Market Notes Oct. 10, 2019
SPECIALTY POTATOES ARE IN
The good times are herel Our Midnight Moon and Bintje varieties have completed post-harvest and are ready to ship. Tired of Kennebecks? Want great tasting fries? The butch variety of choice for decades when making Frittes, we guarantee BintJe’s color and flavor will take your fries to the next level. While this variety truly shines when fried, it is indeed versatile and performs well baked, boiled and mashed. Not to be outdone, the Midnight Moon is a powerhouse in its own right. Super versatile and strikingly attractive, this variety has been converting non-believers one bite at a time. The skin color may remind some of purple varieties they’ve had before, but the bright golden flesh is something you need to see to appreciate. More than Just a pretty face, the Midnight Moon flavor is outstanding. Bold enough to be a star on its own yet amenable enough to yield to a chef’s recipe, its uses only limits will be the end-user’s imagination. Both Bintje and Midnight Moon are available now to load FOB in Colorado, shipped to LA for consolidation, in New Jersey for forward distribution and for large enough orders shipped direct to you. Contact your Culinary Rep and place your orders todaylDON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK
Once upon a time there was an apple grower whose family grew the best Macintosh apples in New England. As everyone and their brother began growing Macs, the bottom fell out of the market and it became a forgone conclusion that he needed to go in another direction if he was going to survive. Hard cider was the direction he chose and while looking for varieties to use he stumbled upon gold. Apple varieties amazingly deep and complex flavors that don’t fit the commercial “bigger, prettier. last forever on the shelf” bill so they’d fallen out of favor. Varieties that performed well as eating and/or cooking apples he decided to market as Uncommon Apples. A few years back he shut that program down to focus strictly on his hard cider endeavors and only continued to grow the varieties that were prized in the cider making process. After some slight cajoling from us, he’s decided to partner with another grower and restart the program. This season there will be a small run to gauge just want kind of interest there is in the program going forward. A change from what was done in the past, the apples will now be harvested at peak flavor but with the help of SmartFresh technology hold the fruit for the December holiday season. Harvest has begun and will continue as the varieties come into peak condition. Contact your Culinary Rep if you have serious interest in seeing samples.PRODUCE QUIZ – WHO AM
I AM EVERYTHING AND MORE. People have the nerve to call me just a berry, but you’d never see me that way. A cliché of 70’s nouvelle cuisine, I originated in China over 700 years ago, but they only used me as a childhood tonic. The French call me “vegetable mouse,” and I must admit that I’m a rampant climber, deciduous and attractive. When cut, I release actinic and bromic acids fo curdle your milk. soften your meat, and keep your gelatin nervous. Caress my skin if you want to eat it; on a picnic enjoy my fruit, then use my skin to patch your bicycle tires; or after dessert save my skins to make pillowcases. See, I told you I’m everything and more. On the culinary side, it took an inventive marketing mom to really make me famous in the U.S. While of few of my plants are hermaphrodites, we usually work as a harem, one male for every four or five females producing 100 lbs. of fruit on one vine. You’ll find me year-round, since my two main producers have complementary seasons. I’m also a handler’s delight, since I have a resilient skin and can last 3-4 weeks in your refrigerator or 6 months in cold, humid storage. Even after 6 months, I retain 90% of my Vitamin C. I need room temperature to really ripen. I get sweeter and mushier as I ripen, despite losing some vitamin content. Scoop, peel, slice, chunk, juice, or Just bite in; use me like a strawberry or melon. Even with all my attributes. it Just isn’t enough: they’re marketing my smooth-skin baby cousins and my new gold variety. I have ten times more Vitamin C than lemons and lots of potassium, and I’m diuretic and laxative. One oval berry can have as many as 1400 seeds, containing essential fatty acids.
Answer to last weeks quiz…SWEET POTATO…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