Market Notes
August 10th, 2023
HATCH CHILES
The peppers are in, it is Hatch time! Hatch chile peppers are from the Santa Few region and Hatch Valley of Texas. The rich fertile soil gave birth to the popular mild Anaheim Pepper. So named due to the location where it could be produced year round. The hatch chile pepper is not a single variety, but at least a minimum of five different varieties varying in intensity. The hottest ones might have an orange or red tint, but don’t be deceived the green ones. It is easy to reveal the heat level by simply slicing the pepper open and looking at the color of the veins running the meat of the pepper. The lighter the color, the less intense. White veins will not be hot, much like the Anaheim. Yellow veins would be similar to a Fresno pepper. Orange veins or even red veins means wear gloves and keep a gallon of milk and a lemon nearby. Normally a six week season, this year it will be cut short. Due to the weird weather winter, not as many chiles hatched (see what we did there). We are being told that we will be lucky to have a four week season this year. So brief became briefer and the time is now if you want to jump in. Sold in twenty-five pound cases and loading out of the Los Angeles market area, mild and medium varieties are stocked. The hotter varieties require a pre-order. Get out your roaster and give us a call.
FINGERLING POTATOES
We are rockin’ both sides of the country. So cry about your small russets. Scream about the absurd prices on purple potatoes. Choke on the thirty percent increase on organic rounds. We have good supply of our two most popular potato products, yellow fingerlings and fingerling assortment with steady pricing and availability. Our Pennsylvania and California forward distribution are fully stocked and ready to go with all new and great looking product. Production points in Oregon and Colorado are also available for FOB loading. Crop reports are showing good quality and average yield, which is definitely an improvement over last year. These harvests should roll over seamlessly into September crop without interruption in any operations. Specialty crop (Harvest Moon, Binjte, German Butterball etc.) will begin late September or early October.
NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – WHO AM I ???
I’ve gone from growing wild, to slave plantations, to industrial production. A perennial grass, I am grown in about 80 countries in the tropics and subtropics and can grow from 6 to 23 feet in height. My cut shoots are 1 – 2 inches in diameter. I am first documented in India in 1000 BC. Early on, I was used in medicine; Dioscorides, a first-century Greek physician, considered me “worth my weight in silver.” You’ll find me mentioned by Jeremiah, Ezekial and Isaiah in the Old Testament. Europeans viewed me as a fabulous food and expensive medicine brought through deserts to their ports. In fact, in 966, Venice’s fate and fortune were founded on me and on the trade of silks and spices. My most popular output is — cut; crushed for my juice which is extracted with water; purified, concentrated by evaporation, and crystallized. In ancient times, you might have chewed me, or in an Arab harem, made me into a depilatory. For nouveau cuisine, cook me as a skewer for shrimp. Raw, I am 96-99% sucrose. Originally a rare and valuable plant, I became so popular that by 1979 there were more of my products produced than could be consumed. Today, ecologists propose my juice as an alternative food source for pigs and poultry, and scientists are mapping my DNA to help understand plant genes.
The answer to last weeks quiz was…AKEBIA… 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., 2020