Produce

Tomatoes

Selection:

Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables? This has been a controversial question for centuries. Botanical evidences consider the tomato as fruit because seeds remain inside the pulp. However, to common people, cultivars, and traders, the tomato is a vegetable that is grown in the kitchen garden with other vegetables and eaten as fresh or cooked.

• Greenhouse tomatoes are grown in a glass structure in which temperature is strictly controlled.
• Hothouse tomatoes are grown in a mesh or plastic structure in which temperature isn’t as controllable.
• Tomatoes on the vine are harvested at optimal maturity when the sugars have developed. The tomatoes continue to receive nutrients from the vine, which can extend the shelf life.
• Vine-ripened tomatoes might have been picked at a less than mature stage, so the flavor profile might not have developed to the fullest extent.

Skin When buying tomatoes, appearance is important. Look for a firm tomato that has no water damage. Pick a tomato without spots, which may indicate problems. Also, check the stem. If there is mold near it, steer clear.

Texture Look for firm tomatoes that will last several days without becoming soft, even if overzealous customers squeeze the product before purchase. Texture can reveal clues to the previous handling of the fruit. If the tomato’s skin is coarse, it probably has been exposed to the heat, and the skin may wilt by the time it reaches the consumer.

Color Tomatoes are graded on a color scale of one to seven: one is green and seven is dark red. Look for tomatoes that grade around a five. If you much higher than that, the tomato will be overripe a have a short shelf life

Smell Smell will accommodate the product if it is at its correct stage of development. A tomato should smell as if it were just picked from the vine.

Types:

Beefsteak Tomatoes

Beefsteak tomatoes are large sized and look like an old fashioned shaped tomato with a deep red color. They are firm in texture with plenty of flesh, a thicker core, and fewer seeds than many other tomato varieties. They have a sweet, mouth watering flavor that is great when used in sandwiches, salads, stews, stuffed, or baked whole.

Tomatoes on the Vine

Tomatoes so bright and fresh, they’re still plugged in. As you can see, these medium sized beauties are picked with their thick, green vine attached. The skin is a little softer and the core is a little juicier than many other varieties. They have that “just picked from the garden” flavor.

Grape Tomatoes

There are more varieties of tomatoes than any other vegetable and this hybrid tomato sensation has caught the attention of fine chefs and salad lovers. Wrapped in a tender skin and growing in clusters like their namesake, dainty red grape tomatoes offer big tomato taste for their small size. Ideal for adding the last minute to stir-fries and sautes. Pair with pasta, basil and mozzarella cheese.

Cherry Tomatoes

Just like candy and a tiny hybrid variety, red wweet cherry tomatoes offer a delicious sugary-sweet tomato flavor. Toss these quaint, tiny, colorful cuties in salads for a surprisingly rich tomato flavor. Drizzle with a favorite dressing or vinaigrette. Add to stir-fries the last few minutes of cooking and cook until just heated through to maintain their delicate texture.

Roma Tomatoes

Beautiful, firm and thick-fleshed, the popular red Roma is an elongated plum-shaped tomato. Almost seedless and considered a sauce tomato, this variety has a rich meaty texture. Less flavorful than vine-ripened tomatoes, Romas contain less acid and sugar. Not only known for making great-tasting tomato sauces, the lovely Roma is delicious simply served fresh.

Campari tomatoes

The cocktail sized Campari tomatoes are vibrantly red. They have light skin and a luscious, juicy interior. They offer a pop-in-your-mouth sweet succulence that makes them just the right tomato for salad, bruschetta, pizza and salsa.

Hot House Tomatoes

It all starts with the environment. Hot House greenhouses are like exclusive high tech spas for plants. That means the Tomato plants receive exactly what they want (natural sunlight, temperature, ventilation, plant nutrition, carbon dioxide), exactly when they want it.

Tomatillos

They are also called tomate verde in Mexico (which means green tomato) and are considered a staple in Mexican cooking. It now grows everywhere in the Western Hemisphere and is common in Texas gardens. The fruit of the tomatillo is green and about the size of a large cherry tomato. The inside is white and meatier than a tomato. They grow to maturity inside of a husk.

Availability:

Tomatoes are available year-round.

Nutrition:

A tomato is a low calorie food. One medium fresh tomato provides only 25 calories and contains Vitamin C and Vitamin A. The tomato contains Lycopene, which is responsible for its red color. Lycopene is also a proven antioxidant that helps remove free radicals from our body. Free radicals are unstable oxygen molecules, which cause cancer and other life-risk diseases. Therefore, a tomato plays a key role to help protect our bodies from serious illness.

Tomato Fun Facts:

• The largest tomato on record is 7 lbs. grown in Oklahoma.
• Each man, woman and child in American consumes almost 80 pounds of tomatoes every year.
• The largest tomato plant was 65 feet long.
• The South Arkansas vine ripe pink tomato is Arkansas’ official state vegetable.
• Tomato juice is the official state beverage of Ohio.
• The tomato is in the same family as the potato, pepper, eggplant, and petunia.
• The French used to refer to the tomato as the “apple of love”, the Germans called it “the apple of paradise”.

Selection:

Select lettuce that has rich color and crisp, fresh-looking leaves.

Storage and Preparation:

To store, wrap in plastic; refrigerate in crisper drawer. Iceberg lettuce is available year round.

Types:

Iceberg Lettuce

Usually about six inches or larger in diameter, old faithful iceberg lettuce is round and firm. The mild-flavored pale green leaves offer a refreshing, juicy and crisp texture. Even though there are many choices in the wonderful world of lettuce, many tend to remain faithful to old reliable iceberg lettuce.

Nutrition:

Offering folate, iceberg lettuce has only some vitamin C, potassium and iron. A shredded cupful has to be consumed in order to reap any nutritional benefits. Sadly, one or two leaves don't offer much nutrition.

Boston Lettuce

Butterhead lettuce varieties which include Boston and Bibb are considered choice having small loose-leaf heads and soft flexible leaves with an absolutely delicious buttery flavor. Rich green and very fresh, Boston and Bibb lettuces are both deliciously mild in taste. These premium greens form a loosely folded head surrounded by a rosette of delicate soft leaves. Boston and Bibb lettuces are available year round with a peak season June to December.

Nutrition:

Offering a source of folate and some vitamin C, butterhead lettuce provides a little fiber. Its most nutritious virtue is that it is fat-free and sodium-free, plus low in calories. One raw shredded cup contains about 5 calories. Bibb lettuce has five times the nutrients of iceberg lettuce.

Romaine Lettuce

Romaine and old faithful iceberg lettuce are the most popular salad greens. Medium to dark-green in color, the hardy leaves fade to nearly white. Offering a delicious flavor, the inner leaves are the sweetest. Romaine lettuce is available year round with a peak season mid-winter to early spring.

Nutrition:

One and one-half cup shredded romaine lettuce contains about 15 calories. Rich in nutrients and fat-free, this green provides protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and dietary fiber.

Green Leaf Lettuce

One of the most common varieties of loose-leaf or bunching lettuce, green leaf lettuce branches from a single stalk producing a loose bunch and does not form a tight head. This type of lettuce is also called loose-leaf and Simpson lettuce and varies in color from medium to dark green. The vivid medium to dark green curly leaves are softer than crisphead, but not as soft as butterhead leaves. A little more meaty than crisphead, the flavor of the smooth tender crisp leaves is delicately mild. Green leaf lettuce is available year round.

Nutrition:

Green leaf lettuce offers vitamin A, vitamin C, folate and potassium. The darker the leaves, the higher the vitamin A content.

Red Leaf Lettuce

Today there is more to lettuce than just iceberg and romaine. Many delicious and attractive varieties are available for adventurous salad lovers. A non-heading plant and very ornamental, red leaf lettuce produces frilly, rumpled reddish-bronze tender showy leaves that grow on a stem. Mild in flavor, this attractive lettuce's colorful personality makes it an excellent choice for adding its culinary charm to mixed green salads. Red leaf lettuce is available year round.

Nutrition:

Darker leafed lettuce offers more vitamin A and folate. A source of fiber, four ounces of raw lettuce contains about 20 calories.

Lettuce Fun Facts:

• The largest lettuce head was one that weighed 25 lbs. grown by Colin Bowcock in England in 1974.
• Lettuce was introduced to the New World from Europe as early as 1494.
• Iceberg lettuce got it’s name from the fact that California growers shipped it covered with heaps of crushed ice in the 1920s. It has previously been called Crisphead lettuce.
• Lettuce is a vegetable that is pretty much immune to any form of preservation. You can’t freeze it, can it, dry it, or pickle it.
• The average American eats approximately 30 pounds of lettuce each year, which is five times what was eaten in 1900.

Selection:

Handle ripe fruit carefully to avoid internal bruising. Squeeze gently to check for ripeness; should feel pliable, not firm (skin color is only an indicator of ripeness with the Hass variety).

Storage and Preparation:

Ripen hard avocados at room temperature, then refrigerate up to one week. To speed ripening, place in a paper bag along with a few bananas; seal tightly. Once cut, avocados brown quickly. To store unused fruit, sprinkle cut surfaces with lemon or lime juice, wrap airtight and refrigerate.

Nutrition:

A recent study shows adding avocados to salad or salsa helps to increase the body’s absorption of disease-preventing nutrients found in several produce items, thanks to the fruit’s healthy mono-unsaturated fat content. Avocados offer important phytochemicals and nutrients such as glutathione, betasitosterol, lutein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, Vitamin E, folic acid, Vitamin K, pantothenic acid, potassium, and magnesium.
Avocados can help prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and prostate cancer, and they can help improve overall fitness.

Avocado Fun Facts:

• Brazillians add avocados to ice cream.
• Fillipinos puree avocados with sugar and milk for a dessert drink.
• Latin Americans wrap avocados up and give them as wedding gifts.
• The avocado is also called an Alligator Pear because of its pear-like shape and green skin.
• California grows avocados year-round.
• About 43% of all U.S. households buy avocados.
• Two mature avocado trees can provide enough oxygen for a family of four.

Selection:

Enjoying raw sprouts in today’s healthy diets has become increasingly more popular. Sprouts are the germinating form of seeds or beans and require no soil. Add living life to salads, dressings, spreads, dips, sandwiches and spreads. Use as edible garnish for most anything. Choose crisp-looking sprouts. Avoid musty-smelling, dark or sprouts with a slimy appearance.

Storage and Preparation:

Most sprouts can be kept in a plastic bag in the refrigerator crisper for up to three days. More delicate sprouts like alfalfa should be refrigerated in the ventilated plastic container in which they are purchased for no more than two days.

Availability:

Most sprouts are available year-round.

Types:

Alfalfa Sprouts:

Crisp and brightly colored, alfalfa sprouts have white roots with leaves in various colors of yellow or light to dark-green. Coloring varies due to exposure to light. This popular sprout is considered to be the classic American leafy sprout. Offering a mild nutty flavor, these tasty newborns have a wonderfully crispy texture.

Nutrition:

Nutritionally rich, alfalfa sprouts provide protein, carbohydrates, enzymes, amino acids, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, niacin, potassium, calcium and magnesium. One cup contains about 41 calories.

Bean Sprouts

Usually associated with the delicate shoots of mung beans, bean sprouts have small light yellow leaves and a silvery bright white shoot. Offering crunch and a subtle nutty flavor, the water content is high. Pinto, kidney and navy beans are also commonly sprouted to add delicious variety to sprout mixes.

Nutrition

One of the most nutritional foods, bean sprouts provide an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes. Mung bean sprouts are low in calories and exceptionally high in potassium. A nutritious sprouted mung bean offers the same amount of vitamin A as a lemon, the niacin of a banana, the thiamine of an avocado, the riboflavin of a dried apple, the carbohydrate content of a melon and the ascorbic acid of a loganberry. Chlorophyll, created in the sprouting process under the action of light, has been reported to be effective in protein deficiency anemia treatment. Sprouts continue to grow after harvest and this growth increases the vitamin content of the sprout during refrigeration.

Radish Sprouts

Upright, slender and white, daikon radish sprouts have green leafy tops and silky stems. Often marketed as “kaiware,” these snappy sprouts offer an agreeable peppery-hot taste. Sprouts are often the freshest vegetable available in the marketplace.

Nutrition

Sprouts provide some vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin E and amino acids. Sprouting increases the nutritional value but is negated when the sprouts get old. Not exactly nutritional superstars, sprouts are filling and contain very few calories. Sprouts are, nevertheless, a delicious and wholesome addition to the diet

Selection:

Purple-to-burgundy with a hint of white at its base, this plum-shaped pleasantly sharp-tasting radish is topped with dark green full-bodied leaves. The common cherry-red marble-sized radishes have had to move over to make room for distant cousins that are green, black, multicolored, scarlet, round and white, long and white, heavy as a melon or as thin as a finger.

Storage and Preparation:

Choose radishes that are firm and smooth.

Availability:

Assorted radishes are available year round.

Nutrition:

Low in calories, one cup of sliced radishes contains about 20 calories. Radishes are a good source of vitamin C and provide potassium and magnesium.

Selection:

Green onions may be any variety of onion and are simply harvested before they bulb. Also called spring onions, stone leeks and scallions, these popular immature onions have small bulbs and long green stalks. Mild in taste, they offer a definite onion flavor. Scallions are actually considered to be even younger than a green onion having no bulb at all while green onions have a tiny bulb. The bright green tops are edible. Onions are a favored seasoning in a vast range of dishes and either cooked or raw, onions are an appreciated vegetable in their own right. Today, the onion ranks sixth among the world's leading vegetable crops.

Storage and Preparation:

Refrigerate, unwashed, in a plastic bag up to one week. To prepare, first rinse and pat dry. Trim root ends; strip off and discard wilted outer leaves. Leave whole, slice or cut into strips.

Availability:

Green onions are available year round.

Nutritional Value:

Green onions are an excellent source of vitamin A. Studies show that onions may produce many health benefits, including lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Onions also contain a substance that prevents the formation of blood clots. Eating five daily servings of fruits and vegetables lowers the chances of cancer. A recent study found that eating nine or ten daily servings of fruits and vegetables, combined with three servings of lowfat dairy products, were effective in lowering blood pressure.

Selection:

Most often heavily waxed, cucumbers have a dark rich green skin surrounding a whitish firm flesh that offers a very mellow flavor. Some have small bumps and sometimes light green or whitish spots which do not affect quality. Waxing extends a cucumber's shelf life.
Look for firm cucumbers with rich green color and no soft spots.

Storage and Preparation:

Refrigerate whole cucumbers in a crisper up to a week. Unwaxed cucumbers can easily lose moisture so keep them wrapped tightly in plastic.

Availability:

Cucumbers are available year round.

Nutrition:

Low in calories and nutrients, cucumbers have only small amounts of vitamin A and C, a trace of fat and provide a small amount of dietary fiber. cholesterol-free and sodium-free, one average cucumber contains about 20 calories. If allergic to pollen, raw cucumbers may make one’s mouth itch. Cucumbers may also cause a reaction in those allergic to aspirin.

Cucumber Fun Facts:

• Cucumbers were brought to the Americas by Columbus.
• The inside of a cucumber can actually be up to 20 degrees cooler that the outside temperature.

Selection:

If you thought citrus fruits packed a powerful punch, when it comes to vitamin C, peppers have them beat. Peppers can be found in a rainbow of colors and can vary in flavor. In recent years, many more varieties of bell peppers have become available. Today not only green ones, but dazzling colors like intense orange, shiny gold, pretty purple, ruby red, dark chocolate and bright sunshine yellow glisten in heaps in open-air markets and stores almost everywhere in the world. Look for firm, unshriveled peppers.

Storage and Preparation:

For chile peppers wrap in a paper towel; refrigerate up to two weeks. Refrigerate sweet peppers in a plastic bag up to five days.

Availability:

Peppers are available year round.

Nutrition:

Bell peppers provide an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin A, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein, iron, calcium and potassium. One medium bell pepper contains about 30 calories. Because they are rich in vitamin C, bell peppers are high in antioxidants, beneficial in fighting diseases from colds to cancer. Due to advanced maturity, red bell peppers contain more nutrients than green immature bell peppers.