Last week’s YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLE still dealt with Spring fruits and vegetables: Is it proper to eat Asparagus with your fingers? Let’s consult the first lady of etiquette, Emily Post. Emily Post advises that it is “perfectly fine to eat Asparagus with your fingers,” since it is considered a “finger food.” However, someone from the Emily Post Institute wrote me to clarify: “While Asparagus may be eaten with the fingers, this only is if the spear is crisp and has no sauce or butter on it. However, if everything else is being eaten with a fork and a knife, it is far preferable to use cutlery to eat the Asparagus, too, even if it is unadorned.” This week's YOUR PRODUCE MAN’S PRODUCE PUZZZZLE still deals with Summer Corn: Is Corn a fruit or a vegetable? See next week’s Fresh Tips for the answer.

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.

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.

Cucumbers are cool!

Andy Griffith turns 79 today. He used to say about Barney Fife, “He’s as cool as the inner seed of a cucumber.”

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.

Jicama: This stranger can become your friend.

Jicama and Citrus team up nicely.

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.

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.

Top of page