POMODORO Y BASILLICO PART I (Monday, September 6): Hey, Labor Day. That means, of course, school’s going to start real soon and that means we’re going to get back into the habit of cooking a little bit more, and I thought I’d have fun with a tomato that you probably have seen before but maybe you haven’t tried before. It’s called Nature Sweet. They are what we call in the produce industry cocktail tomatoes, a little bit larger than cherry tomatoes, but…Oh, my goodness!

BARTLETT PEARS (Monday, August 30): New crop Bartlett pears are here. The first growing region to harvest is called the Sacramento River District. It’s the Sacramento River just south of Sacramento. Some of those old Bartlett pear trees are over 100 years old, 120 years old, but they’ve have produced a great crop this year. They’re also just now starting the harvest in Lake County, also in California, and in a couple of weeks we’re starting in the Northwest with Bartlett pears. But for right now it’s new crop Bartlett pears.

PEACHES (Monday, August 23): Man, Williamsport, PA, they’ve got the Little League World Series going on. So the boys of summer may be on the diamond but the joys of summer, still right here in the produce department - these gorgeous…oh, my goodness! These gorgeous peaches and nectarines. This time of year we are in what we call the mid to late season variety, and most of these are now going to be….now let’s see if this is going to cooperate with me. Most of these are now what we call free stone.

YUKON GOLD POTATOES (Monday, August 16): This week 1869 they discovered gold in the Yukon Territory so I thought I’d talk about gold – Yukon gold potatoes. You know, when these first came out 20 years ago, I used to sell to restaurants. And restaurant chefs just could not get enough of these Yukon Golds. It was something very different than Red, White or Russet. And they had such great flavor.

BANANAS (Monday, August 9): Hey, Ecuador won its independence this week. You know they’ll be celebrating their Independence Day from Spain in 1809 so I thought I’d talk about the leading produce item that is exported to the United States from Ecuador. In fact about half of all of our bananas come from Ecuador, beautiful bananas this time of year. Now we are in the middle of hot August days and nights. That means you really need to buy your bananas a little bit more on the greener side.