Produce News for February 2, 2009

ITALIAN KIWI (PART I) (Monday, February 2):   You would not believe it. Italy has now become the number one producer of kiwi fruit than any place else in the world. I think I know why. In touring some of the Italian vineyards of kiwi fruit, I actually heard Pavarotti and Bacilli playing in the vineyards. I think that’s why. From the land of Michelangelo and the beeping Fiat and Pravda, guess what else we’re getting? Beautiful kiwi fruit from Italy right now. And this is peak of the season. When California is in season, Italy is also in season. Now you’ll notice a couple things. First of all, it looks the exact same as all kiwi fruit, whether it’s grown in Italy or any other. Let me cut it in half and see what it looks like. Maybe there’s something really special. No, it looks just regular old kiwi fruit. Italian kiwi fruit, you know, started coming to the United States about ten years ago and now you’re seeing it from the East Coast to the West Coast. It’s Italian kiwi fruit, and man the thing sings, sings so good like Pavarotti.

ITALIAN KIWI (PART II) (Tuesday, February 3):  Here he is – my little babe, Lincoln – little Lincoln Albert Michael Marks. That’s right, named after Abraham Lincoln. And, Lincoln, I’m going to give you this kiwi fruit because I want you to prove to everybody who’s watching us, see, look right out there – everybody who’s watching us. I want you to prove to them that you can actually eat a kiwi fruit with the skin on. Okay, are you ready for this? So you take one (Lincoln Takes bite) and I’ll take one, and on the count…oh, you already took a bite. Go ahead. You can eat some more. (Takes Bite) Mmm. That’s actually pretty good, huh. This is beautiful Italian kiwi fruit. And folks, this is like a vitamin pill with a little bit of fuzz. Loaded with vitamin C. Right. That’s good for you. Loaded with potassium. What’s potassium good for? Your legs so you don’t get leg cramps, huh. You know that right? So anyway, this is a vitamin pill with a little bit of fuzz. Don’t worry about the fuzz. All you have to do is rub it off and then take a bite.  

SWEET POTATOES (PART I) (Wednesday, February 4):  You know, the poor old sweet potato – you know we love sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving, at the holiday time, maybe for Easter, maybe Mother’s Day, those four times a year, and that’s probably the first, second, third, and fourth, and last time you ever see a sweet potato in your house. Well, may I suggest that you try sweet potatoes like year round? They are available year round, right? Prices aren’t horrible this time of year. In fact, prices right now are really good. Now when you’re picking out sweet potatoes, one of the things I want you to look for is look at the stems. The two ends is what I want you to look for because that is where it’s going to start to decay, and look right there. You can feel…yeah, you can’t feel it, but I can feel it. It’s getting all soft. So check the ends of the sweet potatoes, even when they’re in storage. If you have like five or ten pounds and you’re storing them like in the garage or something, every once in a while go out there and check the ends and make sure they are still nice and firm. 

SWEET POTATOES (PART II) (Thursday, February 5):  Hey, you going to go watch “Pink Panther” tomorrow? That’s going to be a fun show opening up in theaters. Speaking of pink, I’ve got a little bit of pink here – got some sweet potatoes with me here. Now, you know, you get your sweet potatoes home. You either get them at the farmer’s market or perhaps the produce department. Where in the world do you store your sweet potatoes? I want to ask you a question right now. Where are your sweet potatoes if you have any? If you don’t have any, you need to go to the store and get some. If you do have them, where are they? I’ll give you a second to think about it. Refrigerator?!! No! Never in a million years should you put your sweet potatoes in the refrigerator. Let me tell you what happens. A couple things happen. If you put this into the refrigerator it gets what we call hard core. Right in the very center of the sweet potato it will get hard core. Second thing, it changes the flavor and lessens the sugar content. You like sweet sweet potatoes? Then please do not store them in the refrigerator. Cool, dry, well-ventilated place, and dark. That’s the place to be. 

SWEET POTATOES (PART III) (Friday, February 6):  HYou know, one of the things I love about sweet potatoes is that, you know, they’re one of the few potatoes you can eat naked. You know, you don’t have to put anything on them to make them taste good. You don’t need butter. You don’t need sour cream. They taste great if you just bake them. These can also be used as a great appetizer. Make some fries. My beautiful and lovely wife Julie loves to make fries out of sweet potatoes/yams. You can also use them obviously as a desert. I love also to shred them, and the reason I will shred them…look at this. They shred really nice, and you can make hashed browns with that or you can shred those into your salad instead of carrots. Holy Toledo! These are loaded with vitamin A. It is absolutely…it’s the healthiest vegetables grown on planet Earth. One of the other things you can do with this is turn it into instead of carrot sticks, you get yam sticks. Your kids will love it. They don’t discolor. Get maybe a little bit of ranch dressing. Dip a little bit. Ah! Get your kids to eat sweet potatoes. They’re really healthy for you.