In the children’s story Goldilocks, the titular character looked around the bears’ house for the perfect bed to nap in. One was too soft, one was too hard – and one was juuuust
right. Buying citrus can often be like Goldilocks’ experience when it comes to
flavor. Some are too sweet (yes, my friends, I do believe fruit can be too sweet -
especially when that is all you taste and the true flavor is hidden by the sugar),
some are too tart…but in the case of Minneola tangelos at the end of February,
they can be just right! The waning weeks of February and the beginning weeks of March are when Minneolas have the perfect blend of sweet and tart, and with this being such a great citrus year due to the low rainfall you can expect to find great tasting fruit wherever you go.

The Minneola gets its sweet-tart flavor from its parents, as it is a cross between a
Duncan grapefruit and a Dancy tangerine. So how do you pick the best fruit? As
always, look for fruit with the following qualities:
• Firm and heavy for its size. Pick up a few and you should be able to tell
right away.
• Isn’t too soft, or have soft spots.
• Has bright, shiny, slightly pebbly skin. If it is wrinkled or shriveled it has
started to age and may be dry inside.
• Has a scent that smells fresh and fragrant with no hint of fermentation.

Minneolas do well in your fruit bowl, as they can keep at room temperature for
three or four days if they are kept out of the warmest part of the house. Like most
citrus they prefer between 45° and 48° F so after a few days it’s best to move
them into the refrigerator. If you need them to last longer, they can keep for up to two weeks if you store them in the refrigerator when you get them home.

Minneola’s make a really nice juice – so much so that juice makers are now including
some Minneola juice in their OJ. If you’d like to make some juice at home here are a few quick tips that may helpful.

- It will take 2 to 4 medium Minneola Tangelos to make 1 cup of juice.
- If you are using zest in a recipe, 1 medium Minneola Tangelo will provide about 4
teaspoons of zest.
- Lastly, to get the most vitamins from your Minneola juice, make your juice as
close to the time you’ll be drinking it as possible. And for the best flavor do not store freshly
squeezed Minneola juice for more than 48 hours.

There are always so many choices for carrots when you go shopping at the store: loose, baby, 1-5 pound bags – and they are all good for you and quite flavorful! However, my favorites during this time of year are the bunched carrots, as they just seem to be a little bit sweeter and a touch more tender.

When you buy your bunched carrots, look for carrots with no cracks or damage and bright green tops that look fresh and perky. Choose the ones with the brightest color as the brighter the color, the sweeter the carrot – and of course a darker orange means more beta-carotene for you.
When you get them home, cut off the greens before storing them in the fridge as leaving them on robs the carrots of moisture and essential vitamins. You can store your carrots in the refrigerator in a plastic bag or a sealed container, and they’ll keep for 7 to 10 days.
Make sure you keep them away from fruits such as apples and pears, as the ethylene gas those fruits release can make your carrots bitter. If you’ve keep your carrots around a bit you may notice a dry white coating or bloom on them; it’s not mold – it’s a sign of dehydration. You can take care of that by soaking your carrots in ice water for about 10 minutes. The white will disappear and they will regain their bright orange color.

A few more tips: first, always wash and scrub carrots before using, because they’re harvested directly from the soil. Peeling is a matter of choice; depending on your preference and the size of the roots you buy. Larger carrots can sometimes be bitter and if there is any bitterness it will be in the peel – so give ‘em a bite before you break out the peeler!

When I was a produce manager, customers would often ask me: what’s the best bunch of greens to eat to get the most calcium? When I first heard this, I would recommend greens like arugula or collards – then I realized that some folks may not like these greens due to their strong flavor during certain times of the year. So then I started asking them what greens they did like, and tailored my recommendations around that. After all, it doesn’t matter how much calcium or antioxidants a particular green has if you won’t eat it, right?

Well, whether you are a fan of fresh bunched greens or not, now is the time to eat them. Why? Because even though they grow year-round, in the winter they are especially good because the cold makes them sweeter. With the mild but cool weather we have had around most of the country this winter, greens are abundant, tasty, and reasonably priced.

When choosing fresh greens like kale or chard look for fresh green, red, or purple leaves. In the spring the rule of thumb would be to choose bunches with smaller leaves, as they would be more tender than greens grown in warmer months. In the winter, however, you can have smaller leaves and bunches and still use leaves that are a little less tender since it takes them longer to grow in the colder nights.
There is a bonus to this besides the sweeter flavor: in many tests, organic greens have shown to be higher in antioxidants because winter plants have to work harder to grow, which makes them stressed. Stress in a plant creates more antioxidants, and more antioxidants can make you healthier!
If you are not sure how much to buy, figure that you get about two cups cooked for every pound (or 6 cups) of raw kale.

When you are at the store look for greens that are kept in a chilled display case or on ice. While this is the most common way to buy them, sometimes during big promotions a store may pile them off the chilled display for quick sales. Greens left off refrigeration will wilt faster and will not hold up as long when you get them home. Kale in particular will become bitter if left in a warm place for a long period of time.

When you get them home, place unwashed organic greens in a plastic bag in the refrigerator and they will keep for up to a week in the crisper drawer. If you prefer milder greens you should plan on eating them sooner than later as the taste becomes stronger the longer they are stored.
If you find a good deal on greens and want to stock up, you can freeze them and use them in recipes later on. Just wash your greens and dry them well. Yes – even organic greens should be washed as it may have dirt or grit stuck to the leaves and may have been handled by many people. The easiest way is to fill your sink, dip your unbanded bunch into the water and swirl around letting the grit settle to the bottom. Once should be enough but with particularly sandy greens like spinach you may want to do it again.

Pat them dry with a paper towel then chop by hand into small pieces or mince in a food processor.
Place chopped greens in a bag or container and freeze. Minced, frozen greens can be used similar to raw since they thaw very quickly.
Greens are so healthy for you and really quite versatile: they can be steamed and added to a can of soup, laid in a tortilla with hummus and cheese for a healthy quesadilla, or wilted on top of pasta. Healthy, hearty and full of flavor – what’s not to like?

Enjoy the bounty.

If you look at the latest statistics on the growth of local food, you’ll see that we’ve come quite a ways in a very short time. Here are just a few:

• Direct-to-consumer marketing amounted to $1.2 billion in 2007, compared with $551 million in 1997.
• The number of farmers markets rose to 5,274 in 2009, up from 2,756 in 1998 and 1,755 in 1994.
• The number of farm to school programs, which use local farms for school meals programs, increased to 2,095 in 2009, up from 400 in 2004 and 2 in 1996-97.

And yet, with all of this growth in local food you may find these USDA statistics about imported food consumptions even more surprising:

• The food we eat that is imported from other countries has grown 11.3 percent in the past two decades. Equaling almost 16.8 percent today.
• Since 1975 we’ve more than doubled the amount of imported fruit we eat to where it makes up about half of our total consumption.

Now, it could be that there is just more available to us, as we have become a global society – or it could be that as more people immigrate to our country they are bringing new flavors from home with them, which allows all of us to expand our palettes.
Our palettes are changing as well. Consider that we eat about 4 pounds less apples per year than we than we did 3 decades ago, and our consumption of mangoes, kiwi, avocadoes, and papaya has gone up. If this means we are eating more fruits and vegetables, it’s good. But we still must be mindful of what we choose! After all, we did have low levels of carbendazim (a fungicide that isn’t approved in the U.S.) discovered in some orange juice from Brazil (a major supplier for the U.S.) sold here this past month. This is another great reason to choose organic.
So where does this leave us? With lots of great food choices! Especially when you consider that according to Organic Monitor, global organic sales reached $50.9 billion in 2008 – double the $25 billion recorded in 2003. So you can support local, expand your plate and tastes, and support your beliefs as well. I guess if you want, you can have your fruit and eat it too!

At certain times of the year, you can be surprised when a certain produce item you have been enjoying suddenly goes from amazing to mediocre. This can often happen when a crop grown in one region finishes and another starts up – which may be why your glass of fresh squeezed OJ could have recently gone from perfectly sweet and balanced to one that is tart and bland. If you love Valencia oranges, then now is the time for you to make sure you ask for old-crop California Valencia oranges, because they are full of juice and sweet as candy. If you buy the new crop – Mexican Valencias – you will most likely disappointed. It’s not that Mexican Valencias are bad – they just haven’t developed the sugar that the California orange has yet.

When you are buying your California Valencia’s look for oranges that have a smooth, finely textured skin and are firm and heavy for their size. This means they will be loaded with juicy goodness. If you notice a slight green tinge on your Valencia’s skin, don’t be concerned. It just means they were allowed to remain on the tree during warmer weather and their skin re-absorbs chlorophyll from the leaves and will turn slightly green again, beginning at the stem end. The fruit is actually fully ripe, sweet, juicy and bright orange inside.

Here are couple of quick tips to get the most from these before they go away.
Normally, Valencia oranges will keep at room temperature for up to 1 week and in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. However, these are so full of sugar they won’t hold up long outside the fridge, so I suggest you keep them cool until you are ready to use them. When you are ready for some fresh juice, let them warm up, then roll the fruit on a firm surface to soften the flesh – then start squeezing! If you are trying decide how much to buy, two to four medium oranges will produce about one cup of juice.

Enjoy them while they last, which won’t be long.

You know the feeling when you’ve been waiting for a particular produce item to arrive at your local store or farmers market, such as peaches in the summer or local apples in the fall? Well, Satsuma mandarins are the same for many of us. We just can’t wait for these tasty, low-acid mandarins to arrive, so we jump on the first ones that appear on the shelves – often to our puckered disappointment. This could be due the fact that early conventional fruit may be treated with ethylene to induce ripening before the fruit is really ripe – or because some organic growers pick too soon to get the higher price of the early market.

Well, if you were disappointed on your first go-round or have been patiently waiting for them to be just right, then now is the time to indulge.
Due to the frigid nights and lack of rain this winter in California (where the majority of the US crop is grown) we have a fantastic crop of easy to peel and virtually seedless Satsumas this year. You will know with your first bite, as the compliment of tart to sweet is perfectly balanced.

When you are buying them, look for Satsumas that fill their skin, though the skin may be a bit puffy as the season wears on. They should have a clean aromatic smell, and no dented spots.
Don’t forget to check the weight as heavier fruit means they are juicier – and juicer is better for many reasons besides just eating pleasure.

Did You Know?

According to research, by drinking 4-6 ounces of Satsuma juice (a natural source of synephrine), or eating 2-4 fruit, you can get as much relief from cold symptoms as one antihistamine pill.

When you get them home, store at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to a week, but not for too long as prolonged storage can dry them out.

I’m off to buy a very large bag right now – mostly because ½ of them will probably be eaten before I get home.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Good things come in small packages.” Well, in the case of Seckel pears, it is absolutely true.

These tiny, round bodied pears are the smallest of all commercially grown pears, but don’t let the size fool you – they are amazingly sweet! So sweet, in fact, that they are often called “sugar pears.” What I love about them is that besides being sweet, they still have that earthy pear flavor that reminds you of winter: cool and refreshing, yet firm and rich. And you’re in luck, because now is the best time to buy them! Don’t wait too long though, as they will be gone from the produce department in the next couple of weeks and you will have missed your opportunity.

When buying these chubby snack-sized Seckels, look for an olive green skin that can often display a dark maroon blush from the bottom to it’s short little stem. Like most winter pears, Seckels don’t change color when ripening, so you’ll need to pick them up and use the following little trick to make sure they are ready to eat.
The best way to tell if they are ripe is to apply gentle pressure with your thumb at the stem end and if it yields to the pressure then it’s ready to eat.

While I love to eat them with lunch or as part of my afternoon snack, they are wonderful in many other ways. Try them sliced and fried in butter to top your weekend pancakes along with a spoonful of greek yogurt, or use them instead of bosc pears the next time you make a winter salad. I recently used them in a spinach & arugula salad with toasted hazelnuts, blue cheese crumbles and shallot olive oil dressing. It was so good it has been requested for our next family gathering!

If you turn a leek with its hairy end up, it looks sort of like a crown or the top of a scepter, which may be one reason this delicious allium is called the “king of the soup onion.” It could also be because Emperor Nero is said to have eaten leeks every day to make his voice stronger. But the real reason comes from the flavor and if you’ve ever cooked with them you know why.
They have a milder flavor than most onions this time of year, as yellow and red storage onions tend to have high concentrations of sulfuric compounds like pyruvic acid, which helps make these onions good keepers and good for you for you as well. However, the subtle flavor of leeks is complimentary to many recipes because they do not overpower the other ingredients in the dish.

While spring and summer leeks tend to be smaller and have a mild, delicate flavor, the leeks you’ll find now can be up to 2” in diameter with a stronger flavor. Though stronger, they are still a preferred allium flavor for many dishes. Fresh leeks will keep for between one and two weeks if they are stored unwashed and untrimmed in the refrigerator.

Do you refrain from eating this wonderful allium (a member of the onion & garlic family) because of its knack for holding onto the soil it’s grown in? Refrain no more! Cut the leek lengthwise to just before the green fan and open the stalk halves under cold running water. Open each section with your fingers allowing the water to run through, rinsing all of the unwanted sand and dirt away. Use this simple technique to get the dirt out and let the cooking begin.
Many cooks use the leek stalk but discard the green leaf or fan part. This is a big mistake. Why? Because the oft-discarded leaves are actually more nutritious than the tender stalk. Plus, you are paying for the stalk when you buy them so why not get the most for your money. Try using the greens like you would scallions — finely chopped in sauces and salads – to get the most from this versatile vegetable. I think you will be surprised at what a nice addition they are to many recipes.

Lastly, this is one nutritious vegetable. Leeks are high in the minerals potassium, calcium, iron, and phosphorus as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, the often overlooked B vitamin folate (great for cardiovascular health) and C, making them a healthy addition to any meal. Leeks also contain sulfur, which has been found to have natural antibiotic qualities. To get the most nutritional benefits from your leeks let them sit for at least 5 minutes after you’ve cut them.

“I beseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek: because, look you, you do not love it, nor your affections and your appetites and your disgestions doo’s not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it….if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.”


- William Shakespeare, ‘King Henry V’