Produce News for January 9-13, 2012

AVOCADOS FOR GUACAMOLE (MONDAY, JANUARY 9): Well it's a B. C. S. National Championship game tonight. Oh my goodness. LSU, Alabama, 1 and 2. Who is going to take home the championship tonight? You had better have some avocado for your guacamole tonight. What you haven't been to the store yet? Oh my goodness, you'd better run to the store very quickly. You are going to have to bypass this avocado right here. This is a green haas avocado, and that won’t be ripe in time at all for your game tonight. You will have to go for some ripe avocados. If you had been listening to me before, over the weekend here, and what you should have done, you should have taken those green avocados, you should have taken them and put them in a shoe box or something like that. And over the weekend they should have ripen perfectly a shoe box or hatbox, actually this is my little boy's hatbox. This is the perfect place to ripen your avocado. You put them in there, single layer. If you need to ripen them up really quickly, you are going to put a ripe banana or red delicious apple in there. But it is guacamole time tonight. I'm bringing the chips.

TANGERINES (TUESDAY, JANUARY 10): Independence Day this week for Morocco. That's right, Morocco, 1956, they got their independence from France. What in the world does Morocco have to do with produce, much less tangerines? Well, most people think of Morocco, they think of the movie Casablanca right? And, but there is a city, there is a port city called Tangiers, you know where I am going now, right? Tangiers. It was the original port where, where these mandarins came down from China and Japan. And they were exported to the rest of the world through Tangiers, Morocco, and that's why we call these tangerines, because in the early days, they would say, "Here is another crop of citrus coming from Tangiers.” So, we have some tangerines, of course, the most popular. Take a look at those two. These are the most popular right now. The tiny little clementine and, of course, the Satsuma Mandarin. They are the peek season right now.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS OF APPLES (WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11): It is the Peoples Choice Awards tonight. Oh my goodness. People's Choice Awards. So, I thought it would be fun to bring in some apples. A whole group of apples. I brought in about 7 or 8 different varieties of apples. So, I thought I said, what are the People's Choice Awards for apples? Now, a couple centuries ago, the People's Choice Award was this apple right here. It is called the Newtown Pippin. And it was actually Benjamin Franklin and George Washington favorite red apple, and we don't hardly see this any more. So, what are the People's Choice Award? When I first got into the produce industry, these two apples right here, these two apples right here accounts for 75 percent of all the apples sold in the United States ‑‑ the red delicious, and the golden delicious. So, envelope please. What are the People's Choice Award. Now number one is, a Fuji apple. Number two is, a gala apple. And number three, rocketing up to number three is, a honey crisp apple. I'm Michael Marks, with the People's Choice Award of apples.

GRANNY SMITH AND PINK LADY (THURSDAY, JANUARY 12): Hey, it's the 91st Annual Miss America Pageant, this weekend. And so, I thought it would be fun to bring in the first lady of apples. That's right. These are two apples that you will literally go gaga over. That's right. You know Lady Gaga, well these are two ladies that you will go gaga over. The first one is, of course, the Granny Smith Apple. The Granny Smith Apple coming from New South Wales, Australia, that's where it originated from. And Maria Ann Smith, that was her name. She was the one that discovered this apple in a little pile of garbage. The next lady, oh my goodness, this has become one of the most popular apple in America today. It is called the pink lady apple. This has become one of my favorite, and I know it has become one of your favorite. It is the number four most important apple grown in United States today, it is called the pink lady. So, Granny Smith and Pink Lady. Oh my goodness, those are Miss Americas for me.

FINGERLING POTATOES (FRIDAY, JANUARY 13): It is the 69th Annual Golden Globes Award this weekend. And my good friend, Chef Suki, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. He is going to be serving one of my favorite potatoes. It is the fingerling potato. You know when I first started in the produce industry, these little tiny little potatoes, growers would actually throw them away, there was no use for them. And then, of course, Governor Jerry Brown in the mid 70's, got the whole thing "small is beautiful in California" and so that's when small potatoes came back. These are some "C" size potatoes. There, you know, you have the large A's, then B's. And these little fingerlings have become so important. Now when you are serving fingerling potatoes, don't chop them up. The whole purpose of a fingerling, is to serve the entire size. You could, however chop them in half, only from North Pole to South Pole. And then serve them. Oh my goodness, there is nothing like roasted fingerling potato. Just a little bit of salt and olive oil, in the oven that's all you need.