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Weekly Quiz
CHERIMOYA; COOL OPTIONS FOR AN HEIRLOOM FRUITWe used to buy Cherimoya in a sized flat. Ten count, twelve count, eighteen count and so on. Today we can offer Cherimoya as a golf ball sized fruit for a single snack or elegant hotel guest basket item, or a single 5 pound fruit to feed a campaign staff. But more than that we have been introduced to this fruit’s intense flavors. From a small organic grower, high in the mountains of California (is that becoming cliché?) we found what might be the greatest Cherimoya grower in the country, at least. Current memory creates a sensation of a creamy banana/custard flavor but not this fruit, it is significantly more complex. While it retains the creamy texture, there is a complex fruit flavor inclusive of banana, plum and apple. The result is a sublime flavor that makes you wish you were alone so you and the fruit can get down and sloppy, reducing the unknowing fruit to its thin green skin and a few black seeds. Kinda like a “change your shirt” stone fruit. This is not to be commodity priced as it is in a different category. You can’t pick it up at the farm as a big truck won’t traverse the windy mountain road with blind curves, but we will Fedex, consolidate or meet you at the corner. If you have a customer base for this fruit or want to develop one, there is simply none better. Please devour politely or get a room.PRESIDENTS’ DAYPresidents’ Day is celebrated this year on Monday, February 20th. While east coast markets remain open most west coast markets will be closed in celebration. West coast deliveries and consolidation points will resume on Tuesday. Most shippers will have cooler hours but sales staffs will be out playing golf. So, if you want to load Monday, please let us know Friday. If not, we know who you are and we will seek you out. Please contact your Culinary rep for more confusion and mass amounts of incorrect information. Good year for this holiday. Should be fun to hear all the candidate jargon that’s always filled with life changing meaning (hee-hee). NEW PRODUCE QUIZ - - WHO AM I I am a fruit. You know me best as a drink, but I am a fruit. Discovered in a province of Ethiopia that somewhat still bears my name, my cultivation was initiated by Arabs around 1575. At that time my seeds were boiled so no one who ate my bright red berries could plant me. This did not last long. By the early 1600’s I had been smuggled into Europe and I was seen in Bali and Sumatra. By the 1700’s I arrived in Martinique. In the same century I reached Spanish shores and they shared my shrub with the Philippines and Latin America. From there I went viral. As a world trade item I am second only to oil (or maybe by “i” parts). I am listed in commodity exchanges and there have even been times when I was used as a currency. Cool beans, eh? Today I even have my own organization that determines price and quantities for over 90% of my producers. My greatest areas of production are Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico and one single grower in the USA. My shrub can grow up to 20 feet but I am usually trimmed to 15 feet or under so I can be harvested. I have the luxury of being harvested by hand because I have both red and green cherries on each branch. I produce my delicious red cherries (from light red to a robust sensual burgundy, the darker the sweeter) year round but my main harvest is usually about three months. If pruned properly I can be productive for up to 30 years. My branch is strong and ¼” thick. My green leaves have a sheen and a shape that makes me look fake. I would be a beautiful Christmas or café décor. I have tiny white flowers that will shrivel brown almost immediately upon being picked. Once bitten, my slightly tough exterior reveals a refreshing burst of juice with a compelling delicate watermelon/hibiscus/rosewater flavor. I also contain one or two seeds that are not edible. The seeds can be dried and roasted once I am stripped of my endocarp, and while that is what I am famous for, that’s another journey. It’s time you discovered my cherry as I am available for the first time in America this season. While my seed keeps people up nights, my cherry can be used in game sauces, iced creams, compotes, mulled spices, cascara, cakes, breads and pies. No cigarettes required!ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS QUIZ…LONGAN….CONGRATS TO ALL WINNERS
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Market Notes