GRAPEFRUIT (Monday, February 22): Hey, today it’s Independence Day in St. Lucia. The St. Lucia islands got their independence from Great Britain, 1979. So what does that have to do with produce? It has everything to do with grapefruit because St. Lucia Islands is actually where grapefruit originated. That’s right. From China we have pomelo and then we have some sweet oranges from St. Lucia. The two of them got together back in the 1700’s to form what we call grapefruit today. Now of course grapefruit, how in the world did it get it’s name? It doesn’t look anything in the world like a cluster of grapes. However, if you look at a grapefruit tree, whether it’s a white or a red grapefruit tree and look how they are borne on a tree, how they grow on the tree. They actually grow in clusters. So in St. Lucia Islands, that’s where they started, where they first found them, they looked up and said, “Hey, mon! There’s grapes up in that tree.” They called it grapefruit. And this right now, ladies and gentlemen, the peak of the season. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
FENNEL AND HABANERA CHILI (Tuesday, February 23): Hey, why don’t you check this out. Look on my cutting board. What two produce items do I have? I have, of course, sweet anis or fennel, and I have some habanera chilies. These two are the secret ingredients to the best clam chowder on the face of the planet. Hey last weekend they had a big clam chowder cook off in Santa Cruz, oh, my goodness! And a chef friend of mine, this was his recipe. At the end of the cooking process of your clam chowder, you take the ferns, you take these top ferns of the fennel and you chop them up. Add them into your clam chowder. Now of course for a big pot of clam chowder, one habanera chili. Now if you have a small pot, I guess you would use just a half of habanera. Now when you’re picking out your habanera chilies, whether it’s one or a couple of them like this, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to put your hand in a plastic bag. Grab one of those plastic bags up there. Right? And put your hand in the plastic bag and then grab the habanera chilies. You don’t want to touch the habanera chilies with your hand. That is not good. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
WATERMELON (Wednesday, February 24): Hey, Vancouver, British Columbia, the Winter Olympics are going on, but you walk down the produce aisle and you go to the melon section and you’d think it’s like the middle of summer. Well, it is the middle of summer in the Southern Hemisphere – southern part of Mexico and also Central America - Guatemala, Honduras is where we’re getting some fantastic watermelons. Now I need to tell you something about these watermelons, especially these small ones, these personal size ones, when you’re picking them out here’s what I want you to do. Grab it in both hands just like this and I want you to give it a squeeze. This watermelon had better feel very hard. If it’s soft anywhere, you don’t want it. Now one of the things because they come so far to be here, they come several thousand miles to be here whether by boat or by truck, that means they have a few extra days of life on them. Now look, this is 98% water. Right? Water over time dehydrates. What you want to do is ask the produce guy, “When did you get the watermelons in?” When you buy the watermelons, I want you to use them within a day or two, that way they’re going to taste the best. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
CANTALOUPE (Thursday, February 25): I know summertime, it used to be only summertime we’d get the musk melons, the cantaloupe in, but now you can find cantaloupe like 365 days out of the year. Now I know on television we’re watching like the Winter Olympics, but in the Southern Hemisphere it happens to be summertime, which is where we’re getting some beautiful cantaloupe this time of year from Honduras and Guatemala, Costa Rica, places like that. Now a couple things about the varieties that are grown. If you notice the background color, that’s the area behind the mesh or the netting – it’s a little bit green in there. Right? That’s the variety grown. I also want you to know there is no full slip here. They are harvesting these before they are fully mature which means they’re not going to have as good of flavor. So here’s what I want you to do. When you just have a…you’ve got the taste for cantaloupe, right? You get these home, leave it on the counter for five days. Cover it with newspaper or burlap sack. In five days this is going to have the best flavor it’s possibly going to have. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
JALAPENO (Friday, February 26): Hey, yesterday was National Chili Day. Oh, man! I love chili. You know it’s not just one day for me. I love chili 365 days out of the year. Now earlier in the week I was talking about the secret ingredients to the best clam chowder. Well, here we have the secret ingredient to the best chili on the face of the planet. That’s right. Go get your habanera chilies. Now here’s what I want you to look for. I want you to look for habanera chilies like this one. Look at those stretch marks on them. See those little stretch marks. That means this jalapeño is going to have some very serious heat. The more stretch marks on a jalapeño, that means it grew in hot temperatures, and the hotter the temperatures, the hotter the jalapeno. Now let’s say you don’t like the heat of a jalapeno. Well, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to cut off one side. Cut off another side. Cut off the third side, and now you’re left with the fourth side that you cut off. And look at this, 60% of the heat is left in here. I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.
