Market Notes
July 11, 2019
POTATO NOTES FROM ALL OVER
Our southern Colorado potato facility has shut down for a week. Above the regular maintenance there will also be improvements and additions to storage, cooling, and loading dock facilities. When complete we will be able to store more potatoes with more temperature options within the same building. This will help us avoid the limited movement of product in the bitter winter months as well as tempering the potatoes coming out of sweat. We will begin packing again on July 25th with new crop from New Mexico. California is packing daily but we have to go through a double sort due to the extensive heat. Unfortunately this does not show up for a day or two after they are run so we are holding them for 48 hours and then running them a second time. Fortunately we have a very healthy harvest and only a fraction have suffered from heat stroke. Jumbo fingerlings are once again available from this area and while they are not abundant we have been able to fill all orders. Purple fingerlings are limited in straight packs as we are holding them for our fingerling assortment pack. Good quality red creamers and any white creamers are hard to come by but yellows and purples are pretty easy. Pee-Wee potatoes are available but they are a pre-order and pricey. Available in yellow, pink and red, the pee-wee max out at 2.25 inches in diameter. Finally, the Harvest Moon purple upon yellow potato has generated some interest once again and we will be shipping them by mid-October.
OUT WITH THE CRAWFORD IN WITH THE GREEN GAGE
This Andy’s update is brought to you by your taste buds, the body part that will appreciate Andy’s the most. Not that your eyes won’t tear with joy and you will follow your nose, your taste buds remain the winner. They have already missed the Blenheim apricot season and a few other sublime apricot varieties, but fear not super taster, there is much more to come. This year crop of baby Crawford peaches is ….not. No crop, no fruit, not even for the field store. The good news is that the Green Gage plums are growing out nicely and unlike last year we will have a crop. That said, it’s still Andy’s so there is never huge volume. We will be soliciting preorders on the Green Gage to make sure those who are interested are covered. New peach and nectarine varieties appear everyday, hang out for a week and are gone. Please contact your culinary rep for the daily or weekly run down. This is really our last week to promote this but if you are in town for the PMA convention in Monterey take a 40 minute drive on 101 North to Morgan Hill and Andy’s Orchards. You will learn what stone fruit is supposed to taste like. You know you want to do this, now go have a conversation with your tongue.
NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – – WHAT AM I??
Although with time I have gotten a bit easier but I really am famous for playing hard to get. The few that are graced with my presence find me on a small tropical tree cultivated in parts of Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. I am the reigning queen member of the Guttiferaceae family and am actually referred to as “Queen of the Tropical Fruits.” I grow at my own leisure, which is usually in a timely fashion, and I am difficult to propagate, even down right persnickety. My thick vibrant skin is strikingly handsome. I share the same purplish red skin color as a pomegranate, but I am far more beautiful, both inside and out. My insides are segmented into small pulpy white to ivory sections. My pulp is delicate, yet powerfully sweet and juicy. My exotic flavor has been described as a mixture of pineapple, apricot, orange and grape. Taste me and I will practically melt in your mouth. My pulp can be pureed and used as a topping for ice cream, sherbet or tossed in fruit salad. Most take delight in scooping me right out of my chilled skin. In Indonesia, lucky for them, I am actually abundant, and I am often used in recipes for pickles and vinegar. If you are blessed with fashion sense, you may be wearing my eye catching color on your belt, shoes, wallet or gloves because my skin contains tannins, used for dying certain materials. I contain potassium and vitamin C as well as traces of iron and niacin. If my name were broken down you would find the name of another member of the fruit family, but believe me there is no relation. Contrary to popular opinion I never had a Bar-Mitzvah and have no religious affiliations.
Answer to last weeks quiz…GOURD…Congrats to all winners!
Call 908-789-4700 –Lisa or Richard– Fax 908-789-4702
Visit us at www.culinaryproduce.com
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Culinary Specialty Produce, Inc., 2015