We currently have 112 local items. Much of what we don't identify as local, is local, but unless it is 100% local, we simply label it as from USA. As each new item's season begins, we are unable to get as much as we wish we could from our small family farms. Sometimes you will be able to select the ones you prefer by reading the label on the box. For example, this week we continued to offer tomatoes from Mexico, but you will also find the first offerings of Hepworth Farms, NY and Lancaster Family Farms Cooperative, Pennsylvania. Our next new local arrivals will be on Monday, when we will receive tarragon, baby squash with blossoms, organic kirby cucumbers, black raspberries, red romaine, and loose spinach.
Next week, I will be writing about "seedlessness", as members wonder how seedless fruit works. Is it irradiated, is it genetically modified, is it a hybrid, how do they make babies, how can it be organic, why don't we have grapes with seeds? One brief point this week, and more to follow next week. Persians developed the seedless grape 6,003 years ago. I know that they were not genetically modified because the Persians lacked the electricity to plug in their electron microscopes. 6003? Well 3 years ago I learned that the Persians had developed the seedless grapes 6,000 years ago.
The following are the percentage of each type of grape eaten in the US for the 52 week period ending 3/31/12:
57.3% red seedless
35.8% green seedless
5.6% black seedless
1.4% all other grapes (This category contains all varieties of grapes with seeds.)