LONG PROMO:   Hey, Queen Elizabeth the II has a birthday this coming week so I have the ingredients to her favorite salad right in here.  I’ll tell you what they are.  Plus apples.  Watch the weather right now to determine what our crop of apples will be next fall.  Plus where’s the stink in the stinky rose?  And when it comes to  onions, check the neck…next week, with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

SHORT PROMO:  Hey, check the neck.  No, not mine.  Check the neck of your onions.   I’ll tell you about it…next week with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.
                                                                                                         
ARUGULA (Monday, April 21):  Hey, Queen Elizabeth the II has a birthday this week.  She turns 82.  About a year ago she was in the United States, and when she arrived in Washington, the White House chef created a salad for her, and these are some of the ingredients for that salad.  Look right in here…a thing called arugula.  It’s also known as rocket lettuce.  In Europe it’s very, very popular.  This is arugula.  This is actually baby arugula.  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  Oh, these look beautiful.  Oh man, look at the green on it.  This is called rocket lettuce because folks it has a bite.  One of the things I love to do with rocket lettuce is to mix it with spinach.  See spinach is a sweet green.  Arugula is a bitter green, part of the chicory family, so you mix these two together and you put a nice sweet dressing with it like a poppy seed dressing or raspberry vinaigrette.  Oh, man!  Those are good.  Another thing you can do with beautiful baby arugula…put it in a sauté pan for about 15 seconds and then put it underneath your steak.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, just in time for the Queen’s birthday – arugula. (Takes Bite)  Mmmm.

APPLES (Tuesday, April 22):  Hey, right now - Apple Blossom festivals all over the country.   You’ve got Pennsylvania…New York.  You’ve got Michigan.  You’ve got Washington state.  In fact, Washington state starts this weekend and runs like a whole week or so.  So apple blossom festivals all over the country.  Now why in the world would I talk about apple blossoms?  You don’t eat an apple blossom.  Well, it’s muy importante to know, when you have apple blossom festivals, that means all the apple trees are in full blossom.  Now, this time of year, late spring, you can easily get too much wind.  It can get too hot.  It can have a late frost, or it can get too rainy.  What happens when that occurs?  Well, all the apple blossoms fall off and the bees can’t pollinate.  So every blossom is a piece of fruit, a beautiful piece of fruit just like one of these.  So the reason I’m telling you this is this time of year you’ve got to watch the weather in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington state…and that’s going to determine our crop of apples this coming fall.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  (Takes Bite) 

TEASE: Hey, in my next Produce Man report…you’ve got to check out the apple blossoms right now for this year’s crop of apples.  (Takes bite)  Mmm. 

GARLIC (Wednesday, April 23):  Well, they used to call today Secretary’s Day.   Now it’s Administrative Assistant’s Day.  I hope you’re getting somes rose or something.  Well, I brought the rose in the produce department.  The stinky rose. The garlic.  That’s right, known as the stinky rose.  But right now, where in the world is the stink in the stinky rose?  You know, you can peel this.  This is last year’s crop of garlic.  That doesn’t mean it’s bad.  What it does mean, it’s been in storage for like what eight…nine months.  When its been in storage that long, it loses some of the oil content.  Now the oil content…right in here, oil content.  That’s flavor.  So when you lose a little bit of the oil content, that means you lose a little bit of the flavor.  So here’s what I want you to do.  Whatever the recipe calls for - if it calls for a tablespoon, I want you to double up.  Use two.   If it calls for two tablespoons of minced garlic, use four.  So this time of year especially, you’ve got to use a little bit extra garlic in your recipes.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, where’s the stink in the stinky rose?

ONION (Thursday, April 24):  This is the time of year you must check the neck.  That’s right.  This is the time of year where you…Lana, Lana, no…no, not my neck.  Sorry.  Sorry.  The onion necks, Lana.  Thank you very much though.  No, you’ve got to check the neck of the onion.  That’s right.  This time of year you must check this neck.  This is the root end.  This is the neck end, and it’s muy importante to check the neck end.  Ooh, I saw one right…oh, there it is.  See this right here?  Right underneath here, this is the neck.   And right underneath here is a little bit of mold.  And you can see it.  On yellow onions or red onions, all you have to do is take away like the top layer look and it unveils.  Look at the mold in there.  Now, that’s not what you want.  That is old crop onions, and when you start seeing that, it starts decaying actually on the inside of the neck.  So you go to cut it and it’s going to be really soft and smell really weird.  So, this time of year check the neck of the onion.  Now you can check the other neck if you want to.  That’s up to you.  I’m Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, check out these necks.  Mmm.
  
ASPARAGUS (Friday, April 25):  [Singing]  This is the dawning of the age of asparagus.  The age of asparagus.  Finally, finally its about time where we are starting to see far better supplies and prices of beautiful asparagus from the Delta region of California.  Now what you’re going to notice with a lot of this asparagus…in fact, you’ll see a lot in here.  Take a look.  See how the neck is kind of turned?  That’s very typical.  Especially California has had a lot of wind this season, and whenever you have windy conditions, it will cause the neck to actually bend into the wind kind of like it’s walking into the wind.  So that does not in a million years affect the quality of the spear of asparagus.  It just makes it look a little funny, you know, kind of bending over.  So what you want to look for, of course, you know…do you? Check this out.  See this tip right here.  See how it is so tight?  It is so tight you could dip it into ink.  That is the tip of asparagus you want.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. 

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, man, they may be a little crooked, but man, are they good.