Produce News for January 16-20, 2012

NAVEL ORANGES (MONDAY, JANUARY 16): This week happens to be National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week. Nothing like good apple juice, apple cider, of course, orange juice. I love pineapple juice too. But you know I get a lot of questions about navel oranges. This is peek of the season for the premier eating orange found anywhere in the world. It's called the naval orange and this is the orange that is seedless. It has no seeds in it. This is a clue to you. You can juice a naval orange. In fact, it is very sweet and very juicy. But the juice of a naval orange is not a juice that you can put in the refrigerator and have it last for several days. It won’t last more then a day. It is juice that you have to juice and use immediately. Why is that? Because there is a chemical that is found in the seeds of a juicing orange, but since there are no seeds in this orange, that chemical is found in the juice itself. This chemical causes the juice to sour very quickly and you don't like that. So juice the naval oranges and drink it today.

NAPA CABBAGE (TUESDAY, JANUARY 17): First Lady, Michelle Obama, turns ‑‑ well, can I say how old she turns today? Yes? Okay, Michelle Obama turns 48 today, and you know she loves salads. But right now we have very, very high prices of iceberg lettuce, romaine, butter leaf, green leaf, red leaf, all the lettuces that she loves. So, it makes your salad very expensive. So, I have a tip for White House Chefs, I have a tip for First Lady Michelle Obama. Go get some Napa cabbage. That's right, Napa cabbage right here. It's a great substitute in your salads. Because I guarantee you let's cut off a little bit. I guarantee you if you slice this up and cube it up, your guests would not know that you have actually put ‑‑ why would I put Napa cabbage into your lettuce salad? Well, if your, if your iceberg lettuce is like a $1.99 a head, that makes it $1.99 a pound. Napa cabbage is like .79 cents a pound, it's like half the price per pound, so it makes a salad cost less.

EUROPEAN AND ASIAN PEARS (WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18): In the world of pears you will find them broken up into two main types. There are European pears, and there are Asian pears. These are European pears. And that's the main variety that most of us eat ‑‑ a d’anjou pair, a bosc pear, a red pear, a bartlett pear. Those are all what we call a European pear, but the oldest variety of pears grown in the world today, is the Asian pear and I want to you know that there are many, many varieties of Asian pears. By the way, these are also called apple pears and they are called apple pears for a reason. They are crisp listen to this, man that is so crisp. They are crisp like an apple, but they are so juicy like a pear. That's why they are called apple pears. So, these Asian pears ‑‑ what you've never tried Asian pears? They are becoming so popular. Many different varieties, just go try one of those varieties. You might fall in love with them.

BUTTER LEAF LETTUCE (THURSDAY, JANUARY 19): George Burns, remember him? He was born this week in 1896. Oh my goodness, when he was in his 90's, he would go into the resorts or the casinos, the first place he would call would be back to the chefs. And the first question he would always ask the chef, "do you have some butter leaf lettuce?" Now, I know a lot of people, especially as we get older, it is very, very difficult to digest lettuce. That's why George Burns is a pretty smart character there. That's why he would always ask for butter leaf lettuce. Because butter leaf lettuce has the most tender leaves that you can get in the lettuce industry. And it is so easy for your stomach to digest. So, if you have had trouble eating salads, may I suggest go try butter leaf lettuce. George Burns knew a thing or two, not only about comedy, but also about his lettuces. So you go try some butter ‑‑ by the way butter leaf is called ‑‑ because look at that inside, it’s yellow, the color of butter.

LIVING BUTTER LEAF LETTUCE (FRIDAY, JANUARY 20): All right, yesterday I was talking about butter leaf lettuce. Well, right here I have something that is really, really cool. This is called living butter leaf lettuce. I absolutely love this stuff, if you can open this package here. Living butter leaf lettuce, stay right here I want to show you something. Yea, they still have the roots attached. If you want to feel like a farmer, I want you to go get this living butter leaf lettuce. There are a couple things I love about this. First of all, the shelf life. I mean whoever created this process, they deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for something. I mean this stuff is brilliant, because this butter leaf lettuce has a shelf life, I don't know 21 days, 28 days, you name it, this stuff will last forever, and whatever you need, you just your kind of like the farmer, you are the harvester, you harvest whatever you want for that day for your wraps or for your salad. And then you can just put the rest back right in here, and put it back in the refrigerator, and your good to go. Now, you have your butter leaf lettuce. So, if you have never tried butter leaf lettuce, may I suggest living butter leaf?