Posts Tagged “Chilean”

Apples Remain a Good Buy; Sweet Onions Coming

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With four percent more apples remaining in U.S. storages nationally, the fruit should remain a good retail buy well into the summer months.  Washington state provides more apples than all other states combined, so naturally your choices will be more plentiful from the Northwest, especially if you live in the Western half of the country.  No surprise, the most common varieties of apples will be in greatest supply in your supermarket:  red delicious, gala and granny smith.  There should also be decent supplies of fuji and golden delilcious apples.

It’s almost time for domestic sweet onions.  Texas will be providing the first sweet onions in many retail stores, with arrivals by late March.  Expect sweet onions from Vidalia, GA to be availble in limited qualities in some stores by Easter (April 8), with plentiful supplies by mid-April.

Chilean red seedless grapes are reasonably priced now, and have a great sweet taste.  Berry size has improved from a few weeks ago.

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Tomatoes, Grapes Among Good Buys

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With a glut of tomatoes due to over production both from Florida and Mexico,

Red, Green and Blue-Black grapes arranged on white plate

tomatoes should be reasonably priced in your local supermarket.  I emphasize “should be” as retailers too often love to see overproduction “blood baths” allowing them to buy product cheap, but  too often these retailers are very reluctant to pass the savings on to the consumer.

Another good buy should be Chilean grapes.  I’ve found the red seedless grapes to be of excellent quality, although often lacking in size.  The green seedless grapes I’ve tasted have been a little tart, but not bad.

If you are looking for honeydew, expect to pay a premium as supplies from both Mexico and Central America are light.  I find honeydew this time of year too often lacking in taste….Asian pears are a favorite of mine.  They are a little pricey anytime, but expect this to be even more so now.  Supplies are  shifting from the U.S. to Chile, where the crop may be off as much as 15 percent.

My experience thus far with strawberries has been kind of erractic.  I have had some fruit that didn’t look that good, but had better taste than some of the berries with great color.  It’s hard to figure out.

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