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Produce News for January 18th, 2010

CARA CARA ORANGE (Monday, January 18):  Okay, you all know the navel orange, right?  It is like the most popular eating orange in the world today.  Well, I have what’s called a pink navel orange, or get this.  It is so good they had to name it twice - the Cara Cara orange.  Let me cut this baby in half.  Oh, take…looks like a navel orange on the outside.  Right?  Take a look at that.  Oh, my goodness!  Look at that beautiful pink color!  Now, why in the world do they call it Cara Cara?  It’s so good they had to say the word twice.  No, actually that’s not how it is.  They actually found this orange in South America, in Venezuela, and the orchard that they found it in, the name of the orchard was named after the family.  The family’s name was Cara Cara so they named it a Cara Cara orange.  Now what does this taste like?  Oh, my goodness!  This has…you could…you know, you like wine and you say there’s an aftertaste.  Well, in here there’s like an aftertaste of strawberries and melon.  You want an orange that’s so good?  It’s right here.  Cara Cara.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

 

RUSSET POTATOES (Tuesday, January 19):  Hey, Dolly Parton’s turning 64 today so I thought I’d bring in her all-time favorite food – baked Russet potatoes.  Oh, yea.  Now there’s a couple things about Russet potatoes.  It’s a great crop this year.  Oh, my goodness.  You are finding some of the best prices on Russet potatoes than you’ve seen in the past couple of years.  Fantastic.  Also, when you’re baking a Russet potato, here’s what I want you to do.  I know some people, after they’ve baked it they’ll take their knife and they’ll slice it right down there and then they’ll open it.  No, please.  Never in a million years take your knife and slice it down.  Let me show you what you need to do.  You take your fork and you poke it just like you poked it when you cooked it.  You’re also going to poke it like this and then you take the ends.  Just push in on them, and then you open it up.  And that potato is going to be so fluffy.  If you used your knife, it literally cuts the starch cell structure and actually glues them together – doesn’t make it very fluffy that way.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

 

BABY BANANAS (Wednesday, January 20): Hey, the Sundance Film Festival up in Idaho begins tomorrow and you know, they have a lot of baby films that they critique there so I thought I’d bring in some baby…baby bananas.  Yeah, beautiful baby bananas.  You know, over the past decade you have seen more and more stores starting to carry this beautiful little banana.  It’s actually a totally different variety than its grown up cousin.  This is called a Cavendish variety.  This is what we normally see in the stores.  It’s a totally different variety so it’s not just that they just picked them early.  Now let me show you how they actually will eat these in Central America.  The kids will actually take them and roll them in their hand until it gets mushy inside.  Now I know kids today they love like GoGurt, you know, that yogurt in a tube.  And once they get it all mushy inside, they just cut off the top, and then they can just squeeze it up just like so and then they eat it just like that.  Oh, my goodness!  If you’ve never tried a baby banana, this is a fun way to get your kids to eat it too.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. (Takes Bite)  Mmmm.

 

BUTTER LEAF LETTUCE (Thursday, January 21):    Hey, George Burns would have had a birthday today so I thought I’d talk about one of his favorite lettuces, and it’s actually a lettuce…you know, last week I talked about leaf lettuces from Michelle Obama.  And there’s, you know, a lot of older Americans cannot eat lettuce because, you know, they can’t digest it very well.  May I suggest what George Burns learned years ago.  He loved butter leaf lettuce.  This right here.  If you have a problem digesting lettuce, may I sugget you try butter leaf lettuce.  This is it right here.  Well, let me cut it in half and show you actually why they call it butter leaf lettuce.   Let me cut this in half.  Look at the inside.  Look at that.  It looks just like butter in there! Oh, my goodnes!  And butter leaf lettuce is the easiest lettuce on your digestive system.  So if you love lettuces, you love salads, but you just haven’t been able to eat them, hey, you can go back to the lettuce section.  Get some butter leaf lettuce.  You’ll enjoy it all over again in your salads, on your sandwiches, anywhere you like lettuce.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

  

COCONUTS (Friday, January 22):  Hey, World War II this very date 1943 the Allies took New Guinea, and coconuts were one of the most important items in the South Pacific, and let me tell you why.  See all that juice?  That is why.  That juice…that’s not the coconut milk.  Coconut milk actually comes from the white part and you shred it up and you squeeze it.  That’s your coconut milk.  The water is coconut water, and actually in the South Pacific if you were an injured soldier in World War II, they actually used the coconut water as IVs for injured soldiers because the coconut water actually has the same electrolyte makeup as our bodies do.  So this date 1943 when the Allies were taking New Guinea there were a lot of coconuts being used for IVs that day.  May I suggest you get back to coconuts?  Use them in your baking.  Don’t go down the baking aisle.   Come on.  Go to the produce aisle.  Get real coconuts.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.