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WATERMELON
(Monday, May 30): There’s nothing like an ice cold Watermelon
on a hot summer day. Memorial Day Weekend is the start of the summer
watermelon season. So, let’s get to know this king of summer
melons. Watermelons are native to southern Africa, but have been
known in India since prehistoric times, and in Egypt for 5-6,000
years. The seedless Watermelon was actually developed by OJ. OJ
Eigsti that is. He was a geneticist from the Midwest. In 1939 seedless
watermelon was developed by treating the unpollinated flowers of
watermelons with a specific acid, which resulted in the seedless
watermelon. Cordele, Georgia claims to be the Watermelon Capital
of the world. The first recorded watermelon harvest took place 5,000
years ago in Egypt. Pictures of the fruit were found in paintings
on the walls of ancient buildings. From there, the fruit spread
to other countries by merchant ships. The Watermelon is grown in
over 96 countries worldwide. In China and Japan watermelon is a
popular gift to bring a host. In Israel and Egypt, the sweet taste
of watermelon is often paired with the salty taste of feta cheese.
Watermelon is 92% water and about 8% sugar. Watermelon's official
name is Citrullus lanatus of the botanical family Cucurbitaceae
and it is a vegetable! It is related to cucumbers, pumpkins and
squash. By weight, watermelon is the most-consumed melon in the
U.S., followed by cantaloupe and honeydew. Early explorers used
watermelons as canteens. The first cookbook published in the United
States in 1796 contained a recipe for watermelon rind pickles. Food
Historian John Martin Taylor says that early Greek settlers brought
the method of pickling watermelon with them to Charleston, South
Carolina. A watermelon was once thrown at Roman Governor Demosthenes
during a political debate. Placing the watermelon upon his head,
he thanked the thrower for providing him with a helmet to wear as
he fought Philip of Macedonia. In 1990, Bill Carson, of Arrington,
Tennessee, grew the largest watermelon at 262 pounds that is still
on the record books according to the 1998 edition of the Guinness
Book of World Records. In 2001 over 4 billion pounds of watermelon
were produced in the United States. Americans eat over 17 lbs of
watermelon each year. Watermelon is an ideal health food because
it doesn't contain any fat or cholesterol, is an excellent source
of vitamins A, B6 and C, and contains fiber and potassium. Contrary
to popular belief eating watermelon seeds does not cause a watermelon
to grow in your stomach. Actually, in some cultures it is popular
to bake the seeds and then eat them. Over 1,200 varieties of watermelon
are grown worldwide. Every part of a watermelon is edible, even
the seeds and rinds. In today’s segment, watch carefully.
I’m showing you how to slice your seedless Watermelon. And
I want you to do this as soon as you get the melon home from the
store. That way, your kids can enjoy this healthy snack whenever
they get a snack craving.
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White fleshed
stonefruit is hot. |
WHITE
STONEFRUIT (Tuesday, May 31): Our great-grandparents
knew all about white flesh peaches and nectarines. In fact, up until
WWII, all Nectarines were white flesh. White flesh stonefruit are
very fragile, which is why they went out of popularity in the 50s.
American families were on the go. They need a peach or nectarine
that could go on the go with them. Yellow-fleshed peaches and nectarines
have a firmer flesh that Over the past decade, growers have been
increasing acreage of white-flesh varieties of peaches and nectarines.
Today, they represent almost 20% of the total crop. These white-flesh
peaches and nectarines have a pale white skin with beautiful splashes
of florescent pink. The flesh is a light pink or whitish. The colors,
both inside and out, are not nearly as bright and vibrant as the
yellow-flesh varieties. But the sugar content is greater, and the
acid content, generally lower. That brings up another difference
between the yellow and white flesh varieties. A yellow-flesh variety
will get sweeter as it ripens. That's because the acid content in
the fruit will decrease by 40 - 50%. The lower acid content makes
the fruit "appear to taste" sweeter. White-flesh stonefruit,
on the other hand, already has a lower acid content level. As the
fruit ripens, the acid levels stay the same. That simply means,
a firm ripe white-flesh peach or nectarine will taste just as sweet
as a soft ripe white-flesh peach or nectarines. That makes the white-flesh
fruit easier to use in recipes. Ripening is the key. Knowing how
to ripen stonefruit is just as important as knowing how to use stonefruit
in recipes. Just like with bananas, cold temperatures will stop
the ripening process of unripe fruit. In simpler words: Cold kills
flavor! The cold temperatures will also cause the cell structure
of the unripe peach or nectarine to break down, causing the fruit
to become mealy. Unripe peaches and nectarines should be left out
at room temperature. Keep them enclosed in the carton or a paper
bag. The magic of the brown
paper bag is amazing. In just a few days, you'll enjoy perfectly
ripened fruit. If you leave the fruit exposed to open air, because
there are no natural oils on them, the fruit will dehydrate and
shrivel before they ever ripen. White-flesh fruit will ripen almost
twice as fast as yellow-flesh fruit. Once the fruit is fully ripe,
it would be ideal to use it quickly. Ripe stonefruit can be refrigerated
for up to several days. Beyond that, the fruit will lose a lot of
its flavor and texture. My wife’s favorite fruit, the Nectarine.
The new crop is just starting from California, mostly from the southern
desert-growing region. In just a few weeks, harvest will start shifting
to more northern growing regions in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
By the first day of June, harvest should be in full swing in the
main growing region around Fresno, California. In a 15-mile radius
around Reedley, just south of Fresno, about 95% of the Nectarines
produced in the United States, are grown. The rest mainly comes
from Washington, which generally begins their harvest in early July.
Look at the background color…the color behind the red blush.
If there is more green than yellow, that Nectarine will be too immature
to ripen. There needs to be more yellow than green. Put your unripe
Nectarines in brown paper bag. Roll it up and set it on the counter.
They’ll be ripe in a few days, ready to eat or use in summer
recipes. So whatever happened to the White Peaches and Nectarines?
Well, the yellow-fleshed fruit holds up better and will last longer,
which is what the consumer began demanding back in the 50s. So the
white flesh varieties became less popular and eventually disappeared,
except at a few farmers markets in the middle of summer. Today,
the popularity of white flesh stonefruit has jumped dramatically.
Just a decade ago, only about 1% of the stonefruit crop was white
in flesh. Today, it’s closing in on about 15% of the crop.
White flesh nectarines were so adored by the kings and queens of
England, that harvesters would literally harvest the fruit and place
it on a pillow to be taken to the King or Queen.
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Andy Griffith turns 79
today. He used to say about Barney Fife, “He’s as
cool as the inner seed
of a cucumber.”
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CUCUMBERS
(Wednesday, June 1): Andy Griffith turns 79 today. I loved him in
the “Andy Griffith” show. Remember that phrase he would
often say about Barney Fife? “He’s as cool as the inner
seed of a cucumber.” Well, is that true? We’ll get to
that later. First, a little Cucumber 101. Carbon dating of seeds
shows cucumbers were cultivated as long ago as 7750 B.C. near the
Thailand-Burma border, where the member of the gourd family probably
originated. General Ulysses S. Grant was said to have been extremely
fond of cucumbers. General Horace Porter remarked in an article,
‘Campaigning with Grant’, the General "often made
his entire meal upon a sliced cucumber and a cup of coffee."
Cucumbers are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables, having been
cultivated since about 8,000 B.C. Anyone allergic to pollen or aspirin
should avoid eating cucumbers. They can cause an unpleasant mouth
itch. Cucumbers were brought to the Americas by Columbus. Cucumbers
are about 95% water, and have very little nutritional value. Bitterness
in cucumbers can be caused by any stress on the plant such as high
temperature, low moisture, low soil nutrients, etc. Bitterness is
also associated with fruit harvested late in the season from poor
yielding, unhealthy plants. Most of those bitter compounds can be
found in the stem end, in the peel and just below the peel. So,
to get rid of most of that bitterness, cut off the stem end and
peel your cuke. Although a staggering quantity of cucumbers-600
million pounds-is grown annually in California, Florida, and Texas,
the United States imports 300 million pounds a year from Mexico.
In his description of Eugene Gant's raiding the refrigerator in
Of Time and the River, literary genius Thomas Wolfe writes of a
man who can't wait to sink his teeth into "a speared forkful
of those thin-sliced cucumbers. Ah, what a delicate and toothsome
pickle they do make; what sorcerer invented them..." If Wolfe
can write so well about cucumbers, there must be something to them.
One of the oldest cultivated plants, cucumbers were discovered in
Asia by the Romans, who brought them home and successfully transplanted
them. However, when they attempted to extract some flavor from their
purloined produce, they realized that their work had just begun.
Records describe Roman cooks seasoning cucumbers with everything
from sun-made wine and pennyroyal to "a little sylphium,"
an expensive and highly esteemed flavoring. They boiled the bland
vegetable with precooked brains (presumably animal brains) and added
honey and cumin at serving time. Something must have worked because
we know that Emperor Tiberius liked cucumbers so much, he had them
grown in carts that could be wheeled out for a daily sit in the
sun to help them thrive, even off-season. In fact, the first hothouses
were created by the cooks of Tiberius, so they could supply cucumbers
to the Emperor every day of the year. Tiberius wasn't the only cucumber
lover, according to the ancient Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh, which
describes people eating wild cucumbers, among other things too squirmy
to mention. Columbus brought cucumber seeds to Haiti, possibly in
an attempt to get rid of them once and for all. As luck would have
it, the seeds thrived and spread over North America, where Native
Americans, especially the Pueblo Indians, became the cucumber's
biggest fans to date. Early American cooks seemed no less determined
than their Roman antecedents to enjoy cucumbers and began developing
recipes for frying, stewing, battering, creaming, pickling, steaming,
and stuffing the vegetable. In the late 1700s the Shaker religious
communities included in their Manifesto the proclamation that cucumbers
"can be dressed in more palatable and suitable ways than most
any other vegetable except tomatoes." True cucumber fanatics
may wish to revive the once-popular three-week cucumber diet, which
promised various cures and nice skin to boot. Current scientific
analysis has lent support to some of these claims, showing that
the vegetable is exceptionally high in vitamin E. More than just
slicing into salads, the Cucumber can actually be used in many recipes.
English Cucumbers are a very good value right now. Where do you
store your English Cucumbers? Do you know where your English Cucumber
is right now? Cucumbers hate the cold. In fact, have you ever cut
a cucumber in half, only to find a translucent appearance to the
inside flesh? Well, that is called “chill damage.” Cucumbers
should be stored at around 50 degrees. Most refrigerators are much
colder than that. Simply keep your English Cucumbers out on your
counter. And because there are no natural “oils” on
the skin of the English Cucumber, that’s why you find the
plastic wrap on them. Just keep that wrap on. No need to peel this
cucumber. The skin is very thin. And seedless? Well, not really,
but just like the “seedless” grape of the “seedless”
watermelon, the “seedless” cucumber has “immature
seeds.” By the way, it is the seed of the cucumber that makes
you “burp.” That’s why the English Cuke is “burpless.”
By the way, the inside of a cucumber can actually be up to 20 degrees
F cooler than the outside temperature.
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Jicama: This stranger
can
become your friend.
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| Jicama and Citrus team
up nicely. |
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| A Jicama field in southern
Mexico. |
JICAMA (Thursday, June 2): Today is the last day
of the Spelling Bee Championships in Washington D.C. Today, I talk
about the vegetable (it’s actually a tuber) that I bet your
neighbors don’t know how to spell. Have you met this stranger
in the produce department? Jicama, a legume, is grown for the large
tuberous roots, which can be eaten raw or cooked and are used as
a source of starch. It’s also known as a “Yam Bean,”
“Mexican Potato” or “Mexican Turnip.” The
Jicama plant is a vine, which grows to a length of 20 feet or more.
The roots are light brown in color, and may weigh up to 50 pounds.
It takes from 3 to 6 months for the Jicama roots to mature. They
grow in the southern part of Mexico, in the desert. In fact, this
tuber needs almost 100 days of 100+ degree temperatures in order
to grow and cure properly. This tuber sucks up every bit of moisture
from the soil, which is why it is so juicy. Jicama resembles a large
radish in shape. Most of those on the market will weigh between
three to five pounds. A stranger in the produce section, this lumpy,
dumpy blob of an odd-looking creature. It appears more like a dusty
old stone. For those who still haven't met the Jicama, it is a vegetable
with a humble, if not downright homely appearance. For some reason,
it doesn’t have it’s own identity. In fact, if the Jicama
was a person, it would be in therapy every week. It is always compared
to something else. It doesn't even get much credit for its own crisp,
just sweet enough taste. Rather, it is usually always compared to
water chestnuts, or grate it as a passable substitute for daikon.
To rub its lack of identity in its face, some actually characterize
the Jicama as a cross between a fruit and a vegetable, an apple
and a potato. And yet, for its own identity sake, there is nothing
is quite like the Jicama, a member of the morning glory family.
A cousin of the sweet potato, this underground tuber comes in two
types: agua (watery juice) and leche (milky juice). Like the hot
pretzels on the sidewalks of New York, Jicama is a street food in
its native habitat, sold with a squeeze of lime and a shake of fiery
chili powder. Jicama is a name derived from Nahuatl xicama or xicamatl,
a name the Aztecs gave to several edible roots. The word means “edible
root.” Jicama, like most other root crops, will store for
relatively long periods of time in the refrigerator. However, conversion
of starch to sugar will result if stored for excessive periods and
should be avoided. Jicama roots are very chilling sensitive and
roots should be stored at 55°F to 59°F with moderate relative
humidity (70-80%). A storage life of 2-4 months can be expected
under these conditions, although stem sprouts will develop after
about 2 months. Sprout development results in weight loss and especially
a loss of juiciness of the pulp. A 3-1/2 ounce serving of Jicama
provides 39 calories and about 25% of the RDA for vitamin C. The
vegetable is a good source of vitamin C, but also contains some
potassium, iron, and calcium. You can use it in dishes where you
want some crunch. Its crispy white flesh is hidden under a fibrous
dust-brown skin, which must be completely stripped off. Like potatoes,
Jicama can be steamed, baked, boiled, mashed or fried. But unlike
potatoes, however, they can also be eaten raw. Sliced into wide
sticks, Jicama makes a crunchy carrier for guacamole and highly
seasoned dips. Cut up into squares, it enhances fresh fruit salad,
absorbing and reflecting surrounding flavors, julienne into salads
or dip into pico de gallo. It is equally versatile as a cooked vegetable
-- sautéed with carrots or green beans, stir-fried with chicken
or shrimp, or simmered in savory stews. Low in starch and calories,
Jicama is satisfying, flavorful and nowhere near as strange as it
looks. Remove the peel including the fibrous flesh directly under
the skin. Cut or slice and serve raw or use as a substitute for
water chestnuts. Sauté or stir fry -- it stays crisp when
cooked. A one pound Jicama yields about three cups chopped or three
cups shredded flesh. Shred Jicama into fresh green salads. One of
the reasons I love Jicama so much, especially raw, is that it does
not discolor or oxidize. There are lots of recipes
for Jicama. Try this stranger. It’ll become a friend.
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| There is a secret in getting
the most flavor from your Cantaloupe. |
CANTALOUPE (Friday, June 3): You’re now
seeing the first of the season cantaloupe from Texas, Arizona and
California. These first Cantaloupes have been some of the finest
I have seen in years for this time of year. Sugar content is great,
and so is the rich, deep flavor. If I didn’t know better,
I’d think this was the middle of summer. Most people refrigerate
their Cantaloupes. I encourage you to leave them out at room temperature.
This is the definitive way of getting the most flavor from your
Cantaloupe. This doesn’t mean it will be sweeter. Melons,
once picked, will gain no more sugar. The ripening process for Cantaloupe
is simply to “soften” them. They won’t get sweeter
like a banana. But you can improve the flavor, make it richer, fuller,
more aromatic. The secret is to let them breath. When you put fruit
into the refrigerator, you really slow their breathing. By simply
leaving your Cantaloupe out at room temperature, they will breath
and allow all the various volatile compounds to mix in the fruit,
causing the fuller, more aromatic flavor. They may even taste sweeter
because some of the “acids” in the fruit will expire
as the fruit breathes. If you want the melon chilled, no problem.
A few hours before you serve the melon, refrigerate it. By the way,
cube some Cantaloupe, scoop up some Orange Sherbet. Mix the two
for a great salad or dessert. Oh, and don’t forget to wash
your Cantaloupe before you cut it.
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