Market Notes
May 31, 2018

YOU SAY TOMATO…

We have written about the significant difference in nutrient value between flowering kale and Salad Savoy but if we out them side by side you would never know the difference. So let us say the Salad Savoy (which we prefer because the grower tells us to) is very inexpensive and probably cheaper than the flowering kale. Because we get this grower direct we can offer the freshest harvest and combine it with some very cool specialty brassicas. This would include lacinato kale, kale sprouts, three different colors of Swiss chard, orange, purple, green and mixed cauliflower and romanesco for your Star Trek set. We offer these products FOB Salinas or we can consolidate in LA or SFO. We can even consolidate at your Salinas dock if they’ll let us. Ad prices are available. Please check with your Culinary rep for deals and steals.

MELON MANIA

The California melon season has begun. We have already told you about the super sweet yellow watermelon and now we can offer them at 20% below market price. This week we add the crenshaw, casaba, golden honey dew, red flesh watermelon, hami, honey kiss melon, orange flesh, mag cantaloupe and one of our favorites the galia. The galia is a perfect size for halving, has wonderful aromatics and that distinctive spicy sweet flavor. Most melons are 4-6 count except for the torpedo watermelons which are 3 count cases. We also offer a mixed melon case whose varieties change weekly. We are just a weeks away from the musk melon and the queen of the category, the charentais. Most loading out of the LA area, FOB pick is also available.

ANDY’S BEGINS

The cherry’s the thing and harvest has begun but the export fruit comes first. Next week they will begin packing for domestic sales when the fruit is as ripe as will allow. Initial varieties include bing, rainier and the black tartarian. The black tartarian is a “culinary” cherry. It is a soft cherry and as such not a favorite for eating out of hand, but very sweet. This cherry has a berry flavor and is great for coulis, smoothies, baked goods, as sauce for pork and duck dishes or designer martinis. The tartarian cherry is named after the Tartar’s, a group of Mongolian and Turkish tribes who were from the area in an around what is now Crimea. Don’t ask about the sauce, we don’t know.

NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – – WHAT AM I??

I’m not so much exotic looking as exotic in origin. A native of India, my many thanks go to Missionary Brewster for bringing me with other family members to North America. You’ll find me growing in Thailand, China, Hawaii, Southern Florida, Southeast Asia, Mexico and other tropics. Don’t be fooled by my appearance. I may look plain and dull, a bit rough on my smooth shaped outside, but inside, you’ll be awed by my aril. Explore my aura. Split my shell at the stem end and peel back my thin shell to find transparent to translucent white flesh enclosing a large smooth inedible seed. I’ll feel like a soft fibrous grape to the tongue and taste juicy, sweet, delicate, tropical, pineapple, grape . . . . My taste and texture challenge description — mellower in taste than my better-known close relatives and more modest in appearance (no warts, spines, hairs, or bumps), I’m equally good in their recipes. Chinese make shampoo from my seeds which they call “eye of the dragon” because of a white eye-shaped spot on the dark brown seed. I grow in clusters high in an august ornamental evergreen shade tree whose family is called soapberry because of our high saponin content. I’m most delightful eaten out of hand or served mixed with other tropicals, rice, vegetables, salads, or lightly cooked in sauces, poached or added to stir fry. I’m also preserved in syrup or dried to look like a large raisin. Or just freeze me in the shell. I bring you Vitamin C and potassium, magnesium and copper. If the birds and bats don’t eat us all, you can most easily find me in Asian markets in July and August or imported throughout the year with other tropical fruits. And, that’s the —- –d short of it.

 

Answer To Last Week’s Quiz:…LEEKS…Congrats To All 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