Produce News for October 27, 2008

PINOVA APPLES (Monday, October 27):  Before we leave October, which happens to be National Apple Month, I wanted to show you one of the hottest, newest apples out there in the market.  You’re only going to see them this year probably for maybe a week or two.  Next year maybe for three or for four weeks.  The year after that, maybe a little bit more.  But come close.  You’ve got to check this out.  This is the hottest apple.  It’s called a Pinova.  It’s from Dresden, Germany.  It has Old World flavor.  Some of those Eastern European and Western European varieties of apples are some of the best tasting apples like the Esposus Spitzenberg, which happened to be Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple.  But this apple bred and dressed in Germany has a little Duchess of Edinburgh in there which is an old, old variety in Germany.  It also has a little Cox’s Pippin Orange which is an Old English variety.  And it has some Golden Delicious in here. So what does it taste like?  Oh, it’s a beautiful apple, but the flavor is what you will fall in love with.  Old World flavor in a brand new apple. 



SECKEL PEARS (Tuesday, October 28)  Good things come in small packages, and I am going to prove it.  Hey, the rest of this week we’re going to talk about pear varieties.  Now of course we all know what a Bartlett pear is.  It’s the most popular summer pear on earth.  And of course the most popular winter pear is the D’Anjou pear, but there are so many different varieties of fall/winter pears right now, I wanted to start out with the small one, the little diminutive one.  It happens also to be the only pear variety that originated right here in the good U.S. of A.  It originated outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Most likely German immigrants brought this pear with them, and as they were passing through Philadelphia, they left some of the pear varieties around.  The seeds went in the ground.  They started coming up.  What’s it called?  It’s called a Seckel pear.  Oh, my goodness!  This thing is probably…for my kids, I buy this for my kids.  It’s nickname is called sugar pear.  That should give you a hint on its flavor.  If you’re trying to get your kids to eat more fruit…right here, the Seckel pear, the sugar pear. 

FORELLE PEARS (Wednesday, October 29):  Hey, down through history there have been many great pairs – Antony and Cleopatra, Lewis and Clark, Abbott and Costello.  We’re talking actually pears – beautiful pear varities you’re going to see in the supermarket right now, and take a look at this one.  In fact, take a look at it, and I’ll tell you how it got its name.  See the little red spots on it?  It reminded the early founders of this particular variety of trout.  That’s right, the little red spots on a trout.  And it’s actual name is forelle which is a German name for trout.   In fact, it originated in Germany in the 1600s, northern Germany, in Saxony, Germany.  Now it was brought here to the United States in the 1800s and is certainly grown all over the United States, mostly grown in the Northwest.  This is called the snacking pear.  If you want a cute little pear for a snack, you’ve got a little cheese…you’ve got to go for the Forelle.  Now I know there’s an E on the end and some people pronounce it Forell”e.”  It’s actually Forelle.  It means trout, okay. 

COMICE PEARS (Thursday, October 30):  You know all this week we’re talking about pears.  You all know what a Bartlett pear is, the most popular summer pear.  You know what a D’Angou is.   I’m trying to get you accustomed to some of the other pear varieites that you see in the produce department.   May I introduce you to the cadillac of pears?  Right here, this rotund little pear.  This chubby, stubby, fat, little pear I call it.  It’s called a Comice, which originated in Angers, France, which is why it has a very French name – Comice.  It’s very French.  In fact, it was named after the guy who first developed it.  He used to be the director of the Plant Society in Paris, France, Dr. Comice.  So anyway, this is where we get this beautiful Comice pear.  Oh, man!  Have you never tried a Comice pear?  You know those Harry and David pears that you spend a lot of money on?  It’s actually the Comice pear.  So if you are looking for probably one of the best tasting pears on the face of the planet, I call it the Cadillac of pears – it’s a Comice.  You’ve got to try it. 



CONCORDE PEAR (Friday, October 31):  You know, yesterday we were talking about this beautiful Comice pear, so I thought I’d bring a pear that has a little bit of the Comice in it.  It’s called a Concorde pear.  Concord with an E at the end.  You don’t pronounce it Concord-E.  It’s Concorde pear, kind of like a Concord grape.  It really looks like a Bosc pear in the shape, a really long neck, but it does not have all that russetting on it, but it does get some of the flavor - Oh, my goodness - from the beautiful Comice pear.  Really juicy.  Very, very good flavor.  One of the things I love to do with this pear is I love to put it in salads.  Let me show you why.  I love this pear because it is one of the few pears that takes a long time to oxidize or to discolor, so when you slice this into a green salad, for example, it’s not…you don’t have to put all kinds of lemon juice all over it.  It’ll stay fairly clean and not oxidize…a really nice color until you’re done with the salad, of course.  But the Concorde pear – never seen it, never heard of it?  You have got to try it.