Last week’s Your Produce Man’s Produce Puzzzzle dealt with summer Okra: What plant is Okra related to? Here's a hint: It makes great shirts. Okra was one of the original ingredients to catsup, used to thicken the catsup of course. Okra loves hot conditions. In fact, its cousin that makes great shirts, also loves hot conditions. That's why where ever you find Okra growing, you will also find it's hot temperature cousin…cotton. This week's Your Produce Man’s Produce Puzzzzle deals with the Bible and fruit: What is the most talked about fruit in the Bible? See next week’s Fresh Tips for the answer.

Chilean Hass Avocados have begun

HASS AVOCADO (Monday, August 29): California Hass Avocados have been hanging on the trees for about 44 weeks now. That simply means that oil content is certainly at its highest, and that the fruit will ripen very fast. Because of the high oil content, the fruit is also less susceptible to chill damage, which means you can keep it a little longer than normal in refrigeration without them turning black inside. Some early Chilean Hass Avocados have already started coming in on boats, with heavier volume expected by late September. Vessels should be arriving about every 10 days or so with fresh Avocados from Chile. With California's crop about 85% finished, and prices starting to rise, there shouldn't be any major supply gap between California and Chilean fruit. Even though orchards in Chile are mature, early fruit still tends to have less oil content and more water content. This will make these early Chilean Hass Avocados more susceptible to chill damage and blackening of the fruit. It is best to plan your buys. You may want to buy your fruit a few days in advance and keep the fruit in a warmer spot to ensure the fruit is ripe when you need it. Although early Chilean fruit tends to have less oil content than current California supplies, this year’s Chilean fruit has been looking exceptionally nice. Chilean fruit is also less expensive than the California Hass for this time of year. Again, it will take longer to ripen, so buy in advance…and be patient with them. If you need them ripe in a hurry, enclose them in a brown paper bag, or put them in a box and cover with plastic. This will help build the heat and cause them to ripen. If they just aren’t ripening as fast as you need, put a ripe banana or an apple in the bag or box. The ethylene put off by the banana or apple, will help speed up the ripening process with the Avocados.

Valencia Oranges may start re-greening during warm summer months

VALENCIA ORANGES (Tuesday, August 30): Oranges are the largest citrus crop in the world. In the U.S. oranges are the fourth most popular fruit while orange juice is the most popular juice. The delicious, sweet, juicy oranges that we eat in the United States first came from China. There are many varieties of oranges to choose from including Navel, Red Navel, Valencia, Hamlin, Pineapple, Temple, Moro and Ambersweet. Valencia and navel are the two most common varieties. Navel oranges are the most popular "eating" orange in the world because they are seedless, easy to peel, juicy, and sweet. While Valencia oranges can be eaten, most are used to make orange juice. Oranges have been grown in the United States for about 125 years, but in other parts of the world oranges have been grown for thousands of years. These semitropical evergreens probably originated in Southeast Asia. Columbus and other European travelers brought sweet orange seed and seedlings with them to the New World. By 1820 there were groves in St Augustine, Florida, and by the end of the Civil War oranges were being shipped north in groves. A freeze produced a major set back in production in 1895, but by 1910 crops in Florida had been reestablished. Florida is the number one citrus producer, producing 70% of the U.S. crop, with 90% of that going into juice. However, Arizona, Texas, and California also produce small amounts, with variations in color and peel. Many people believe oranges were first grown in southern China and India and then cultivated in North Africa and Spain, Brazil and other South American countries and finally in North America. Brazil is the leading orange-producing country in the world, followed by the United States, Mexico, Spain, Italy, China, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Greece. Florida and California are the leading orange-producing states in the U.S. These two states produce nearly 25 billion pounds of oranges each year! In 1873 three navel orange trees were brought from Brazil and planted in Riverside, California. The trees started producing fruit in 1878. Today, one of the three original trees is still alive and producing fruit! If ripe oranges are left on the trees too long they may turn from orange back to green. This process, called re-greening, only affects color, not nutritional quality or taste. Certain varieties, like Valencias, often have blossoms and ripe fruit on the tree at the same time. All the extra chlorophyll necessary to form new fruit, will “re-green” the mature, ripe fruit on the branches. A greenish tint here or there in no way affects the fruit inside. So, when purchasing your Valencias in summer, you may find they have a green tinge. Most people are unaware that they are actually the ripest, most delicious oranges at this time. Warm weather triggers this re-greening process. During warm weather, the leaves begin producing excessive amounts of chlorophyll. As the weather warms, the excessive amounts of natural chlorophyll are brought out in the skin, first around the stem and then down the shoulder of the fruit. This re-greening gives the Valencia a green “unripe” appearance. However, this is not the case, as the inside of the fruit is ripe and juicy.

TOMATOES (Wednesday, August 31): The Fiesta de La Tomatina is taking place today in Bunol, Spain. It’s the last Wednesday of August. Lorry loads of vine-ripened tomatoes will be delivered to the town council promptly at 11 am. The tomatoes will then be hurled by thousands of participants at each other. Since foreigners are prized targets, this is not a good day to be a tourist in Bunol. I wish we could get some of those Tomatoes here. We are in the middle of a sizable downturn in supplies across the United States. Most of it has to do with extreme hot weather in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Those very hot temperatures caused a “blossom drop” on the plants. You see, when the temperatures stress out the plant, then the plant goes into survival mode. In order to protect itself, the plant will pull back nutrients and moisture to the fruit and blossoms. Thus, the blossoms drop. Every blossom is a piece of ripe fruit 30 – 45 days later. About a month or so after a major blossom drop, we begin seeing a downturn in supplies. That’s what we are in. That may mean higher Tomato prices.

Growers who use University developed Strawberry varieties will continue to have strong late summer production.

The DiAmante Strawberry variety is still in very good production right now.

Growers with “University” varieties are still harvesting every day with good production.

Supplies are going to get very tight very quickly, and that will mean higher prices.

STONEFRUIT (Friday, September 2): The endless summer of fruit…is ending: Not a pretty sight when stonefruit hits a brick wall. But that’s what will happen this year when the season ends. It will be a very abrupt end to a flavorful season. A lot of early heat in May and June pushed early maturity in the orchards. In July, it seemed growers were harvesting several varieties all at once. Growers have about 24 different varieties for a season. Each variety is designed to be harvested in a certain 7 – 10 day period. When you get the kind of heat the San Joaquin Valley had this summer, those varieties quickly bunch up and overlap each other. Now that we are near the end of the season, there are no more varieties to harvest. A few growers have already said they have harvested their last white-flesh Peaches and Nectarines of the season, and have only another week or so of harvesting yellow-fleshed fruit. Fruit that should be harvested now, was harvested in early August. Thus, the endless summer of summer fruit in California will have a very quick end. Fruit from Washington will help extend the season, but only for a few more weeks. Those huge displays of Peaches and Nectarines will soon begin to shrink to much smaller displays, and prices will also be much higher, with fewer and fewer ads.

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