Featured Produce: Honey Tangerine
Did you know? The honey tangerine was originally developed by H.B. Frost at the University of California’s Citrus Research Center in Riverside in 1915! As their name implies, Honey tangerines are sweet with notes of honey and spice.
The loose rind on the Honey tangerine makes them a delicious grab-and-go snack, but they can be used in a variety of ways! Honey tangerines are most often eaten fresh or used for their juice. You can use their juice and zest in beverages and smoothies or frozen desserts, or add fresh segments to breakfast dishes and green salads. Pair with fresh herbs, honey, white wines, almonds, tropical fruits and aged cheeses for a delicious flavor explosion!
Looking for a way to use our featured produce? Try this:
Honey Tangerine Sorbet
By Taste of Beirut
8 Honey Tangerines
Sugar syrup (made up of 1 1/2 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup of water, and 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice)
Cut the top off the tangerines; carefully remove the flesh inside and place it in a bowl. Place the tangerine flesh in a blender and puree it until smooth.
Strain it. You will need 1 1/2 cups of juice.
Mix the juice and syrup. You need 2/3 cup of syrup and 1 1/2 cup of juice.
Cover the bowl and place in the freezer for a couple of hours.
Wait until the sorbet has frozen solid and crush it in a food processor for a few seconds.
Enjoy!
Apples & Pears
We will begin packing Washington’s new-crop Fuji apples this week. Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Gala apples are being harvested in Washington. There are promotable volumes on small-sized apples, such as 100's and 113's. There is opportunity for bag promotions on Gala apples! Here are some expected start dates for our apple varietals:
Red Delicious: September 23rd
Jonagold: September 23rd
Braeburn: October 14th
Granny Smith: October 14th
Pinklady: October 14th
Opal Apple: October 21st
We are harvesting new-crop pears in the Northwest! We have Bartlett, D’ Anjou, Bosc, and Star Krimson pears available! We expect red D'Anjou pears to start on September 30th.
Melons
Cantaloupe production continues to come out of the “Westside” area in Central/Northern California. We saw a severe decline in production this week, which has nearly doubled the FOB from where it was less than two weeks ago. Overall, the quality of the fruit has been consistently good! The problem of actually getting your hands on cantaloupe, however, remains. Cooler temperatures, along with a strengthening market, have allowed the fruit to stay on the vine. Even with temperatures expected to rise in the coming days, coolers are all but empty in the packing sheds, which means that fruit can be harvested without needing to be sold immediately.
Like cantaloupes, honeydew production continues out of the “Westside”. However, unlike the cantaloupe market, honeydews have stayed consistent in price. We may even see a slight price drop in the coming days. At the moment, most growers are asking anyone who gives them a cantaloupe order to also take some honeydews, as their movement has been a bit slow this season.
Currently seedless watermelon growers are on their second and third cuts, which has resulted in smaller sizing across the board. There are deals to be had on 75/80ct bins. Unfortunately, any large-size fruit is expensive and hard to come by. On the bright side, seeded watermelon has a surplus of large sized fruit at the moment! We expect to start hearing from Nogales watermelon growers in the middle of September. With Labor Day being the unofficial end to summer, more carton watermelon will begin to get packed. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you are looking for either carton or binned watermelon!
Tropicals
Lime pricing continues to increase. Weather impacts and storms have impacted the trees out of the Pacific region of Mexico, but they have not lost their bloom completely! Limes are especially short on sizes 200 and larger. We will continue to monitor market changes! Please call us for the most up-to-date information.
Pineapples are in good supply out of Costa Rica and Mexico! Pineapple quality out of Costa Rica is very nice, and sizing will be on the larger side for the next 4-8 weeks.
The Mexican mango season is expected to run until October! We have plenty of Keitt mangoes available right now, and volumes are projected to increase! These increases will come week-to-week out of different states of Mexico.
Citrus
California lemons are starting in district two! Smaller-sized lemons are extremely tight, and pricing is going up daily. Chilean lemons are available as well.
California’s Star Ruby grapefruit will have their final harvest this week. Growers will harvest the Marsh Ruby variety grapefruit starting this week. Smaller sizes are tight on both varieties.
Chilean and Peruvian Murcotts are being bagged and prices are on the rise.
Peruvian Minneolas are wrapped up for the season.
Peruvian Honey tangerines have arrived and they are outstanding! Supply is a bit tight this week. However, volumes will increase by week 39.
Chilean navel oranges are in full swing, with larger sizes being more prevalent
Australian navel oranges have been tight this year. However, there is some availability on this citrus favorite!
Fun Fact: There are over 600 varieties of oranges worldwide
Potato & Onion
Stockton, California will be finished packing white, yellow, and red potatoes for the season by the end of this week. Stockton’s potato quality is very good! Western Washington will start to ramp up their volume of white, red, and yellow potatoes any day! We are expecting a smooth transition from one area to another.
Washington and Idaho are in the middle of harvesting new-crop russet potatoes. Sizing is changing almost on a daily basis, but overall potato quality is very good!
California's Central Valley is essentially finished with their yellow, red, and white onion crop for the 2019 season. Washington and Idaho are currently harvesting and packing new-crop yellow, red, and white onions!
Fun Fact: It takes 1,000 pounds of potatoes to make 350 pounds of potato chips
Latin Products
Santa Maria, California is underway with hot peppers! We have plenty of peppers available. We will have peppers out of Santa Maria until mid-to-late October or until the first freeze, whichever comes first. This weekend is the last Hatch green chile roast of the season.
Fun Fact: Peppers are a fruit, technically, but the most popular peppers we eat are also part of the nightshade family, along with tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants.
Berries
Strawberries out of Watsonville/Salinas are finishing up. With some rain this week, in addition to extreme heat, strawberry quality is beginning to diminish. New-crop strawberries, out of Santa Maria, have started in waves. We should be seeing better numbers toward the end of the week, but everything is subject to availability. Strawberry pricing remains in the double digits and we don’t expect this market to come off any time soon.
Raspberries and blackberries are finished out of California. New crops of these berries, from Mexico, are making their way into the US in small numbers.
New-crop blueberries are available out of Oregon, California and Mexico!
Fun Fact: Unripe blackberries are actually red!
Specialty Produce
Demand has been excellent on air-shipped, white-flesh-red-skin dragon fruit! This beautiful piece of produce is available year-round. Supplies will remain steady out of Vietnam, while Ecuadorian fruit is coming in waves and gaps from week to week.
Quality on air-shipped, red-skin-red-flesh dragon fruit, out of Vietnam, has been very good! This fruit is particularly sweet at the moment! Red-skin-red-flesh dragon fruit is available on a weekly basis, but call for availability OR feel free to pre-book in advance!
Yellow dragon fruit is gapping. We will advise when it starts up again.
Young coconut is available but demand is going up, so please call in advance for future inquiries!
Fun Fact: Because dragon fruit blooms from evening to midnight, it’s sometimes called the “moonflower” or “Queen of the night.”
Organics
Natural and nutritious!
California Valencias will go through October! There are good supplies available, but you’ll want to call soon as there is demand for 113s! We also have great pricing for 72’s and 56’s.
New-crop lemons, out of the Coachella Desert, have started! Lemons, out of Mexico, will still be available through October. Larger lemons are still very limited as there is more choice fruit available at the moment.
Organic California Keitt mangoes are available out of Coachella. These mangoes are very sweet and full of flavor!
Hard squash, including Kabocha, Acorn, Spaghetti, and Butternut squash, is just getting started out of California. We will also have organic pie pumpkins soon!
New-crop Washington Gala apples are in ample supply! There is definitely an opportunity to promote 12/3lb bags. These organic favorites are also available in a 8/3lb pouch bag!
We have limited supplies of organic berries. Give us a call as these supplies change day-to-day.
There are some organic melons coming out of West Sacramento. Supplies are fair and cantaloupe quality is good! There are still some mini red seedless watermelon available!
Looking for other organic items? Please call us!
Avocados
A new avocado crop will be starting out of Mexico soon. The crop size is going to be large and when the crop size is large, small fruit seems to be more common. The fruit will be lower in dry matter so ripening times will increase. Keep this in mind when it comes to your forecasting/planning.