Market Notes Oct. 24, 2019
POTATO NOTES FROM ALL OVER
Bintje samples are shipping all over the country. If you are ready for a level higher than Kennebec you should give these a try. They are the original potato for the famous European frittes and you don’t even have to use mayonnaise. Harvest Moon samples begin shipping this week and we are hoping that the beauty and flavor of this amazing potato will catch on more than one taste bud at a time. Ad programs are available for both the Bintje and Harvest Moon and we will support in-store demos as well. Fingerlings are shipping well from all locations including Bakersfield, Los Angeles, California, Mosca, Colorado, Ephrata, Pennsylvania and Hillside, New Jersey. Creamers, Pee-wee, Nibbles and Jumbo Fingerlings are all available through our California locations. Organic russet potatoes are looking great from our Mosca facility. Organic reds and yellows are available here as well. Our Colorado facility has completed a new cooling facility so we will not have to worry about the transportation in the freezing temperatures this winter. California is running strong with yellow fingerlings and fingerling assortments and this year we will be able to do ads for the holidays.
EARLY WARNING NOTICE
Possibly one of the most unique aspects of our industry is that product never remains the same with cultivated mushrooms being the one exception and they grow indoors in the dark. So, we can tell you today that the baby green scene in the Salinas Valley is going strong we also have to report that within the next three weeks it is all going to change. Transition time is always a mess with early and late product shuttles while the valley shuts down and the desert kicks in. In most cases by the middle of November the deal will have a southern exposure and loading will move to Yuma. Hopefully the rains and the temps will cooperate with this agricultural shift and we won’t burn or flood. Weather patterns have fluctuated greatly over the past few years so the patterns of a decade ago no longer pertain. We will keep you updated on old fields and last harvests along with new fields and first harvests including the transfers back and forth.
PRODUCE QUIZ – WHO AM I???
One of my earliest appearances is estimated to have been around 3400 BC. My first sighting was in Tehuacan, south of Mexico. Very soon after I was spotted again in Peru. Today I am primarily cultivated in South America, Europe and a bit here in the States.. For the most part I am a long trailing or climbing plant, but a few of my relatives do the bushy thing. Yellow flowers and large shallowly lobed leaves protect me from the elements and snoopy passers-by. As a member of the cushaw family I have a smooth, nutty taste that is well complimented by cinnamon or nutmeg. By category, winter is in my name, but I am harvested during two other seasons. When harvested in summer I am tender and best suited for stewing, boiling, or baking in a pie. When I am harvested in autumn it is often fashionable to split me in half, parboil me (yooouch!), then stuff and bake me. My second harvest yields good meat for jams, preserves, or soup. I am best when 10 to 12 inches long and about 5 inches in diameter. With a body shaped like a pear, my pale, tan, smooth skin peels easily to reveal my beautiful, finely textured, sweet, orange flesh (stay away if my skin is tinted green; it means I’m not yet ready). I am a great source of beta-carotene I am also a good source of Iron Riboflavin along with vitamins A & C. I would be a lot more popular if I weren’t constantly upstaged by that seasonal pumpkin spice that everybody uses once and forgets. I’m here most the year so I’m just taken for granted.
Answer to last weeks quiz…CAROB…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