We have a few more questions from our members, Today's theme is "What happened to...?"
"What
happened to the Fiddlehead Ferns?"
We started the season late, as we
waited for our regular supplier to get their first delivery. We're still
waiting for that supplier, but we're not waiting for Fiddleheads. We
had to pay a higher price than ever, but they are the finest quality we
have ever seen. We've been enjoying daily deliveries, but experienced a
few gaps in supply. One problem was that the rainy, cold weather in the
northeast limited the supply, and another was that we can eat all the Fiddleheads faster than our supplier can provide them. By the way, they
taste kind of, sort of like asparagus, and can be cooked as you would
asparagus. It is recommended that they be cooked thoroughly, to avoid
the risk of microbial infection. When eating wild harvest produce, one
can not be certain of the water source, so cooking Fiddleheads must be
seen as a necessary precaution. We think our supply next week will be
strong.
"What happened to the Avocados? They were so consistently ripe and ready, and now they are mostly green?"
Those ripe ones were the end of the Mexican season, and the green ones
are the first of the California season. We try to find a bit of ripeness
in the Avocados we buy, but the transition was abrupt this year, and we
couldn't find any fruit that was ripe on time.
"What happened to the organic Ginger?"
Low-cost Chinese Ginger has dominated
the global market for years, and it has become harder for us to find
sufficient supply from Hawaii. The produce department is committed to
avoiding Chinese produce. Leaving all political values aside, we think
there is reason enough to steer clear. There have been too many reports
of contaminated product, and we are aware that the integrity of the
organic certification has been challenged at times. As far as the
quality of the root itself, the Chinese varieties seem to have a
greater" heat to flavor" ratio than the Hawaiian, which simply packs
more essence of Ginger in the flavor. When Hawaiian Ginger is in short
supply, we have often been able to source Peruvian or Brazilian, but
have been unable to do so for the last few weeks. We have a bit of
conventionally grown Hawaiian this week, and the organic appears to be
returning in better supply on Monday
5/7. Along with the return of the Hawaiian Ginger, we will also enjoy
the return of tuRmeRic from Hawaii. Please note the two r's in tuRmeRic.
I would appreciate it if you single r "tumeRic" fans stop messing with my
OCD.
Supplies of conventional "Jersey Grass" have been scant at the Hunt's Point Market. Just as we begin to think that the supply might improve, some rain gets in the way. It's annoying when rain interferes with a harvest, even as it does so little to provide relief from a severe local drought. Most of the local Asparagus that we carry from year to year comes from a bit further north than the farms we enjoy at our local markets. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, our farms were still experiencing some snowfall (do you remember snow?), and night time lows occasionally in the 20's. I think that climate change has produced a slightly earlier harvest near us. We will probably begin to get supplies from our long-time growers in a couple of weeks, which would be the typical starting time for those farms.
Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator
