Market Notes
September 17, 2015
THE HEAT IS GONE ,YEAH…THE FALL IS HERE!
There are a few remaining issues from the heat wave over the past four weeks. Chives and chervil are tight, bugs hit the baby beets up north and heat hit the baby beets down south so they remain very tight. Add large Romanesco to the MIA list and that’s about it. Mesclun, baby lettuces, frisee, and green components are all abundant again and for the most part normal pricing has resumed. The good deal on baby mixed heads is back for those of you who are value minded. Kale, the new leader in the green’s game, was never in any shortage and remains abundant. We should have about eight weeks of smooth sailing until transition. Maybe it will rain this year.
COLORADO ORGANICS
Reports are in and the organic russets from the San Luis Valley in Colorado are looking great. If our first shipments are any indication this is absolutely true. The russets are available in totes, counts, 10/5# or 16/3#. We are also offering organic reds, organic whites and in two weeks we will have first of the season organic Masquerade™ potatoes. For those not familiar with the Masquerade™ potato it has a russet flavor profile and a stunning skin of swirling purple and gold. They are the prettiest bakers you will ever serve. Retail packaging is in development but we have retail bags for the reds and yellows. FOB shipping is out of Mosca, Colorado but we can offer consolidation and forward distribution through our Pennsylvania distribution center or consolidation in Los Angeles. Please contact your Culinary rep for pack sizes, delivered costs and samples.
ALL THINGS FALL
First a brief update on Paw Paw’s. We will have product available for shipping early next week. We can pack in 5# cases and ship out of the Ohio and Michigan Area. We expect to be shipping for the next three to four weeks before the product gets too ripe. Fall stock has arrived, and it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with the fall leaves, hay bales, this week’s quiz answer and lemon leaves for a good base. Then we add the pumpkins: We have pie, small, painted, Jack-O-Lanterns, and with some pre-ordering and a drive to western Pennsylvania three quarter ton (1200#) pumpkins (FOB only). Then we call the decorative gourds and the squash including, Red Kuri, Turks Turban, Gray Hubbard, Delicata, Spaghetti, Acorn, to name a few. Top it off with the seasonal fruit including jumbo Starfruit from Taiwan, Feijoas, and Pomegranates and you have a stunning cornucopia of the seasonal offerings and Fingerlimes to offer a new fruit for a new year. Here’s a teaser from our Corralitos office. Watsonville, now known for berries, used to be apple country. We are currently scouring the area for the heirloom growers and will be offering some amazing varieties in future issues. Please stay tuned.
NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – – WHO AM I
It’s truly amazing that the climb of a high-ranking family was probably spring boarded by me. Of course, I’m only kept around for my decorative elements. But, the whole family comes in third behind wheat and rice in the world production of cereal crops. I’m one of those tall coarse annual grasses with seeds that are cereal grains. With us, what you eat is actually part of my plant’s flower structure. All of us in our family are both male and female. The early American settlers ate me; but then again starvation wasn’t an appealing alternative that first winter. To prepare me, Native Americans used alkaline materials to remove my hard skins. Unlike the vastly popular “knee high by the Fourth of July” variety, I’m proud that I’m not the result of selective breeding for my paleness color, sweetness, or tenderness. I’m the true native, but those palefaces are what Americans prefer. They call me Flint for my hard exterior, you know – a thick skin, so I can hold my own against the insults of my more edible relatives. Do you think Columbus would have noticed us without my colors — ranging from white, red, purple, and brown, to multicolored? You may like related varieties that explode when heated, but don’t feel you need to eat me, please. I live a much longer life when preserved for my rich beauty. Mais oui, I am Zea Mays — no relation to baseball’s Willie. Visit one of the Maize Mazes and you are unlikely to see many or any of me, but decorate for harvest celebrations and I’m there, lignified and full of starch.
Answer To Last Quiz….OREGANO……Congrats To All Winners
Call 908-789-4700 –Lisa, Mark or Richard– Fax 908-789-4702
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Culinary Specialty Produce, Inc., 2015