Some of the basic staples of my family’s fall and winter diet are potatoes and yams. Fall brings a virtual cornucopia of new crop, freshly dug varieties and with that new crop we reintroduce some favorite ways of preparing them at home.

Potatoes and yams (or sweet potatoes) are one of the largest and most geographically diverse crops produced in the U.S. Many of the large-scale organic producers are concentrated on the west coast, so regardless of where you live you will likely see some Washington or California product in your store. But all over the U.S. there are large and small producers that provide varieties often unique to the region where they are grown. Ask our Team Members in your store’s produce department if there are potatoes and yams local to your area.

I have two basic preparation methods for potatoes and yams: roasted and mashed. The method I use depends on the variety I happen to buy. For yams I tend to stick with the lower oil content Garnet and my process is simple. I slice them into long narrow strips (like steak potatoes), brush them with olive oil and roast them until they are soft to the touch. I like the Garnet variety because it is not as heavy as the Jewel but both can be prepared in the same way.

For potatoes, I start them all the same way regardless of how I finish cooking them. All my potatoes get partially cooked by boiling – I find this saves me roasting time and helps to keep the potato moist. One of my favorite roasting potatoes is the fingerling. There are many varieties (like the Russian banana and Ruby Crescent) but most are small “finger” shaped potatoes that are perfect for the oven. I will boil them for 20 minutes or so, drain and let them cool, then slice them lengthwise into a mixing boil. To add flavor, I heat a dressing that is equal parts olive oil and butter combined with some chives, parsley, oregano, and minced garlic and toss the potatoes in it. I then lay the potatoes flat on a cookie sheet and grate some Parmesan over top. In the oven they go at 375°F and 25 minutes later, heaven comes out.

Yams curing in the field
Mashing is the second most popular method with my family and I’ve found a combination of russet and red potatoes gives me the best results. These get cubed and boiled a bit longer than my fingerlings and I add a similar herb/oil/butter mixture, including with it some milk or chicken broth. I like a creamy mashed potato so I will use my blender to take out lumps after I have mashed them. For a variation in flavor I will also occasionally throw in some cubed celery root or rutabagas when I’m boiling my potatoes. This not only changes the flavor slightly but lightens the texture as well. (Celery root mashed potatoes are great with salmon). Happy Fall!

October is a perilous time for apple and pear growers everywhere, because you never know what Mother Nature will dish out this late in the fall. The 2009 harvest season is no exception – snow in New England and hard freezes in Michigan and Washington State are putting late harvest varieties at risk of severe damage or even total loss. This is also an El Niño year, which means a wetter, more blustery winter – a concern even after the harvest is finished and the trees enter dormancy. The damage this season has been minor so far, but still painful. A prized organic Braeburn apple crop in Washington was nearly wiped out by cold that also caused severe damage in Pink Lady crops (generally the last variety to come off the trees). The risk of freeze damage is a powerful motivator for growers to get apples and pears off the trees all over the country. The positive side effect? Local product is now at its best and most abundant.

In my time with Whole Foods Market I have come to really appreciate the efforts or our grower partners both large and small. With our larger growers, we get stability in supply and consistent, flavorful varieties. With the smaller regional or local growers, the season is more fleeting but flavor and diversity is what we harvest in exchange. Like peaches and other tree crops the differences in local apples and pears are subtle, but they are real and remarkably diverse. Here are some of my personal favorites.

West Virginia: In colonial times the most common apple grown in the U.S. was the York Imperial – a dense hardy apple that stored well through the long winters. These days the descendent of the York can be found in limited supply in the Mid-Atlantic states in the form of an apple called the Mountaineer. Another antique variety that commonly appears in the Mid-Atlantic is the Nittany – an apple that is crisp like a Gala but has a more complex, almost spicy flavor. Both are delightful for baking or eating out of hand.

New England: New York State produces some remarkable common and not-so-common varieties of apples and pears. Galas, Golden Delicious, and Macintosh apples are among the largest production varieties of apples. The common Bosc pear and the smaller Seckle are also produced there. For me the New England states are all about Macintosh and like varieties. Macouns, Stayman, Cortlands and Empire are produced in other parts of the U.S. but there is something special about a New England Macintosh and all its cousins.

Washington State: When you think of large-scale apple production chances are Washington State comes to mind. For Whole Foods Market, Washington State is extremely important because it is hands down the largest producer of organically grown apples in the U.S. But outside of the huge growing areas in Yakama and Wenatchee, the antique subculture flourishes with varieties like the King David, Ashmead’s Kernal, Caville Blanc, and the Thomas Jefferson favorite, the Spitzenburg. The restaurants and bakeries in Washington State have also invested great effort into finding inventive was of serving apples.

Oregon: Crossing the border into Oregon, the focus for me shifts to pears. There are many great apple producers in Oregon but the early season Starcrimson pears from the Columbia River Gorge followed by what I believe to be the very best pear in the world, the Medford-area Comice, makes it hard to think about anything else. Both are immensely sweet and juicy, but it is the creamy smooth texture that makes them spectacular.

My central California coast local favorite is the Newtown Pippin and the Watsonville Jonagold – the latter grown by Dick Rider not 10 minutes from my office. Both are getting a little harder to come by the later into the fall we go. What apples are still grown in California tend to come off the trees much earlier than those in the northern states. The last time I visited the Rider farm, Dick showed me a tree that he said was some old unknown variety farmers grew here in the 20’s and 30’s for canning and apple sauce. The apple is green and deeply russeted. It made me wonder how many other lone local specimens are bearing fruit all over the country, filling the pies and eventually the tummies of families everywhere. It’s a special thing to discover a local favorite. I’ve been fortunate to experience so many but I am certain there are many, many more. Share your favorite if you have one, or if you find yourself in any of the above parts of the country, try one of mine.

October brings shorter days and a chill to the air along with the final harvest in most parts of the U.S. Out of that final harvest comes an item I look forward to every year with great anticipation: pumpkins! Yes, pumpkins and winter squashes have arrived and Halloween is not far behind. Like every year I gear up for the one day I get to practice my hand at a fleeting but wonderful art form – Halloween pumpkin carving!

Our home garden crop

Our home garden crop was harvested a few weeks ago from our “mystery bed” – seeds we saved from our favorite jack-o-lanterns the year prior. My son Aidan nursed our prize winner through the summer, feeding it every few weeks and watering it every day until we wrestled the 125 pounder out of the garden along with the rest of our harvest (which totaled 21 medium-sized and 50 or so smaller squashes and pumpkins). It’s also time to harvest the compost from our last halloween. What’s left of the 46 pumpkins we carved last season is now a rich, dark humus; ready to feed our fall and spring gardens.

Elevated compost – pumpkins, one year later

This is a tense time for pumpkin growers all over the U.S. It’s the end of a long growing season where something big, like an unexpected rainstorm, or small, like a hungry field mouse or gopher, can undo an entire growing season. Pumpkins and winter squashes are remarkably resilient and prolific plants but like all commercial production vegetables they do not respond well to excessive moisture (mold) or hungry pests.

Giant pumpkins in the field- Castroville, CA

Pumpkins are also very much a regional crop so the challenge always seems to be matching available supply with demand, which almost always requires us to move product from one geographic area of the U.S. to another (oftentimes at the last minute). Pumpkins are one of only a few field crops with a “deadline” (meaning Halloween) – a harvest delay of any kind and a grower will miss the window where the product has value.

Enormous pumpkins! Weighing in at 500 pounds or more.

For carving nuts like me, there is the annual challenge of finding a new carving technique or variety. Last season was all about teeth – I discovered by happy accident that by removing the outer skin of the pumpkin to expose the color of the inside provided a great contrast that I could shape into teeth (or other parts of the face). This adds a new dimension that I hope to improve on this year. The method is simple: I take a knife and cut an outline of the area I want to remove. I then take my linolium knife and peal off the outer skin just like you would peal linolium off of the floor. Afterwards I use a regular knife to shape the teeth.

I love blue and red varieties of pumpkins and squashes. Varieties like the Cinderella and Jarradale are super easy to carve and have a great contrasting interior and exterior color that really stands out when lit. They are also flatter than traditional pumpkins so the faces tend to be squashed and more interesting.

This year I plan to refine my pumpkin “totem” skills. The goal this year is to get five pumpkins to stack without toppling. There are no new refinements to my collection of tools – just the standard saws for cutting and knives for carving. I like a range of tool sizes to match the size of the pumpkin I’m carving so I have exacto knifes and saws for small up the scale to progressively larger tools for the bigger specimens.

I usually take the day off to carve but I won’t have to this year since Halloween falls on a Saturday. I may still take the Friday off to get ahead the carving. There are several ways I’ve heard to preserve carved pumpkins but none are very ecological. The best method I’ve found is simple hydration: I will remove the seeds, carve the pumpkin, then spray it down both inside and out to remove dirt or other debris. Since I compost my pumpkins I keep them for a while. Depending on the weather conditions, simple hydration will keep your jack-o-lanterns for about two to three days.

There are some new giant varieties I will try this year (one bright red and another a dark shade of purpleish-green) that look like they will be fun to carve – assuming I can lift them. I’m always looking for new pointers and ideas so share ‘em if you have ‘em! Happy Halloween!

The end of September at the national buying office is “apple in the mail” time. Every few days we receive a carefully packaged box in the mail courtesy of our longtime friends in the apple trade. It is something of a silly tradition because all of us here know just about everything there is to know about the varieties produced for commercial sale. And while there are slight variations from year to year in the quality and condition of the fruit, I suspect the real reason growers send us apples is to remind us, after many months of apple availability being limited to imported and stored apples, that it is once again time for new crop apples.

The reminders are everywhere. At my local farmers’ market the summertime reign of the peach has come to an end. Variety names like Last Chance and Last Tango are all that remain of the season. Aside from some late plums and grape varieties, the farm offerings shift from soft to hard fruit and apples take center stage. And while all apples have similar characteristics, like soft fruit there are some varieties that are better early in the season while others need more time on the tree to concentrate sugars.

Depending on where you live your local apple season will start as early as August or as late as October. As a rule, the large commercial growers like to have all the fruit off the trees by November. If they wait any later, they run the risk of losing the crop to winter weather. September is the month where we traditionally see the most activity in apples and the range of varieties that come to market can be dizzying.

Jonagold apples in Watsonville, CA

Out of all this variety diversity, there are some plant parentage similarities. Most early apple varieties have a Golden Delicious or Macintosh somewhere in their family tree (pun intended) that has helped define not only when they are harvested, but how they taste and how crisp they are. Varieties like the Jonagold and Gala are among the most successful early starters, but there are dozens of other varieties that have either Golden or Macintosh characteristics.

East Coast Honey Crisp Apples in New York State

One of the most anticipated early apples in the last few years has been the Honey Crisp. A chance Minnesota discovery in 1992, the Honey Crisp combines a spicy sweetness with remarkable crunch. At one time the variety was thought to be a bust because of production irregularities and problems in storage. While it remains a tricky variety to grow, the extreme popularity of this apple has prompted growers all over the US to put in trees. This year we expect unprecedented availability in organic and local conventional production from coast to coast.

Dick Rider, Watsonville apple grower

As a big fan of tart apples, I personally have a soft spot for green varieties. In my part of the country these can be early Granny Smith, Mutzu, or my local favorite, the Newtown Pippin. This apple has been grown in and around Watsonville for years. Though it was originally grown for juicing, there are few apples I like better for pies, tarts, or just to eat out of hand. There is also a similar variety called a Cox Pippin that heirloom enthusiasts swear by (I hope it is as good as they say because I planted a tree last spring).

October brings another round of varieties: denser, hardier apples that have a different set of characteristics. But to me, the early fruit defines the season and I always look forward to the first apples of the year. So even though I know the varieties and it’s just a friendly business reminder that the season has started, I hope I never stop seeing those little boxes of apples arriving in the mail. It’s my reminder that nothing beats an early apple.

Variety Trials – Carmel, California

The search began with a look back. Salad leaf has changed a bunch in the past 20 or so years. What was once a category dominated by mature heads of iceberg, green leaf, red leaf, butter leaf and romaine has evolved into an army of carefully cultivated babies – greens harvested in roughly 1/3 the time it takes to grow mature lettuce, neatly washed and packed in shiny plastic containers. The search for interesting colors year-round has also led the industry to add baby cooking greens into their salad blends. Kale, chard, mustard and even beet greens are now a common ingredient in many “pre-blended” salad mixes.

“Teen-aged” Lettuce Heads- 50 Days Old

Salad or “Mesclun” (pronounced “mess-cloon”) blends got their start here in the U.S. in the restaurants of San Francisco in the late 1970’s – an idea brought over from French farmers’ markets. By the late 1980’s Mesclun mix had migrated to grocery stores and was making its way across the country. The early salad blends were hand harvested, washed and shipped in bulk. The first I recall selling came from a small farm called Star Route in Bolinas California. By the mid-1990’s large scale baby greens production was perfected and salad mix was brought into the mainstream where it has become the best selling salad lettuce today.

Bibb and Red Oak Leaf

In the early 1990’s I worked at our Mill Valley store and I remember unloading the three pound boxes that came directly from the farm. The salad mix had been picked and packed the day before and had a scattering of nasturtium and borage flowers on the top of the blend of lettuces and greens. Everything I received that day would be sold by that afternoon. So, extreme freshness was one of the things I missed from my earlier, less complicated salad days.

Another was taste. The search for color in our salads had a bitter consequence. What was once a blend dominated by sweeter (and more uniformly colored) lettuce greens is now more colorful and visually appealing courtesy of the baby cooking greens, but it is more often than not bitter and unappetizing. In my opinion, a lettuce salad combines many flavors. Bitter in moderation is fine, but too much of any one characteristic dominates (and not in a good way).

Green Oak Leaf

The last thing I miss is texture. I realize now that “baby” is just too young. Granted, my salads have become more complicated as I’ve gotten older, but a baby lettuce leaf with barely 30 days in the field does not stand a chance against the myriad of oils, vinegars, cheeses, nuts, fruits, tomatoes and other sundry pairngs that make up my salad. These poor baby greens have literally collapsed under the weight of my evolving palate.

So what makes for a good salad blend? Here are my personal tastes:

• The blend must have more lettuce than greens – there is nothing wrong with bitter but it should not be the dominate flavor characteristic. Greens for color are fine but they should be no more than 25% of the blend if they are in the mix at all.
• Size is important. This will vary from variety to variety and the style of the salad will also contribute, but an unbroken leaf that is bite-sized (2-4″) is the best size for salad leaf. The immense popularity of salads based on the “heart” of mature heads of lettuce reinforces this notion.
• Texture is key. Drew Goodman, the founder of Earthbound Farms, had a great way of describing texture in a plant. He said the “spine” of a leaf of lettuce (or the thicker often white center of the leaf) must be fully formed in order for the leaf to reach its optimal flavor and texture balance. He believes this stage is somewhere between where baby and full-sized lettuce is currently being harvested. He believes, and I agree, that perhaps a “teen-aged” head of lettuce (a head harvested in the 45 to 60 day range) may be the leaf stage that is just right.

These middle stage lettuce heads show up in-season at my local farmer’s market. Earthbound Farms recently introduced a new Heirloom Salad blend that features lettuce grown to what I believe is optimal stage for flavor and crunch. I also have a fall back now that I can compost the outer 2/3’s of a mature head of lettuce if all I want are the succulent inner leaves. The industry continues to evolve and does put out a very good product, so I have hope I will one day find my perfect salad.

Radicchio

As August rolls into September and the weather starts to cool, summer berry supplies evaporate rapidly. I always feel like I have become a giant when I shop the strawberry and blueberry displays at our stores during this time of year because the container sizes get progressively smaller as fewer strawberries come out of the fields and fewer blueberries off the bushes. Here in Watsonville where the global buying office is located, we see fewer farm workers in the strawberry fields as the long summer harvest season in the north country winds down and growers prepare to move production south again. Way north of us, the large-scale blueberry fields in Michigan and Washington State are slowing down as well. Soon, British Columbia and some small farms in Maine and Nova Scotia will be all that remain of this North American native berry. But, as these production giants give way to inevitable decline, cane berries emerge as the toast of the fall.

The most common varieties of cane berries we bring into our stores are raspberries and blackberries, but ollieberries, boysenberries and loganberries are part of the family too. From the same plant family as the rose, cane berries come in an astonishing range of varieties and, depending on where they are grown, can also have huge swings in size, flavor and texture.

If you are like me and have wild blackberries in your yard, you will already know that, like their rose cousins, the plant’s primary line of defense is the painful thorns that run the length of their stems (or canes). They are also hardy plants – almost impossible to remove once established. Commercial fields are planted in long, tall rows supported by wood and wire fences. The plants are cut back at the end of the production season and they will go dormant for four to six months. A raspberry or blackberry field will have a productive life of four to five years, depending on the area and variety.

Raspberries are at their best in late August and September, having had the whole of summer’s sunshine to grow and concentrate sugars. They also need an exacting combination of warm days and cool nights to mature and color – similar to strawberries so they tend to grow well in the same areas. You may be lucky enough to find locally grown cane berries – mostly in the cooler, northern states. Cane berries harvested in the fall have the added benefit of not needing to grow under hoops and plastic like early season cane berries harvested in the late spring and summer. This means production costs per acre are lower and returns to the farm are higher.

It also means there are lots of raspberries available – and just in time too! If, like me, berries are a big part of your family’s diet, cane berries, especially raspberries and blackberries, are the ones to choose.

Many thanks to Bob Flood for contributing to this post.

Mid-August brings a funny blend of changes here at the Whole Foods Market national produce buying office. The breakneck pace of early summer long haul shipping slows somewhat as local production peaks and the whole country seems to go on vacation. The early summer harvest fruits like apricots have faded and the end of mid-season fruits like cherries and blueberries are on the horizon. While the season for some summer fruits and vegetables stretch into the fall, we reach a point where every produce buyer knows there are fewer harvest days ahead than behind us.

Added to that, getting produce to market isn’t easy this time of year – no matter what you are shipping or how far (even locally grown produce has to be brought market in good shape to be sold). Higher field temperatures mean shorter harvest periods during the day and warmer product in the packing sheds. To remove this field heat from produce, already overtaxed coolers must work harder – often holding up the loading of trucks for whole days or longer. Once on the road, truck refrigerators also work harder to maintain optimal temperatures on our asphalt and concrete roadways where surface temperatures can routinely reach 135°F. And at the stores, maintaining the cold chain becomes a challenge as store coolers work harder to compensate for warmer external temperatures. All this is happening at a time when fruit is coming out of the fields riper and far more susceptible to extreme temperature change than at any other time of the year.

When you take all of the challenges into account, it makes late summer produce treats all the more special – like the last few jewels on the crown of Mother Nature’s most prolific season.

One of the most anticipated late-summer fruits is the fig. An extremely prolific plant species but one of the most difficult fruits to ship even at the best of times. Late August brings the peak season and the most common varieties are the Black Mission, Brown Turkey and Green Kadota. There is also sporadic availability in the Adriatic – a green variety with an intensely sweet, bright red interior. The fig tree is a hardy plant, able to grow in a wide range of climates. But the fruit of a fig tree is a soft, fickle offspring to the parent. Figs are extremely sensitive to moisture exposure in transit so maintaining a consistent temperature is critical to preventing moisture from condensing on the fruit. Getting figs to market has its rewards though – there are few fruits that are better in the late summer.

Too cold can also be as dangerous as not cold enough for some fruits. Tomatoes shipped below 48°F will lose flavor and texture and most tropical fruits will discolor if held in cold temperatures for a sustained period of time. Transportation teams must also master the art of load compatibility – matching up enough warm temperature items to fill a truck. This is particularly challenging with another late season product jewel: the organic Keitt mango from California. Grown in the desert of southern California, the Keitt is a large green variety that is among only a handful of mangos grown in the U.S. Slightly soft when ripe, the Keitt is very sweet and far less stringy than most mango varieties.

Growing districts change frequently as production moves north to escape the worst of the heat. This also makes it harder for carriers to match up compatible loads and insure trucks are in position for the next focus items of summer. But our ten-person team of transportation specialists here at Whole Foods Produce manages to roll with the changes and continues to put wheels under the produce we sell.

So if you find yourself on a highway this summer, remember that you are surrounded by the giant trucks, smaller bobtails and little pickups that work long and hard to deliver our food. For me, there is a special appreciation I have for these transportation giants who deliver my dog day jewels.

My wife Erin thinks I’m a kook about most things that have to do with produce. For the most part she has given up trying to keep up with the complicated, ever changing, and sometimes contradictory set of personal rules I use to govern which fruits and vegetables I buy and when I buy them. She, quite wisely, now insists I shop for all the produce for our family. She has also learned to politely tune out my elaborate and overly detailed reasons for not buying corn in January, mangoes that have been chilled, or any piece of fruit with the word “delicious” in its name. My one “food snob” conversion success with Erin is tomatoes – all it took was about five years and a few summertime heirloom tomato salads to win her over.

In earlier years, my job was to seek out the best growers and buy lots of different produce for our stores. These days, my job has changed some and about the only professional buying I do is for California organic heirloom tomatoes – and I look forward to the season every year.

My buying focus is on the full-sized tomatoes but the midsummer brings an explosion in old style Cherry and Roma tomatoes as well. Cherry tomato varieties, available in limited quantities off season, are suddenly everywhere with high sugar varieties like Sun Gold and Sweet 100, along with a bevy of exotic varieties (like black cherry, snow white and yellow grape). In August the heirloom variety San Marzano Roma becomes available for a short period, replacing the more modern cooking tomato varieties.

Mixed heirlooms – Buellton, CA

The fun for me comes in the form of the large and small heirloom slicer tomato varieties, along with the growers and shippers that provide them. In the North Country, it’s the Barnes brothers in Capay Canyon and Jim and Deborah Durst in Esparto. The Central Valley has Ginger Balakian, Brad Johnson and Hans Wilgenburg. Further south, Chris Caldwell works his central coast fields near Buellton and Bill Brammer farms near San Diego. All these folks (and the dozens of smaller growers who provide tomatoes directly to our stores) share a common passion for tomatoes, as well as patience for the quirks that come with producing heirloom varieties.

Heirloom production forecasting is, at the best of times, unreliable and can be downright puzzling. Last year, for example, we saw robust plant growth but only moderate fruit sets. Temperature extremes in both directions can shut the plant down – causing blossom drop, growth cracks in fruit, or preventing fruit from maturing fully. Heirloom seeds can also be a challenging. Growers have reported purchasing seeds for one variety, only to find another coming off of the plant. Packing and transportation can also be dicey, but fortunately there are many areas of the U.S. where a modest to significant crop of these wonderful varieties can be produced. Handling the fruit at grocery stores is equally hard since the size and inconsistency in ripeness from box to box can be too much to handle for many retailers (not us, of course!). It takes a lot of effort and focus to bring these tomatoes to market. As frustrating as the crop can be, when things go well it is absolute heaven. The beauty and flavor are a stunning example of nature’s diversity.

Brad Johnson – Wooley Farms

My passions are split between selling these heirloom tomatoes and finding inventive ways to serve them! Timing for field production in tomatoes overlaps with a decline in leaf lettuces (due to higher temperatures), so I generally shift to tomatoes as a replacement for lettuce in my summer salads. My current favorite combination is a mixed heirloom salad with some crumbled blue or Gorgonzola cheese, roasted pecans and basil (topped with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar), but my summer salads will evolve over the summer. Another favorite’s a Brandywine sandwich – a thick slice of tomato between my favorite bread of the moment (and some cucumber slices, cheese and whatever else happens to be in my fridge).

I have to admit I feel a sense of pride in knowing I have made a heirloom tomato convert out of Erin. It is also part of my “evil plan” to convert my kids (as soon as I can get them to even consider having a tomato on the same plate as the rest of their food). In the 15 years or so I have been seriously selling heirloom tomatoes, it has become far easier to supply this wonderful seasonal treat, so chances are you will find them in our stores all over the country. I am always looking for favorite recipes – if you have one, please share!

Experimental variety – Gold stripe

As July transitions to August, we enter what is commonly known as the dog days of summer. In the produce world this also means we will see the most abundance and variety of domestically grown produce in our stores than at any other time of year. Local production is also peaking with all types of nearby fruit and vegetable production.

In soft fruit, plum availability explode, figs start their second season and grapes come off the vine full of sugar and flavor. Cherry production has shifted to the northernmost states and to higher elevations and, while some of the best fruit is still ahead of us, the season has passed its peak.

For peaches and nectarines some of the best varieties are coming off the trees all over the U.S. but there is a subtle difference to the fruit we buy mid- to late-summer as compared to what we bought in June and May. Peach and nectarine varieties are broadly classed in two general types – cling and freestone. The early varieties tend to cling – this is where the flesh of the fruit “clings” to the stone. In the later varieties, the flesh separates from the stone (hence the “freestone” designation).

The quality of both is exceptional in most cases. but there are two important changes you should note when selecting and preparing late season peaches and nectarines to insure you are not disappointed.

• Firm is good: Most all peaches and nectarines are shipped to market firm – the early varieties are best when you allow them to soften but this is NOT the case with the later freestone fruit. Late July and August fruit will generally have a slightly lower moisture content coming off the tree and should be eaten firmer (otherwise you run the risk of the fruit being mealy).
• Free stone varieties are obviously a lot easier to remove from the pit but they are also susceptible to a condition called split pit (where the pit breaks inside the fruit) if you encounter this condition be extra careful to make sure you have removed all the pit fragments (they are very hard and can break a tooth).

White varieties are also abundant in both peaches and nectarines. The most notable difference in these is that they tend to have a lower acid content than their yellow cousins. All are wonderful though and available for only a few short weeks so make the best of the time we have left with them!

Many thanks to Adam Morrison and Dana Peters for contributing to this post.

Thanks to warm weather all over the U.S., domestic production is reaching peak output. This time of year is perfect for picnics and other outdoor events, and few items pair better with sunshine and outdoor eating than melons.

The melon industry has changed a bunch over the years. When I was a kid, watermelons were 25-pound monsters and my sisters and I spent many a hot summer afternoon seeing who could spit the large black seeds the furthest. Most watermelons sold today are seedless and much smaller varieties, bred to be “refrigerator sized” and easier to harvest and transport. On the whole the recent changes in watermelon and other variety production and post harvest handling have been positive – particularly in the last few years as a re-emphasis on flavor has brought back some great heirloom varieties or has greatly influenced the selection of new ones.

Melon Field- Florida

Melon vines need an awful lot of water at the right time in order to produce good fruit, which can make them a hard crop to grow in places where too little (or too much) water is available. Too much water prior to the vine establishing itself will drown the plant, too little and the plant will shut down and prevent the fruit from fully developing. Over watering or rain too close to harvest will saturate the fruit causing splits in transit and diluting flavor. Drought conditions in the west have reduced the number of acres planted significantly for this summer while too much rainfall in the southeastern U.S. has made for some critical gaps in supply. Kkeeping track of all the water issues keeps our melon buyer on his toes. A good harvest makes it all worthwhile, though, as a fully matured vine-ripened melon is tough to beat.

Stressed melons – Southeastern U.S.

Melons are a member of the Cucurbitaceous (or gourd) family – this is a very large and diverse family of plants that includes cucumbers, squash (winter and summer) and pumpkins. While they all come from the same family, melons are produced in an astonishing array of varieties. The most common grouping of these varieties produced in the US are musk melons (including cantaloupes), inodorous (or dew) melons, and watermelons. All have specific characteristics and selection criteria:

Musk: Measured by the number of varieties, musk melons are the largest group commercially produced. The most common varieties are cantaloupes and even these can vary significantly depending on where they are grown. East coast production is dominated by the Athena – a large, firm, tasty musk melon. On the west coast the dominate variety is the Oro Rico. There are several growing areas in between (Pecos in Texas and Rocky Ford in Colorado to name just two) that produce fruit of exceptional flavor. Aside from cantaloupe varieties there are several old and new musk varieties that are regularly produced like Galia, Sharlyn and Charentais.

Musk melons should be uniformly firm everywhere except on the blossom end (opposite the stem end) where they should have a slight give. A musk melon will detach (or slip) from the vine when mature, so melons with a stem attached are generally immature. Your nose will also help you select a good one – musk melons have a rich “musky” fragrance.

California cantaloupes

The Honeydew is the most common inodorous melon but like the musk, there are many varieties produced over the course of the season. Fruit like the Canary, Casaba and Santa Claus will remain firm and somewhat odorless even when ripe, so the best way to tell if a melon is ripe is by touch. Immature fruit will have a slick feel to the exterior but as the melon ripens, the sugars will saturate the rind, giving it a tacky (almost sticky) feel that is the best indicator for ripe fruit.

Honeydew on the vine – Texas

Watermelons are the last and possibly the most difficult to determine the inside condition from the outside because of the wide range of varieties. The “thumping method” is certainly the most entertaining (and widely used) but is not the most reliable in my experience. It goes like this (according to my great aunt in Mississippi 35 years ago): “If the melon sounds like your head, it is too green; if it sounds like your stomach, it’s too ripe; if it sounds like your chest, it is just right.” This system never worked for me mainly because I honestly can’t figure out what my stomach should sound like (and I always get a headache when I select melons this way).

Most watermelons will have two main colors: a dark green with a lighter green or white second (or under) color. Most will also have a white spot where the melon was resting on the ground when it was growing. This is key because the rind of most watermelons, like their inodorous cousins, will turn slightly yellow as the fruit ripens. So I look for that slightly yellow tinge and I am rarely disappointed. Of course the most reliable method is to ask your local produce team member to “plug” a melon for you (cut out a small triangle to see how it looks and tastes) I like this way the best having long outlived my tolerance for bad melon choices.

Ambrosia Melons- California

Further into the summer the heirlooms emerge – varieties from all groups that are thin-skinned, irregular and often more difficult to grow (and ship).They are also high sugar, wonderfully textured, fragrant and worth the trouble if you can find them. Here on the Central Coast. the Ambrosia and Ha’ogen take the best melon honors but all over the U.S. seeds from old varieties are planted to keep these summer jewels alive. What’s your favorite?

Many thanks to Dana Peters, Bryan Doane, Nick Moless, and John Walker for contributing to this post.