Market Notes
March 5, 2020

 

 

 

FROM RED TO GREEN – THE HOLIDAY SCENE

     Next up, St. Patrick’s Day, which is on Tuesday, March 17th.  One of the more popular items from last year was the green orchids. These are not grown as green orchids; they are white orchids that are dyed green for the holiday.  This is a very delicate and time consuming process and advance notice is required. If you are interested we need to have orders for the green orchids no later than Tuesday, March 6th so you can receive them with plenty of time prior to the holiday. We also offered green potatoes with advance notice. We would simply expose your pre-order to fluorescent light for a week or so to make sure the skins turned green. That program did not do as well. Numerous other unique greens include nettles, spring onions, fiddlehead ferns and a wide array of micros and edible flowers. So get green with Culinary, give us a call to review our full menu.  

     RAMP UP

     No more teasing. It’s not exactly “start your engines” time but at least we have some dates. Culinary Specialty Produce is now projecting that Fresh Eastern Ramps will ship the week of March 16th. Traditionally they remain expensive for two weeks until the supply explodes.  We predict that will happen the week of March 30th.  Remember, this is all assuming that there is no late season frost or snow causing the growth to stop. Load volume should begin shortly after April 1st. In other spring forage news Lady fiddlehead ferns have begun from Canada. We can offer them forage direct or consolidation out of the LA market. While tasty and cool, there are different from the Ostrich fiddlehead which is bright green. Those come to market late April.  

 PRODUCE QUIZ — WHO AM I???

     I am never alone.  Wanting to be pure and simple my whole life, but it was just not meant to be.  I guess my first association was Greek.  Then I went wild and since then I have been associated with Italians, Mexicans, golden showy, beautiful, wooly white, and happy hills.   While I might be as old as the hills, that flavor won’t make you happy unless you want something scentless, tasteless and green.  Keep that in your medicine cabinet to make poultices help with your everyday scorpion bites, sore muscles, and hair loss.  The Greeks and the Romans discovered me first and I was considered a medicine by many, including Pliny and Dioscorides.  Then the colonists brought me to America for their gardens, but I escaped, becoming wild once again.  Free in the new land, I searched for good ground.  Along the way I meet and fell in love with the tomato, a relationship that has been nurtured ever since.  I also flirted a lot with zucchini, and was often the toast of the cucina.  Then I met my sister (so they tell me) Marge and the confusion began again.  Will it be her green leaves or my white flowers?  Coarse rigini from Greece, or dried for a sprinkle?  Her sweet oil, or my intense concentrated oil?  Did you know it takes 200 pound of my leaves to produce a single pound of my oil?  Anyway, no matter what I end up being called, I am essential in pizza, pasta, and many chili powders.  I am popular in blossom, in fresh green leaf, or dried.  I am often used as a healing tea.  My nutrients include calcium, potassium, vitamin A, magnesium, phosphorus, and iron.  Don’t carry me in a baggie or you’ll be suspect.

Answer to last week’s quiz ….. LEGUMES…..Congrats to all winners

Call 908-789-4700 –Lisa or Richard– Fax 908-789-4702 Visit us at www.culinaryproduce.com “like” us @ Culinary Specialty Produce on Facebook© Culinary Specialty Produce, Inc., 2015