Market Notes
December 7, 2017
YELLOW TOMATOES
After Hurricane Erma has blown over the damage still remains. Many of Florida’s prime growing areas were devastated. Recovery has been a slow process. There are virtually no tomatoes and the few that can be found are fifty plus per lug. There was a brief harvest of yellow tomatoes six weeks ago and that yielded eight pallets on over two-hundred acres. Currently there are none available. This is just the tomato devastation. Some growers have simply dropped out; others have lost their seed sheds and equipment while some still remain devoted to the cause. We have seen the trouble with citrus already. The pepper, eggplant and corn crops are crippled as well. Our yellow tomato program has lost one grower for this season, but the remaining growers are committed as ever. As the weather has been very agreeable in central Florida (eighty-five plus) for the past several weeks and we are looking at new crop by the first week of January and volume by the middle of the month. At this time we cannot speak to quality or price except to say the growers says they are good and they have a lot to make up for. Stay tuned!
OFF-SHORE
All in all products running well, here is a snapshot. Asparagus are showing occasional spreading but they are solid for the most part. All sizes available and unusually good pricing on Jumbo. Good pricing on white grass as well. Carrots prices are up. Considering how inexpensive they usually are prices in the teens may seem high, but for both orange and rainbow still a great value. French beans are the deal of the week. Both trimmed or with calyx, they don’t get less expensive than this or look this good. Perfect timing for the casserole and slow-cook season. In the baby squash section, green is good and yellow is showing some trouble. We are double running the baby yellow patty pan but the culls are large and availability is limited. Stick with the green which is abundant, beautiful and affordable. Finally a full complement of baby lettuces from Peru is available in two and a half pound cases. Products available FOB Miami, FOB your local airport, or delivered. Please call for details.
NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – – WHAT AM I??
I’m sure you know me, but do you love me? I am an ancient and perennial survivor, from Europe, North Africa, Northern Asia, and North America. Tiptoe amongst us, and then trim away our young leaves for a tangy, chewy treat. Before we flower, collect our buds to marinate or deep-fry. Take an early morning walk and wade through fresh flowers lopping off our heads. Weave our stems to make a crown, and then collect our manes to add our petals to favorite dishes or make my nostalgic and beatific brew. As the colder nights settle in, enjoy my leaves from your greenhouse, a bit longer, paler and milder than from the wild, but just as good. Try them fresh or wilted with a hot strong dressing, maybe a bit southern with salt pork and garlic as well. Or try a Pennsylvania Dutch sweet-sour recipe. Cook me, just a bit, to soften my texture and mellow my flavor, but don’t cook me too long like some other bitter greens. Enjoy a coffee-like brew from my root, or perhaps, open a vintage fermentation. Okay, so you’re not a romantic — you’ll prefer the story that snickers at the French loving our bitter greens and naming us “lion’s tooth” because of our jagged leaves. You’ll belittle chefs turning us couture. Amused that we’ve become cultivated and harvested by hand or foraged from the wild, you’ll never fall in love with us; you’ll fertilize and dig us out of your perfect lawn. You’ll find our sticky milk irritating your sensitive skin. You’ll moan when we grow back where you’re sure you’ve killed us. You’ll never know how well we aid appetite and work as a diuretic and laxative, but you’ll love the nickname Pissabed, since to you we’re just a weed. If you ever do try us for our calcium, potassium and vitamins A and C, you can buy us year round, with April and May being our heyday. Just avoid us at the side of the road or where chemicals are used. Are you sure you don’t love us a little bit? You really never blew our seed puffs across the wind or read Sci-Fi writer Ray’s book?
Answer To Last Week’s Quiz…CARDONE…Congrats winners
Call 908-789-4700 –Lisa or Richard– Fax 908-789-4702
Visit us at www.culinaryproduce.com
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Culinary Specialty Produce, Inc., 2015