LONG PROMO:   All right, it is the most eaten fruit in all the United States – right here, the banana.  But have you ever wondered how in the world did the banana get its name?  Is there a Mr. or Mrs. Banana somewhere?  Plus also the flame seedless grape and the iceburg lettuce.  We’re going to celebrate the names of produce…next week, with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

SHORT PROMO:  Hey, what big city in the United States was named after garlic?  …next week with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.
                                                                                                         
CHICAGO/GARLIC (Monday, February 3):  Hey, you know, all this week it happens to be…oh, there we go.  Look at all that beautiful garlic in there.  That’s the way you’ll actually take care of those big cloves, get them into little cloves.  But all this week we’re going to talk about the celebrating of names.  I always love…how did some people get their name?  How did some produce items get their name?  Well, I thought I’d start the first day of this week with…there’s a major city in the United States actually named after garlic.  That’s right.  There a city in the United States.  It’s a huge, big city.  It has a nickname called “the w…”  I’m not going to tell you the nickname.  You’ll probably guess the city.  Actually, the Indians who lived in this region – garlic was grown in this region of the United States, and the Indian name for this root was called Chicagwa.  That’s right.  Chicago, the windy city was actually named after this beautiful, stinky rose.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, do you know a big city in the United States actually named after garlic?

ICEBERG LETTUCE (Tuesday, February 4): Hey, you know all this week we’re celebrating names, celebrating the names of fruits and vegetables.  How did they get their name?  This is called head lettuce.  Of course you know why it’s called head lettuce.  It kind of looks like a head.  Yep, just like that.  But we also refer to this as iceberg lettuce.  Now what in the world does this head lettuce have anything to do with iceberg lettuce?  Well, back in the early 1900’s when they would harvest this lettuce in Salinas, California, you know there wasn’t refrigeration.  They had ice to cool things down.  So they would harvest this lettuce, this head lettuce, and they would load it into railroad cars, and those railroad cars then would be sprayed with shaved ice all over the top of the layers and layers of this head lettuce.  Well, by the time those cars, those railroad cars reached Philadelphia or Boston or New York, guess what would happen?  They would open up the doors to the car and say, “Hey, it looks like hundreds of icebergs in there.”  Actually, the produce folks in New York were the first to name it iceberg lettuce from California.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  

TEASE: Heh, in my next Produce Man report, just how did we start calling this head lettuce “Iceberg” Lettuce?

BURBANK RUSSET POTATOES (Wednesday, February 5):  You know all this week we’re talking about the names of produce.  You know, how some produce items got their name.  And this is, of course, called a what potato?  Red potato.  That’s right, because it’s, duh, red.  We’re brilliant in the produce industry, aren’t we?  But what are these called? These are called Burbank Russet potatoes.  Actually the name russet comes from all the russeting that’s on it, all this brown russeting.  You’ll find this brown russeting on Bosque pears.  There’s an apple called a russet apple, and again it has this brown russeting on it.  That’s why it’s called a russet potato.  But why is it called a Burbank?  Well, this week in 1879 there was a guy that was born.  His name was Luther Burbank, and he’s the guy who developed so many fruits and vegetables like the Friar plum, oh, one of my favorite plums…Santa Rosa plum.  And he was also the very first to develop what we now call the Burbank russet potato.  The number one potato in the world.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, why are these called Burbank russet potatoes.

BANANA (Thursday, February 6):  It is “Celebrate Your Name” week, and we’re “celebrating your name week” right down the produce aisle.  So today we’re finally to the most popular fruit in the United States - not the most popular fruit in the world, but certainly the number one fruit sold in the United States.  The banana.  So is there a Mr. or Mrs. Banana?  Is there someplace in the world called Banana where this originated from?   Actually, here’s how it got its name.  This, in the produce industry, we call this a hand of bananas.  Got that?  That is a hand of bananas.  So if this is a hand of bananas, that means this would be called a finger.  That’s right.  That’s a finger banana, and that’s where we get the name banana.   The word Banan is an Arabic word for finger.  That’s probably going to gross you out now.  Everytime you eat a banana you’re going to think, “Oh, I’m eating a finger.”  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  (Takes Bite)  Mmmm.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, how in the world did banana get its name?
  
FLAME SEEDLESS GRAPE (Friday, February 7):  Hey, we’ve been having fun with names all this week.    How did produce items get their names?  We can thank actually some fourth graders in a town in California for naming this beautiful grape the Red Flame Seedless grape.  Now the variety is called a Flame.  And if you notice that starts with the letter F.  Now all peach, plum, nectarine, and grape varieties that start with the letter F, they came from a town in California, and the town’s name is called Fresno.  So now if you eat a Fantasia nectarine, Fairlane peach, Friar plum, you all know where they came from.  So why did we name this a Flame Seedless grape?  Well, we gathered some fourth graders around cafeteria table and got out the dictionary.  And one of the fourth grader boys held this up to the sunlight beaming through a window in the cafeteria.  He said, “Hey, look at that!  It looks like there’s fire in there!”  Well, the girls were bright enough to know you can’t market anything with the word “fire” in it, but they said, “Hey, flame!”   That starts with the letter F.  So that’s how come we have the Flame Seedless grape.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  (Take bite)  Mmmm.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, we can thank some fourth graders for naming this grape.

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