take a look in there. See. See right in there? Come real close. If you open these up, you’ll find a lot of sand and silt. That’s because these are grown in very sandy soil so you really need to be very careful especially when you’re prepping these to rinse them off. We generally rinse these off two to three times in ice cold water and then you can slice them up, put them into your stir fries or your soup, but bok choy for Chinese New Year – they kind of like go hand in hand. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
STRAWBERRIES (Thursday, February 11): Valentine’s Day this weekend and you know also this weekend there’s a huge chocolate festival going on Galesburg, Illinois. So, I think chocolate, Valentine’s Day…of course, you have to have the official fruit of Valentine’s Day – gorgeous strawberries! ‘Cause what else would you dip in the beautiful chocolate. Now strawberries this time of year – they’re going to be expensive. Just expect it. Florida had a huge freeze. They didn’t get to harvest for several weeks, and the blossoms on a lot of those plants in Florida just froze off, and that’s hitting our supplies right now. We’re seeing a lot of fruit right now with what we call white shoulder on top. They’re trying to pick the fruit as fast as they can. California then had huge storms somgrowers had to just go in and strip the plants as quickly as they could of any fruit, so it’s going to be a difficult year for Valentine’s Day. They may be a little more expensive but don’t ignore strawberries. It’s the only fruit shaped like a heart. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. (Takes Bite) Mmmm.
GARLIC (Friday, February 12): Chinese New Year beginning this weekend – the year of the Tiger -Chinese year 4708. Probably one of the most important spices used in Asian cooking right here. Garlic. Beautiful Garlic, and I just had to tell you that we are going to see probably over the next three to four months some record high prices on garlic probably until June when California starts their new crop. Here’s what happened. You know, China grows 70-75% of the world’s supply of garlic. Now prices have been so cheap from China over the past two years that a lot of growers have stopped growing garlic and converted their land to more profitable crops. Well, guess what happened? Forty percent fewer acres of Garlic being grown in China this year. Also, a couple of their provinces had typhoons which wiped out some of their crops. Bottom line – world wide shortage on Garlic. We’re going to pay some high prices. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
