Produce News for Week of June 14, 2010

APRICOTS (Monday, June 14): Man, they are excited in Johannesburg, South Africa. World Cup is there for the next month or so. Some of the best soccer in the world is going on. Well, I am excited about this. Oh, my goodness! I can’t wait to always…this time of year…some of the most beautiful. Hey, somebody’s already taken some! Julie, where in the world…my beautiful and lovely wife, she also loves apricots. The golden seed of the sun, they call it, beautiful apricots. Now I want you to take a look at these. These are absolutely gorgeous. Look at this red blush on some of these nice varieties. Now that doesn’t tell how ripe they’re going to be. What you still need to do is make sure there’s good solid color all the way around that apricot. Don’t just look at the red blush ‘cause that red blush will indeed fool you. Now, you’re going to want to ripen these. Please, never buy an apricot and then think you’re going to eat it right now. You’re going to need to ripen them, but once they’re fully ripened it’s going to be, oh man, so good! The golden seed of the sun – I’m so happy
GREEN GARLIC (Tuesday, June 15): All right. You know what this is. Right? What is it? Garlic. Bulbs of garlic. But this is an item that you used to only find at the farmer’s market and maybe only for a couple weeks out of the year. It’s right here - beautiful green garlic. Oh, my goodness! I am so excited about this. By the way, we call it green onions, plural. Why do they call it green garlic, singular? I don’t know. There’s several bulbs of garlic here. They harvest the garlic before it has formed the bulbs. This is what it’s going to look like in the store if you’re starting to finally see it. It looks really like green onions. Christopher Ranch, beautiful job - they’ve come up with this. They’re going to have green garlic in the store. They’re test marketing it right now but they’re going to plan on having it every year through October so like most of the year we’re going to be able to find green garlic. Again, I remember chefs used to go the farmer’s market and for like three to four weeks they get their green garlic. Now you and I can enjoy…by the way, what do you do with it? A little olive oil – throw it on the grill for Father’s Day
STRAWBERRIES (Wednesday, June 16): You get out the vanilla ice cream. We are going to crush some strawberries. Now you can crush a few strawberries in a little, tiny bowl like this. And you know, for a single serving that’s quite all right. Just a little bowl like this. And you’re going to dice them and then just crush them with a fork. Or if you have a bigger crowd…oh yeah, you’re going to get out a bigger bowl and I get the big spoon, you know, with the little slots in it, and then you can really go in there and you can really crush them like for the family, but if you’ve got the big party coming over like for Father’s Day – yes! Get out the big mixing bowl. Get out the big potato masher just like that and just start dumping some strawberries in there. Now why do you crush them? Oh, my goodness! First of all, take them out of the refrigerator, strawberries out of the refrigerator. Let them come up to room temperature. Cut the califs off. Put them in whatever bowl you’re going to do and then you just start crushing. And the flavor, the aroma is so good! For Father’s Day, just give me some vanilla ice cream and some crushed strawberries.
POTATOES (Thursday, June 17): Hey, if you’re going to take a little Father’s Day trip this weekend head up to Clarkson, Nebraska – a huge Czech festival goes on there every year, and of course, if you’re going to go to any Czech festival, you’re going to need some potato salad, and that means you’re going to need some potatoes. Now of course a lot of people, some people use Russet potatoes, but I really prefer…sometimes a mixture of Russet and reds and whites, but really the best potato salad potatoes – right here – beautiful red and white, what we call new potatoes. Right? And they’re loaded with sugar content, and that’s what makes them so good in a potato salad. Because unlike Russet potatoes which are full of starch and when you heat them up, they just absorb everything. Right? So if you make a potato salad, all that dressing goes [slurp] it sucks right into the potato and you end up with a soggy mess if you have any leftovers. So that’s why red and white potatoes, that’s what my mom always used - red and white potatoes - loaded with sugar so that way the dressing coats the potato instead of soaking into it
WATERMELON (Friday, June 18): Hey, this Sunday is Father’s Day, and I hope you’re going to have a great day with your father or father-in-law, whoever it happens to be. Plus, also Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys – he turns 68. So let’s talk about Good Vibrations. Right. A big Beach Boy song. When you’re picking out the best watermelon, I always tell you - instead of listening for it when you thump it, you’re feeling for those good vibrations in your bottom hand. Right? If there’s good vibrations that means it’s solid through and through. By the way, all that red in here…let me cut this. Oh ho ho! Did you hear that crack. See all that red in here. That red in here is lycopene. Lycopene is a very, very powerful antioxidant and it’s perfect for us guys. Guys, listen up. Guys who have lots of lycopene in their system – 45% less chance of getting prostate cancer. So this is the perfect Father’s Day fruit – beautiful watermelon! Oh, man! I can’t wait to dig it.