Market Notes
March 28, 2019

 
 

 

HOLIDAY PULL GEAR IN FULL

      Potato orders for the holiday are already coming in and while we are happy to say we have all the potatoes to meet your needs, packing and shipping is another matter. We should be well stocked in Colorado and at our forward distribution facilities in Pennsylvania and only running slightly behind in California but hope to be caught up early next week. We greatly appreciate the advance notice many of our customers have given us as to increased orders and encourage all others to do the same. In the coming weeks even transfer trucks will fill up early. Driver times run short as extra time is needed for heavy deliveries, belts break, trucks get scarce, price goes up. From the third to the fifteenth it all gets weird but we know that and we are ready.  The one item that remains elusive is marble purple potatoes for our tri-color marble mix.  We don’t expect them until early May. So order early order often and may your holiday madness be smooth to the finish.

 

SPRING AND TRANSITIONAL THINGS

The latest in the ramp report is almost exactly what you would expect for the tie of the year. Ramp tops are just peeking through the ground but way too small to pick. We usually get hit with one more snow and after that they begin to flourish. So, two weeks for the first pick if no snow and three weeks if it snows. Four weeks before they price becomes reasonable, then three weeks of peak, one to two weeks of dwindle then onto fiddlehead ferns. Currently we have west coast fiddlehead ferns and nettles available along with spring garlic and baby claytonia. Some orchard morels are popping and there are also some from China. Winter citrus is entering its sweetest weeks of harvest.  Also, in the non-edible category of spring things, we are entering transition week for Salinas growers. Over the next two weeks harvesting in Yuma will finish up and transition to the Salinas Valley and surrounding areas. All loading will be up north by April fifteenth, most by the eighth.

 

NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – – WHAT AM I??

I have over fifty varieties.  In the Inca language (Quechua) still spoken by the Indian peoples of Peru and Bolivia, my name means “cold seed.”  I am native to the Andes and can be found growing in tropical and subtropical regions, cold seed indeed!  Today I am cultivated in the USA, Chili, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Israel, Guatemala, and Australia.  The thorny tree that bares my fruit can grow as high as twenty-four feet.  The scent of my flowers is so strong insects stay away so I have to be pollinated manually in order to fruit.  I am heart or oval shapes with a scaly skin color ranging from bronze to green.  When ripe I turn yellow then black.  When over ripe I tend to have a sickly sweet odor.  My fragrant whitish pulp is sweet and juicy with a custard-like texture.  I have large black inedible (friendly) seeds throughout my flesh.  I am best eaten out of hand and often doused with orange juice to prevent oxidation.  I am also used in fruit salads, sorbets, ice creams, yogurt, pastries and cookies.  I can also be used to make jellies, jams juice or compote.  I am high in carbohydrates and a good source of vitamin C and niacin.  If you attached a monstera to my mid-section I would look like a prehistoric reptile.

 

Answer to last weeks quiz..TUMERIC…Congratulations to all winners!

Call 908-789-4700 –Lisa or Richard– Fax 908-789-4702
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Culinary Specialty Produce, Inc., 2015