Produce News for March 30, 2009

APPLES (Monday, March 30): All right. Are your apples CA apples? CA apples. What does that mean? No, CA is not the official abbreviation of the state of California, although it is by the US Post Office. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about “controlled atmosphere”. Let me show you on this carton. There’s a CA right down here. You can see it on the lettering. CA. WNCA. This CA means…see that right there? It means “controlled atmosphere”. That’s actually the room number. Room number 118 is where this came from from Washington state. Now what does controlled atmosphere have to do with anything? Well, see these apples right here? These apples were harvested last September and they go into what’s called common storage. That’s just regular storage just like…kind of like your refrigerator. And then some are put into controlled atmosphere where they actually control temperature, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen levels – and that way this time of year when we start getting apples from CA rooms, they’re just as crisp as when they come out.

ORANGES (Tuesday, March 31): Hey, NCAA March Madness continues, and the final championship game next Monday. But you know, I bet, a lot of the players, they should be eating because oranges will help you breath better and it moves oxygen easier throughout your system. Now look at these navel oranges right here. I wanted to bring these in because look how flat they are. They’re starting to get a little lopsided. See that? A little lopsided. That is very normal this time of year because as the oranges stay on the tree, they start getting…the peel actually starts pulling away from the flesh so it gets this like little puffy appearance. That’s totally okay. What I’m more concerned about is dry cell, and I do not see any dry cell in here. Dry cell means there’s so much water content in these little water balloons that it just basically exploded the water balloons, and you end up with what’s called dry cell in it. Now the way you can tell dry cell is when you are picking up the orange, make sure you hold it in your hand. It should feel very heavy for its size. If it feels really light, kind of like balsa wood, that means it probably has dry cell and you don’t want it.

POTATOES (Wednesday, April 1): You were starting to find some peepers on your potatoes. No, it’s not an April Fools joke. It’s really true. This time of year these potatoes have been out of the ground since like last September and October and a lot of times you’ll find a couple things this time of year. You’ll start finding what we call little air checks, little storage cracks. See these? Just little, tiny storage cracks. Does not affect the quality. Also you start seeing these little - look at that right there. Peepers. They’re starting to sprout again. Again, that’s very normal in spring. See, the potato is a tuber and tubers go to sleep in the wintertime. It’s called a natural dormancy cycle, and in the springtime they “wake up” and they want to grow a new plant for a new season so you start seeing little peepers. So how do you prevent the peepers? Well, what you need to do - make sure you’re keeping your potatoes in a very cool place, very dry, and make sure it’s dark because once you expose this to light, hey, it thinks it’s springtime and it wants to grow again. So keep them in the dark.

GRAPEFRUIT (Thursday, April 2): Oh, yes! I am very excited. I love this time of year! I want you to take a look at these. I’m going to bring these over here. Look. They’re all cut up. These are beautiful spring grapefruit, absolutely gorgeous, and look at the juice content in here. They’re not only juicy, but folks, this time of year…I’ve always said, “Spring grapefruit is some of the juiciest and some of the sweetest grapefruit.” Forget about the grapefruit your granddad used to get out and get out the bowl of sugar and put sugar all over it. You don’t need that any more, especially springtime grapefruit. It is some of the finest of the entire year. And this stuff…oh, man! Just get out your spoon and enjoy that. You know, put it into your salad. They are so good. You don’t believe me that they’re sweet? Come on! I’m going to challenge you. Go out and get a grapefruit today. Take it home. Don’t get out the sugar. Just go out and cut it in half and bite it. Oh, you will also say, “Some of the sweetest grapefruit of the year.”

BEETS (Friday, April 3): Don’t you just love those two-for-one sales where you get two items for the price of one. Well, beets. You walk down the produce aisle, and beets are the two-for-one produce item. Why is that? Well, let me show you something. Beets, you get two vegetables, two dinners for the price of one. Of course here you have the bulb, but look here – you have the leaves. Beet greens are so healthy for you. Any way that you cook chard, any way that you cook spinach, you can also sauté your beet greens. They are so good. So here’s what I want you to do when you get home. First thing I want you to do, I want you to take those bulbs and I want you to cut them off the leaves and then store them separately because if you don’t, the bulb will continue to draw moisture, and the leaves will continue to draw moisture from the bulb, and it will start to dehydrate. So here’s one dinner right here. Oh, beets – just sauté them a little bit - a little olive oil, salt and pepper. And then the next day maybe use some beet greens underneath a pork chop (gasp) or underneath a steak.