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Cracks in the desert floor
gives you a clue about cracks in your potatoes. |
VITAMIN C - RUSSET POTATOES (Monday, April 4):
Today, in 1932, Vitamin C was first isolated at the University of
Pittsburgh by C.C. King. All this week, we are taking a look at
Vitamin C and some of the fun places you can get your Vitamin C.
One of the oldest medical books came from ancient Egypt. In it,
symptoms are described that are associated with eating inadequate
amounts of food that are rich in Vitamin C. The condition was called
“scurvy.” In 1747, Scottish naval surgeon James Lind
discovered that citrus provided plenty of Vitamin C for seaman.
It’s also known as “ascorbic acid,” and is a very
powerful antioxidant, protecting our bodies from the damage of oxidation.
Vitamin C is needed to maintain good bones, teeth, gums, muscles,
cartilage, blood vessels, and the immune system. Vitamin C is crucial
for a healthy body, inside and out. It also helps the absorption
of iron from plant foods. The term “vitamin” comes from
the Latin word “vita,” which means, “life.”
This class of nutrients, therefore, regulates the metabolic reactions
in our body that promotes life. Vitamin C is one of the most omnipresent
vitamins ever discovered. You can find C in more fruits and vegetables
than just about any other Vitamin or mineral. It’s primary
function in our bodies is to assist in producing collagen, the principle
protein used to synthesize connective tissue that is essential to
skin, bone and cartilage formation. Why do we need so much Vitamin
C? Because it is water-soluble, we must continually replenish our
bodies with Vitamin C, which actually happens to be so easy because
so many fruits and vegetables contain Vitamin C. All this week,
we’re taking a look at all the different places you can find
your Vitamin C. It’s the Week of “C.” Where do
you get your C? Your Vitamin C? There are far more many places to
get your Vitamin C than from an Orange or a pill. And we start with
one of the most unlikely places. We’re going to dig for our
Vitamin C today. Picabo Street, a world-class skier, knows this
source of Vitamin C. It happens to be her favorite vegetable: Potatoes.
That’s right, you can get your C…from spuds, russet
potatoes. Almost half of your recommended daily Vitamin C intake
can come from just one potato. By the way, who came up with the
recommended daily allowance (RDA)? It was originally developed to
ensure that World War II soldiers received proper types of food
for maintaining good health.
| Where Can You Find C? |
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Kiwifruit:
A Vitamin Pill…with fuzz. |
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| These Goldenberries on
the vine look more like Chinese Lanterns. |
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Cracks in the desert floor
gives you a clue about cracks in your potatoes. |
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Goldenberries make a very
tropical and
golden drink. |
VITAMIN C – KIWIFRUIT,
GOLDENBERRIES
(Tuesday, April 5): Move over Oranges. When it comes to Vitamin
C, a gooseberry has got you beat. We start with the Chinese Gooseberry,
known today as the Kiwifruit. To the great Khans of China, this
fruit was known as Yang Tao or “Monkey Peach,” then
as Chinese Gooseberry. When it was first imported from New
Zealand to the U.S. by Frieda
Caplan, in the 1950s, the Cold War prevented marketers from
selling anything with the word “Chinese” in it. So it
was renamed Kiwifruit, not after the Kiwi bird, but after the egg
of the Kiwi bird. There are still over 60 varieties of Chinese Gooseberries
in China today. According to research from Rutgers University, Kiwifruit
is the most “nutrient
dense” of all the major fruits. It’s a Vitamin Pill…with
fuzz. And yes, it has more Vitamin C than even an Orange. You will
be noticing a big difference in Kiwifruit right now. The difference
is in how ripe they are. We are just ending California supplies.
At the end of their season, the fruit was very mature and ripe,
usually ready to eat when you bought it at the store. But now, with
California
fruit basically finished, new crop fruit is starting to come in
from Chile,
followed in just a few months by new crop fruit from New
Zealand. The new crop fruit will be quite hard. It will ripen,
but you had better be patient with it. Buy your Kiwifruit well in
advance of when you want to use it. Place it in a brown paper bag
and put it out on your counter at room temperature. The magic of
the brown paper bag will help ripen the fruit. Be patient. The new
crop will take a few days longer to ripen. Now, on to another gooseberry,
the Cape Gooseberry, also known as Goldenberries, Chinese Lantern
or Ground Berries. From the land of the mythical legend of El Dorado,
the City of Gold, comes a sour delight that might well have been
what the Spanish Conquistadors were looking for. They came for gold,
and even found gold…in the gooseberries. These Goldenberries
are native to Colombia and Peru, but are found being grown worldwide
in tropical growing regions. They were known to the Greeks as early
as the 3rd Century, but weren’t introduced to England until
the 18th Century. The sweet-sour flavor of Goldenberries has been
compared to a blend of Pineapple and Papaya, giving them quite an
exotic taste, whether by themselves, or mixed in salads or desserts.
Goldenberries belong to the nightshade family, with some pretty
well known cousins, like the Tomato and the Potato. The berries
are about the size of a Cherry, and are cloaked in a husk, making
the fruit look more like a Chinese Lantern. The brown papery husk
is removed before eating or using the berry. When the husk has a
golden color, and the fruit is yellow-orange in color, then the
Goldenberries are ripe. The Incan and Aztec Indian of Central and
South America enjoyed these Goldenberries. They were nicknamed “Cape
Gooseberries,” because the fruit was taken on long voyages
in the 18th Century. Many sailors believed they did not get scurvy
because of these berries, especially on long voyages around the
Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. It didn’t take long for
these sailors to nickname these Gooseberries “Cape Gooseberries.”
Some European settlers in the Cape of Good Hope region, also were
planting the berries there as early as 1807. Some think this is
how it got its name. Others claim the name came from its husk, which
resembles a “cape.” These Goldenberries have been imported
into the United States, primarily from New Zealand or Australia.
This is the first time we are importing Goldenberries from their
land of origin: Colombia. They are grown in the Andes Mountains
of Colombia, where the plant thrives at elevations as low as 2,500
feet, but as high as 10,000 feet. Goldenberries can be dipped in
Chocolate, used for milkshakes and drinks, pureed into a sauce,
used in jams, or simply added into fruit salads. Goldenberries are
generally planted by seed. Growth cycle from seedling to first harvest
can be approximately 9 months and adult yielding plants are kept
for about 11 months. Fruit is allowed to bush ripen until full orange
color is visible through husk or “cape”. Colombia is
the major producer of this exotic fruit, followed by South Africa.
Get out your favorite Apple Pie recipe…and add Goldenberries.
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Take your pick. Green,
Savoy or Red. They all have plenty of C. |
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One serving of Cole
Slaw gives you 70% of your Vitamin C. |
VITAMIN C – RED AND GREEN CABBAGE (Wednesday,
April 6): Where do you get your C? All this week, we are looking
at some of the places you can find Vitamin C, other than an Orange
or a pill. Let’s head to the cabbage patch next…for
our Vitamin C, and in this case, the “C” stands for
Cabbage. When the early American colonists began growing their gardens,
one of the first vegetables planted, was the Cabbage. During Revolutionary
America, the cabbage was king…or soon to be president. It
held up well, could be stored without refrigeration, and most important,
although they didn’t know it at the time, Cabbage is loaded
with Vitamin C. In fact, in one serving of Cole Slaw, you have 70%
of your recommended daily requirement for C. Add shredded cabbage
to your Tacos instead of lettuce. In just two tacos, you have 70%
of your RDA of Vitamin C. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and
Benjamin Franklin dined on Cabbage. It was a staple food for the
early settlers. A terrific source of nutrients, especially with
winter’s limited menu, cabbage was eaten braised, in salads,
and of course, as sauerkraut. The head of the cabbage plant is made
up of several layers of overlapping leaves. Head cabbage and head
lettuce are similar in appearance, but cabbage leaves are usually
more tightly wrapped on the head. Cabbage smells good, but that
depends on which way the wind is blowing. When I was in England,
I was told that there are three vegetables used most in England.
Two of them…are cabbage. The Walrus, courtesy of Lewis Carroll’s
19th century “Through the Looking Glass,” said, "The
time has come...to talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and
sealing wax--of cabbages--and kings--And why the sea is boiling
hot--And whether pigs have wings." On St. Patrick’s Day,
cabbage is once again King. To Russians, Cabbage is King every day.
Slavs began growing cabbages in the 9th century, when Greek and
Roman colonists brought them from the Black Sea region into Russia.
Within a few centuries, Russian princes were paying tribute not
only with racing horses and jewels, but also with garden plots planted
with kopusta, or cabbage. Now considered Russia's national food,
cabbage is often consumed at several meals of the day, and Russians
eat some seven times as much cabbage as the average American. The
word "cabbage" is an Anglicized form of the French caboche,
meaning "head." It has been used, loosely, to refer to
loose-heading (or even nonheading) forms of Brassica oleracea as
well as to the modern hard-heading type classified as B. oleracea
variety capitata. The Celts of central and western Europe had much
to do with the distribution and popularization of cabbage as a food
plant. Introduction of "cabbage" into Europe has been
generally ascribed to the Romans, but it seems probable that the
Celts introduced it even earlier. The Celts invaded Mediterranean
lands repeatedly from about 600 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian
Era, reaching into Asia Minor around 278 B.C. They also reached
into the British Isles in the fourth century B.C. Shortly before
the beginning of the Christian Era the Romans spread into northern
Europe and into Britain. Cabbage was introduced to America in 1541-42
by Jacques Cartier, who planted it in Canada on his third voyage.
Because of its popularity among Europeans, it was doubtless planted
in what is now the United States by some of the earliest colonists,
although there is no written record of it until 1669. In the 18th
century it was being grown by American Indians as well as by the
colonists. Cabbage actually was the start of many other great vegetables,
including Kale, Cauliflower, Broccoli and even my favorite, Brussels
Sprouts!
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Get your C…from
Broccoli. |
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Harvesting Broccoli
is like harvesting Vitamin C. |
VITAMIN C – BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS SPROUTS (Thursday,
April 7): All this week, we are looking at the many fruits and vegetables
where you can get your Vitamin C. Move over Oranges. Here come the
green vegetables: Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts. In fact, no other
vegetable has more Vitamin C than Broccoli. In just one serving,
you get a whopping 220% of your RDA of Vitamin C. The only other
fruit or vegetable that beats Broccoli…is Kiwifruit. Broccoli
even has more Vitamin C than an Orange. But that wouldn’t
help President George H. Bush (#41), would it? I guess we can call
Broccoli, the crown jewel of Vitamin C. We find little mention of
Broccoli in annals of food history. In the region of today’s
Turkey, Rasenna peoples cultivated cabbage, the granddaddy to Broccoli…and
to Brussels Sprouts. Around the 8th Century BC, the Rasenna people
migrated to southern Italy, where they began trading with the Greeks
and Romans. The Romans called them “Tusci,” where we
get the name Tuscany from. The Romans were enamored with broccoli
almost immediately. Pliny the Elder tells us the Romans grew and
enjoyed broccoli during the first century AD. The vegetable became
a standard favorite in Rome where the variety called Calabrese was
developed. The Calabrese is the most common variety still eaten
in the United States today. Before the Calabrese variety was cultivated,
most Romans were eating purple sprouting broccoli that turned green
when cooked. Apicius, the beloved cookbook author of ancient Rome,
prepared broccoli by first boiling it and then bruising it "with
a mixture of cumin and coriander seeds, chopped onion plus a few
drops of oil and sun-made wine." Long before the modern European
cooks were serving broccoli with rich sauces, the Romans were presenting
this vegetable with all sorts of creamy sauces, some cooked with
wine, others flavored with herbs. Drusius, the son of the Roman
Emperor Tiberius took his love of broccoli to excess. Excluding
all other foods, he gorged on broccoli prepared in the Apician manner
for an entire month. When his urine turned bright green and his
father scolded him severely for "living precariously,"
Drusius finally abandoned his beloved broccoli. Catherine de Medici
of Tuscany may have been the first to introduce broccoli to France
when she married Henry II in 1533, but the first mention of broccoli
in French history is in 1560. Catherine arrived in France with her
Italian chefs and armfuls of vegetables, including broccoli. Miller's
Gardener's Dictionary, in its 1724 edition, gave one of
the earliest accounts of broccoli in England, referring to it as
a stranger in Britain and calling it "sprout colli-flower"
or "Italian asparagus." This account assumes that broccoli
came from Italy. When broccoli arrived in England in the early 18th
century, no one spread the welcome mat. In fact, the English were
soon turning their noses up. The French, too, had little enthusiasm
for broccoli. Thomas Jefferson, often called the farmer president,
was an avid gardener and collector of new seeds and plants of fruits
and vegetables to arrive in the United States. In 1766 he began
keeping detailed notes in his garden book of any seeds or seedlings
planted in his extensive garden at Montecello, his home near Charlottesville,
Virginia. He recorded his planting of broccoli, along with radishes,
lettuce, and cauliflower on May 27, 1767. As early as 1775, broccoli
was described in A Treatise on Gardening by a Citizen of
Virginia by John Randolph who writes, "The stems will
eat like Asparagus, and the heads like Cauliflower." Despite
this encouraging description of broccoli, the poor vegetable received
nothing more than indifference in the United States. The one exception
was the early Italian immigrants who grew broccoli in their backyard
gardens and frequently enjoyed this green treasure at the family
table. In the early 1900s, the USDA studied broccoli and determined
that it had “no commercial importance in the United States.”
The D'Arrigo brothers, Stephano and Andrea, immigrants from Messina,
Italy, came to the United States along with their broccoli seeds.
The D'Arrigo Brothers Company began with some trial plantings in
San Jose, California in 1922. After harvesting their first crop,
they shipped a few crates to Boston. Meeting with success, they
went on to establish their burgeoning broccoli business with the
brand name Andy Boy, named after Stephano's two-year-old son, Andrew.
By the 1930s the country was having a love affair with broccoli.
People were convinced that broccoli was a newly developed plant.
A head of Broccoli has many strong branches or arms that grow from
the main stem, each one sprouting a sturdy budding cluster surrounded
by leaves. It was only fitting that the name broccoli came from
the Latin “bracchium,” which means strong arm or branch.
Roman farmers called broccoli "the five green fingers of Jupiter."
By the way, the darker colors of the florets, such as blue green,
or purplish green contain more beta carotene and vitamin C than
those with lighter green florets.
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Learn to love Brussels
Sprouts. They are bursting with Vitamin C. |
Now, on to my favorite vegetable, the Rodney Dangerfield of produce,
Brussels Sprouts. They get no respect. Just mention the words Brussels
Sprouts, and noses turn up. But did you know that a single serving
of Brussels Sprouts contain a bounty of 120% of your RDA of Vitamin
C? If there is a choice between a Vitamin C pill and Brussels Sprouts,
I’ll take those tiny cabbage heads any day. The Brussels Sprout
is a cool season crop, belonging to the cabbage family, and closely
related to cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collards, etc. Like cauliflower,
it thrives best in a cool humid climate, thus commercial production
of this crop is concentrated in the "fog-belt" of California
with limited production in the Long Island, New York area. The edible
portion of this crop is the "bud" or small cabbage-like
head, which grows in the axils of each leaf. Brussels Sprouts most
likely were cultivated in Italy during Roman times, possibly as
early as the 1200s in Belgium. The modern Brussels Sprout that we
are familiar with was first cultivated in large quantities in Belgium
as early as 1587. It is the only vegetable known to have originated
in Western Europe, named after the capital of Belgium. They were
introduced into the U.S. in the 1800s by Italian immigrants and
were grown in California by the early 1900s, with the first central
coast plantings in the 1920s. With the development of the frozen
food industry in the 1940s, Brussels sprouts production in California
increased to its highest levels over the next 20 years. There are
currently less than 3000 acres of the tiny cabbages currently being
produced in California, producing about 70 million pounds a year.
Brussels Sprouts look like miniature heads of cabbage. The resemblance
is not surprising, since both belong to the same botanical family.
The golf-ball-size sprouts grow in a tight spiral pattern on thick
stalks with a burst of large leaves at the top. The sprouts are
usually cut off the stalk before going to market. Similar to cabbage
in taste, Brussels sprouts have a slightly milder flavor and denser
texture. Nutritionally, they have the same cancer-inhibiting potential
as cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli and
cauliflower) because they contain the nitrogen compounds called
indoles and a significant amount of vitamin C. Brussels sprouts
also supply good amounts of folate (folic acid), potassium, vitamin
K, and a small amount of beta-carotene. Choose sprouts of comparable
size so they will cook evenly. A bright green color is the best
guide to freshness and good condition; yellowed or wilted leaves
are a sure sign of age or mishandling. Old sprouts also have a strong,
cabbage odor. Avoid puffy or soft sprouts by choosing small, firm,
compact ones with unblemished leaves. Tiny holes or soot like smudges
on the leaves may indicate the presence of worms or plant lice.
The stem ends should be clean and white. Do not wash or trim sprouts
before storing them. Except for removing any that are yellow or
wilted, do not remove the outer leaves, since these contain the
most nutrients. If you have purchased sprouts in a cellophane-covered
container, take off the wrapping and examine the sprouts, then return
them to the container, re-cover with the cellophane, and refrigerate.
Place loose sprouts in a perforated plastic bag. Fresh Brussels
sprouts will keep for three to five days. Before cooking, drop the
sprouts into a basin of lukewarm water and leave them there for
10 minutes as this step will eliminate any insects hidden in the
leaves. Then rinse the sprouts in fresh water. Trim the stem ends,
but not quite flush with the bottoms of the sprouts, or the outer
leaves will fall off during cooking. Many cooks cut an X in the
base of each sprout. This nick helps the heat penetrate the solid
core so that it cooks as quickly as the leaves. Whichever cooking
method you choose, test for doneness by inserting a knife tip into
the stem end, which should be barely tender. Brussels Sprouts are
a cool season vegetable that is considered a delicacy by many people.
It is a crop that is exacting in both its soil and climatic requirements.
Because of these finicky habits, particularly the climatic requirements,
it is not practical to grow Brussels Sprouts in most of the United
States. A stretch of coastal land, just south of San Francisco,
California, provides the near ideal climate and soil conditions.
You’ve got to try my “Smelly-Free” Brussels Sprouts
recipe. And just think. It’s loaded with Vitamin C.
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Here’s a Vitamin
C pill
that’s easy to chew. |
VITAMIN C - STRAWBERRIES (Friday, April 8): Today
begins the three day Strawberry festival in Poteet, Texas. It is
the oldest festival in Texas established to promote the town’s
famous crop, Strawberries. And the Strawberry is saturated with
Vitamin C. In fact, get this. A single serving of Strawberries has
MORE Vitamin C than even an Orange. It’s the sweetest way…to
get your C. Gives a whole new meaning to “Strawberry fields
forever.” A single serving of Strawberries have 160% of your
RDA of Vitamin C. This time of year, Florida’s Strawberry
growing region in the north, around Plant City, is basically done
for the season. The center of the Strawberry universe now shifts
to the Golden State, California, where fields in Southern California
are bursting with berries. It has been a difficult season so far
in California. Growers there say they have seen more rainfall this
winter than any year on record. Rain and Strawberries just don’t
mix. It’s kind of like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of
Oz. They melt when they get wet. During each rain, growers have
to go into the fields and strip the plants of any berry that has
color. The green berries will be fine. However, because of the winds
and rain, we also end up with misshapen fruit, some that look like
a “fan” or even what we call in the produce industry,
a “cat face.” The fields in California are planted on
rows that have been covered with black plastic. The furrows are
deeper, about 18” deep. The combination of deep furrows and
plastic rows helps the waters drain the fields quickly. But with
as much rain as they had, even those farming practices weren’t
enough. The soil became so saturated with water, that it eventually
cuts off the oxygen flow to the root system, which in turn will
cut off food production for the plant, which in turn will cut off
the blossoms and the fruit. Most growers are telling us that the
plants seem to have survived the storms, and actually still look
pretty strong. There is berry production from Irvine, Santa Ana,
Anaheim and then north to Oxnard and Santa Maria. Eating strawberries
improves overall diet quality by providing essential nutrients such
as fiber, potassium and powerful antioxidants such as anthocyanins,
quercetin and ellagic acid and vitamin C. Strawberries are the good
for your heart berry—they reduce systolic blood pressure,
increase folate, which has heart health benefits, and increases
antioxidants in the blood that may play a role in reducing oxidation
of LDL “bad” cholesterol. Plus the soluble fiber in
strawberries is recognized for its cholesterol lowering properties.
Folate protects DNA in the body. If DNA is damaged, cancer can occur.
The folate provided by strawberries may play a part in preventing
certain types of cancer.
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