Archive For The “Health” Category
I’ve had plenty of disappointments buying fruit in the wintertime, but these fagile 
items just have a lot more obstacles to overcome, especially with a finicky Mother Nature. But I”ve got to say I’ve been pretty pleased with the winter strawberries and kiwifruit I’ve been purchasing.
Living here in Oklahoma I haven’t had any strawberries from California in a while, probably because of limited volume. However, I’ve been eating plenty of strawberries from Mexico. Latest brand is Fresh Kampo. I’ll give the brand a grade of B-plus. The Mexican berries have good color, quality, taste, and average size, plus have not had any break down for three days after purchase.
California is providing an excellent crop of kiwifruit now. Continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department, at least where I live — 3 kiwis for a buck. Happy shopping!
Thirty years ago you could only get certain produce items at particular times 
of the year. This has gradually changed over time as countries around the world have started growing fruits and vegetables, improving varieties, increasing volumes and exporting to countries such as the United States.
In 2011 the leading suppliers of veggies to America were Mexico, which accounted for 58 percent of imports, Canada 27 percent and Peru three percent. The top countries providing us with fruit was Mexico 34 percent, Chile 20 percent and Costa Rica 11 percent.
In most cases if these countries were not providing us these perishables, these items would not be available at all, or least in much less limited supplies, which would greatly increase the costs we pay for them. Their growing seasons differ from ours.
There are some exceptions, with perhaps the most drastic being the tomatoes available to us from Florida in the winter, which compete against tomatoes coming out of Mexico. Over the years the Florida tomato industry has complained out Mexico undercutting them on price and flooding the market with excess supplies.
There is some truth in these claims. At the same time, you’ll find Florida providing your supermarket with mature green tomatoes, while the Mexicans are supplying us with vine ripe grown tomatoes and in more recent years have greatly increased their greenhouse grown tomato supplies.
Outside of the folks who grow mature green tomatoes in Florida, I find it difficult to find people who like the taste of these tomatoes, especially when compared to vine ripe and greenhouse grown products.
I haven’t had the opportunity to try it, but I’ve read some consumer rave reviews on the Junami apple, a new variety out of Washington state. There’s apparently enough volume with the new fruit that some retailers will be promoting it.
The Junami is described as fruity, tangy, crispy and incredibly juicy. Retailers should be pricing the Junami around $1.99 per pound.
There’s another apple variety, the Lady Alice, which was introduced to consumers about five years ago. It is described as having a subtle sweet-tart flavor. A plus for the Lady Alice, it is slow to brown, making it a neat apple for salads, cheese platters and for use by slicers.
Both the Lady Alice and the Junami are said to be great storage apples and build favor while in storage before they are shipped to your favorite supermarket.
If it were not for the South American country of Chile, we would not have a lot of 
produce items during the winter (which is Chile’s summer), or at least if so it would be a lot more expensive. I’ve lamented over the California grape season ending, because their grapes were fabulous this year. Chile will be stretched to equal the quality and taste of California this winter, and if they do it will probably be later in the season. Best buys on Chilean grapes at your store should occur during February and March…..There also are peaches, nectarines and plums now available from Chile, as well blueberries and raspberries.
The Chileans do a good job of growing fresh produce, wine grapes and salmon — and they just keep getting better. I’ve been to Chile and have witnessed it first hand. A great country — and lovely people!!
Do I ever love asparagus! Absolutely, it’s in my top five
favorites with it come to veggies! Not only does it taste great
but it is one of the most nutritious vegetables around.
Asparagus is the leading supplier of folic acid. It’s also a good
source of potassium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6
and thiamin. Asparagus is low in sodium and contains no fat
or cholesterol. Cooking asparagus takes only minutes. It can be boiled, steamed, microwaved or stir-fried. You absolutely do not want to overcook asparagus. Overcooking will cause the asparagus to lose many of the nutrients.
Trim the stem ends slightly. Boil asparagus in ½ cup of water or steam in the steamer in 1 ½ -2 inches of water. Either method takes about 6-8 minutes. Cook until crisp and tender.
To microwave asparagus, use a microwavable baking dish or
bowl. If cooking whole spears, arrange with the tips in the
center. Add ¼ cup of water, cover and cook for 4-7 minutes
for spears, 3-5 for cuts and tips. To stir-fry, cut spears
diagonally in ½ inch pieces, leaving the tips whole. In a
skillet, add pieces of butter or hot oil and cook at
medium-high heat for only 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly
until tender.
When everything we seem to buy anymore is going up in price, two items that should be bucking the trend are pears and kiwifruit. Both are now in abundance.
Wholesale pear prices have actually dropped a little from last season coming of Washington state. The question is whether you’ll see any lower prices at retail. Retailers love to pay less for product, yet pocket the savings for themselves. Much of it depends on how much competition the retailer is facing. I’ve tried 3 varieties of pears so far this season. The Bartlett pears were tasty and juicy; yum, yum. However, the Bosc variety and Red pear was not nearly as good.
I recently wrote about kiwifruit from New Zealand and Italy with NZ winning the taste competition. Now kiwi from California is in abundance and it’s really good in quality and taste. While retail prices on many produce items are climbing, kiwi continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department.
Strawberries are one of the coolest items on God’s green earth. They also are 
one the tastiest. Love ’em straight up, on cereal, ice cream, dipped in chocolate, or just about any other imaginable way. The berries in your local supermarket are probably a little pricey right now, but expect better deals as volume increases from California, which has the largest volume and the best quality on just about any given year.
Strawberries also are very healthy. These berries are supposed to reduce constipation and help prevent colon cancer as they enter the intestines and wash away harmful toxins. There are many other healthful pluses to strawberries ranging to improving memory to aiding better eye sight….You can get whiter teeth brushing with strawberries and baking soda by mashing the berries and mixing it with the baking soda!
This probably won’t make big news, but head lettuce grown in Arizona fields south of Phoenix and shipped to a few areas in the west have been pulled from the market. The grower and shipper of the lettuce is Growers Express of Salinas, CA. The vegetable company is already receiving high praise as it pulled its product from the market even though there is nothing known to be wrong with it. Apparently a separate lettuce field not too far away was found to have Somenella. As a precauation Growers Express decided to remove it’s lettuce from retail stores, even though none of its lettuce had tested positive for food containmation. In the wake of the Colorado cantaulope debacle last year resulting in several deaths, extra precautions are apparently being taken by some produce companies.
Texas grapefruit each winter is typically one of my favorites for eating. First, I can usually count on the taste and quality to be good. Second, since I live in the 
Midwest, freight rates from the Lower Rio Grande Valley are lower than to much farther destinations, thus retail prices are more reasonable. So far, my store has been carrying grapefruit that is relatively small in size, but the quality and taste has been there. One caution. I’ve been buying it in the three-pound bags which normally contain about 7 pieces of the citrus. However, upon close examination of the grapefruit in the bags, some bags contain one piece of fruit with a dark discoration indicating it is breaking down….Grapefruit will store longer if you refrigerate it, but I prefer keeping and eating it at room temperature for the full flavor.
These furry looking little “critters” are one of my favorites! Great for breakfast or snacks. My local supermarket has been carrying Kiwis from both Italy and New Zealand. Nobody loves Italian pasta more than I, but I’m sorry the kiwi from Italy I’ve bought is hard a rock. I take it home and two weeks later it’s still that way. Out of desperation, I finally cut it open. It lacks juice, sweetness and taste. On the other hand the New Zealand kiwi has been excellent…..When purchasing kiwi look for firmness when feeling the fruit that “gives” slightly when pressing it. Kiwi with wrinkels is showing shrink, and will be — if not already, over ripe and past its prime….Pricewise, it’s been one of the best buys in the produce department.