LONG PROMO:   Did you know next week is National Health Education Week?  So we’re going to talk a little education and health.  So what are the most nutritious fruit and vegetable on the face of the planet?  Plus, pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins…How in the  world do  you pick out the best pumpkin for your jack-o-lantern and the best pumpkin for your pies…next week, with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

SHORT PROMO:  Hey, how to pick out the best jack-o-lantern and the best pumpkins for your pies…next week with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.
                                                                                                         
NATIONAL HEALTH EDUCATION WEEK PART I (SWEET POTATO) (Monday, October 15):  All right.  It is National Health Education Week.  So, we’ll talk a little bit about health education.  What is the most nutritious vegetable grown on earth?  Raise your hand if you think you know.  We’ll start at number five.  Number five actually happens to be all the greens.  Number four is spinach.  Number three is cooked carrots.  Number two is raw carrots.  Number one, aah…roll the drums…sweet potatoes – the healthiest vegetable grown on planet earth today.  This and milk – you could probably survive on a desert island.  Loaded with beta carotene, and one of the reasons I love sweet potatoes, especially in the wintertime because it is really a winter crop. They are just now harvesting now and we have them throughout the winter.  Actually we get them 365 days a year, but it is a winter crop.  They are loaded with vitamin A. What do we need in the wintertime?   We need to see better, right?  Because there are more night hours than day hours.  The healthiest vegetable grown on planet Earth – the good, old sweet potato.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, right in here…the healthiest vegetable grown on planet Earth.

NATIONAL HEALTH EDUCATION WEEK PART II (KIWI) (Tuesday, October 16):  Hey, you know yesterday we were talking about the healthiest vegetable grown on planet earth – the sweet potato.  This is National Health Education Week, so I thought it would be fun, you know, let’s talk about the healthiest vegetable and now the healthiest fruit grown on planet Earth.  It’s right under here.  Should I unveil it now?  I’ll give you a little hint.  It’s small.  It’s brown, and it’s fuzzy.  That’s right.  Good, old kiwi fruit.  The healthiest fruit grown on planet Earth today is this beautiful kiwi fruit – loaded with potassium, in fact more potassium than even my good old friends, the banana.  More vitamin C than even an orange.  That’s right.  In this little tiny kiwi fruit.  This is like a vitamin pill with a little bit of fuzz.   Oh, and by the way, you can eat the fuzz and all.  What you want to do is just maybe rub a little bit of the fuzz off just like so, and now you can enjoy your vitamin pill.  Eat your vitamin pill. Don’t need any water to soak it down with.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  (Takes Bite)  Mmmm.

TEASE: Hey, in my next Produce Man report…I’ve got the healthiest fruit grown on planet Earth. 

PUMPKINS PART I (Wednesday, October 17):  Hey, have you got your pumpkin yet for your jack-o-lanterns?  Oh, my goodness.  You’re waiting too long if you wait until now.  There are two words  I need for you to remember when you’re picking out pumpkins.  Okay, are you ready for these two words?  Number one – get them early.  “Early” is the first word.  Don’t wait till even now to get them.  If you haven’t got them now, rush to the store today and get them because you want to get all the best selection early.  And Number two – get them ugly.  That’s right.  You don’t have to have the most perfect jack-o-lantern.  You know, perfectly shaped.  A Charley Brown jack-o-lantern is really cool, I think.  So one of the things I look for is…I look at the stems.  Beatuful stems.  I look for stems that have some character.  Take a look at this one.  In fact this has some of the little tendrils still coming out.  Now this one has character.  Look how that thing spirals up.  That is really cool.  So go get them early and find them with character.  In fact, this one here I really like.  Look how lopsided it looks.   It has a scar here and everything.  So get them early and get them ugly.  That’s when you get the best jack-o-lanterns.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

TEASE: Hey, in my next Produce Man report, how to find the best jack-o-lantern.

PUMPKINS PART II (Thursday, October 18):   You know, we’re talking about picking out the best jack-o-lanterns for our porches and our fire places.  You know yesterday we were talking about get there early and buy early and get them ugly.  The uglier the better.  But there are a couple things you do need to know about pumpkins when picking them out.  That way they’re not going to melt on you, okay.  So the first thing I’m going to…I’m going to start looking for is…I turn this thing right over and I look at what is called the blossom end. Now the pumpkin is part of the hard winter squash family.  Did you get the first word of that?  Hard.  It needs to be hard.  Feel the blossom end of this pumpkin.  It had better be very firm.  If it is not firm, it it gives even just a little bit, I guarantee you, in a few days…a couple weeks, that pumpkin is going to melt on you.  The next thing you’re going to do…you’re just going to give a tug at the stem.  Now don’t be...don’t Arnold Schwartzenegger the thing, okay?  Just give it a little tug on it.  No, it doesn’t come off.  If it comes off really easily, that is an improperly cured pumpkin, and it will melt on you.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, you’ve got to check the stem on your pumpkins.  Mmmph…mmmph.
  
PUMPKINS PART III (Friday, October 19):  So, it’s going to be Halloween, and then after Halloween, what are you going to do with your pumpkins?  I love to make pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin custard - all kinds of pumpkin stuff.  But you have to have the right pumpkin.  If you’re just going to be carving the pumpkin, you’re not going to be using it for anything, then what I suggest you do when you’re picking up the pumpkin, it should feel really light for its weight.  That means it’s going to be very thinned walled in here, which means its going to be easier to carve, and that’s what you want.  But, if you’re going to be using the pumpkins for cooking, when you pick up that pumpkin, it had better feel like a bowling ball is in there.  That means there’s a lot of meat inside.  Now, there are many different varieties of pumpkins.  A sugar pumpkin…you know, ask the grower, ask the green grocer, “Hey, is that a sugar pumpkin?”  They’re usually smaller, but there are other varieties that are really good for pumpkins as well.  This brown variety...also there is a gray variety that is shaped just like this, really good for pumpkins.  Oh, man. This white variety!  Take a look at this. These are called sugar marks on there.  This I am making for pumpkin pie.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

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