June 2014
Dark Sweet Cherries
BEST FLAVOR | PEAK SEASON
Dark Sweet Cherries are an indulgent summer snack to just savor simply as a seasonal snack, and now’s the time to do just that! After a dismal Cherry crop this May in California kept supplies light and prices alarmingly expensive, this summer’s crop of Organic and Conventional Dark Sweet Cherries from growing regions in Oregon, Washington and Idaho is looking great thanks to nice weather and growing conditions. And since the crop is coming fast that means the rest of June for sure, and hopefully much of July, will be prime time for high quality, reasonably priced, delicious sweet Cherries. As the crop has come on fast, stores are ramping up their displays and getting promos ready for Cherry season this week. Now, about that goal…
Cherry Tips
- Selecting: Carefully inspect all sides of the Cherry packages to avoid wetness or splits. If the Cherries are in a bag, give a couple a gentle squeeze – you’ll want them to feel firm.
- Storage: Keep Cherries cold in the fridge and use them within a few days of purchase for the best texture. Rinse Cherries just before use and put whatever you don’t eat back in the refrigerator.
Beyond Snacking
- Freezing: Peak season Cherries can be washed, then frozen with the stems still on in plastic bags with the air removed, then thawed in the refrigerator up to three months later for a convenient snack.
- Canning: Into preserving the season’s best? Check out this great site dedicated to stone fruit canning.
- Recipes Ideas: From desserts to salads to drinks, find in-season Cherry Recipe inspiration HERE.
- Health & Nutrition: Learn how Cherries may impact Inflammation, Alzheimer’s Disease, Diabetes and Cancer HERE.
Leaf Lettuce
PEAK SEASON | BEST FLAVOR
Red Leaf Lettuce and Green Leaf Lettuce are great for starting salads and ideal for topping sandwiches because the large leaves pull apart easily from the head. The mild-flavored broad leaves are tender enough to be foldable, yet crisp enough to feel freshly crisp to the bite when stacked on a sandwich. Plus, they have more phytonutrients than lighter colored Iceberg Lettuce (head lettuce). The darker the green and the darker the red – the better, since dark color is an indication of beta-carotene levels.
- Tips
Leaf Lettuce lasts longer when kept cold and moist. Store Leaf Lettuce wrapped in damp paper towels in a plastic bag (ideally perforated) in the vegetable crisper of your fridge for up to a week. - If your Leaf Lettuce looks a little wilted, trim the stem base and soak the Lettuce in cold water, allowing the cells to draw up some water. Remove any damaged or discolored outer leaves.
- Wash Leaf Lettuce in cold water before using and dry the leaves in a salad spinner or pat them dry with a paper towel, this way your salad remains light and airy and your salad dressing adheres to the leaves.
SunGold Kiwi
PEAK SEASON | BEST FLAVOR
Here’s a new fruit variety I highly recommend you try: SunGold Kiwifruit!
So, you’ve tried Green Kiwifruit before – maybe you liked it, maybe you didn’t – but SunGold Kiwifruit are much more accessible thanks to their extra sweet and mellow flavor. Unlike Green Kiwifruit, new SunGold Kiwifruit have a smooth skin that is almost more a tender-shell than skin and a deep golden bronze flesh that is less acidic than typical Kiwifruit. I was impressed by my first SunGold – sticky sweet, juicy and refreshing, tropical yet not intense – and my 5 year old daughter loved hers.
SunGold is a new variety from Zespri, a New Zealand organization that is essentially a cooperative of growers marketing their fruit to the world, and growers are thrilled about the fruit’s yield, size and pleasing taste-profile. SunGold Kiwifruit is already a smash hit in Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries, but it is just being introduced in North America this year. You’ll probably have to specifically ask your local produce manager to bring some in for you. SunGold Kiwifruit from New Zealand is in peak season from late May through August or September.
Some of the best Kiwifruit in the world are grown in the Bay of Plenty region of the northern island of New Zealand in the South Pacific. Growing and soil conditions there are ideal for Kiwifruit production and the entire industry is organized and advanced in their cultural practices to ensure safe, delicious, consistent fruit makes it to market. How do I know this? I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit New Zealand this past April (their fall harvest time in there in the Southern Hemisphere) to see for myself. What was one of the most important things I learned? “Kiwi” is a flightless, nocturnal bird found in New Zealand that lays massive eggs. “Kiwi” is a term for someone or something from New Zealand. “Kiwifruit” is what you’re supposed to call those oval fruits with green or gold flesh. Once that was out of the way, a major revelation to me was how much gold kiwifruit is consumed around the world, particularly in Asia where sweet flavor profiles of premium fruit are highly prized. SunGold Kiwifruit are likely to gain some nice popularity here in North America in coming years, and with all of those newly planted SunGold orchards we saw in New Zealand there will be plenty of fruit to feed us.
How-To
- When is SunGold Kiwfruit ripe? SunGold Kiwifruit are picked hard but at peak maturity and ripen off the vine, slowly. An unripe SunGold Kiwifruit is hard and not very juicy, while a ripe SunGold Kiwifruit will make come back for seconds with its sweet and mellow flavor and juicy flesh! A SunGold Kiwifruit is ready to eat when it gives to a gentle squeeze in the palm of your hand. The softer the fruit, the sweeter and juicier they’ll taste. Store firm SunGold Kiwifruit at room temperature until they’re ripe, or place them in a paper bag to speed up the process by trapping the natural ethylene emitted by the fruit. Ripe SunGold Kiwifruit can be held at that stage for about week in the fridge if you’re not ready to eat them.
- How do you eat a SunGold Kiwifruit? The easiest way to enjoy a ripe SunGold Kiwifruit simply slice it in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon.
- What else can you do with SunGold Kiwifruit? SunGold Kiwifruit are fantastic for snacking but here are some of the other ways I enjoyed them while on my trip to New Zealand: smoothies, dried SunGold Kiwifruit, in Muesli, in a sauce over beef, in salads, served warm over grilled salmon, baked into muffins and as part of a salsa. Check out this awesome collection of Kiwifruit Recipes from the Zespri.
