Here they come, rolling into town—
They get the hungriest looks from, everyone around—
[drum fill…]
Hey, hey, they’re the summer fruits! And they’re super duper cute!
It may not quite be summer—but that point is moot!

When summer fruits start to arrive in May, there’s a bit of a giddy vibe at The FruitGuys. There’s some flat-out swooning. We have people linked arm-in-arm doing the Monkees “walk”—you might think we’re practicing for a flash mob, but we’re all just rooting for our favorite summer fruit. It can be hard to mediate the favorites—it’s like debating John vs. Paul, Micky vs. Davy, or Posh vs. Sporty Spice.

Strawberries, our fruity rock stars of spring, have already started making an appearance in FruitGuys cases. Their season can reach into fall, weather depending. And we’re just starting to see stone fruit! Our winter citrus stars, like tangerines and grapefruit, will soon be giving up their box cubbies for peaches, plums, cherries, and all the stone fruit celebrities.

Early summer fruit loves spring-fever days (the kind that make you want to play hooky). As we’re just at the start of the season, the fruit trees and plants haven’t completely come into their own yet, and the natural sugars are not yet fully developed—but as we get closer to the season’s peak, you’ll notice the fruit getting sweeter and sweeter.

So if you’ve been daydreaming about summer fruits, here they come!

Strawberries: Strawberries are picked ripe and should be enjoyed as soon as possible. For overnight storage, they may be refrigerated. But don’t wash them until you’re ready to eat them (or freeze them).

Stone Fruit: Stone fruit is climacteric, meaning it continues to ripen after being picked. Let stone fruit ripen at room temperature until it’s fragrant and gives slightly to light pressure. You can turn up the volume on ripening climacteric fruit by placing it in a paper bag with an apple (apples give off ethylene, a plant hormone that accelerates ripening). Stone fruit should be enjoyed once it’s ripe, but it will also keep loose in the crisper drawer of the fridge for a few days.

As always, to see what’s in your mix and where it came from, visit our Mix Pages at fruitguys.com/mix.

Enjoy & Be Fruitful!

By Heidi Lewis

(Throat clearing.) “Excuse me—we have a strict ‘no pet’ policy here.”

“I don’t have any pets.”

“What do you call that cute, fuzzy brown thing that you are petting?”

“A kiwifruit.”

(Pause.) “Oh.”

Many marketing and branding folks know the story of the kiwi. Grown wild for centuries in southern China, a missionary returning to New Zealand in 1904 brought some seeds with her. The rest, as they say, is history. In New Zealand, the kiwi was successfully domesticated, and prospered. In the 1950s, New Zealand exporters wanted to break into U.S. markets, so they renamed the fruit from its English names—Chinese gooseberry and melonette—to kiwifruit. So named after the Maori word for the soft fuzzy bird, which makes the “ki-wiiiii” sound. After the name change, kiwis were a hit!

Kiwis now grow domestically, and many varieties have been bred to tolerate various U.S. climates. They are not self-pollinating, and in fact are dioecious—meaning the plants come in sexes—so pollinator help is needed. Well behaved, kiwis grow on a vine and are often trained to large overhead arbors. They are also easy to transport.

There are numerous cultivars of kiwi—from the common Hayward kiwi, with fuzzy brown skin and green flesh; to those with minimal fuzz and gold flesh; to berry-sized, smooth-skin kiwis—ranging in flavor from sweet to tart-sweet. With all of them, especially kiwi berries, the skin is edible, depending on how adventurous you are. The oil from kiwi seeds contains alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid, which as a supplement has become an odorless alternative to fish oil. And of course kiwis are vitamin power balls—a medium-size kiwi contains around 120% of the recommended daily value of vitamin C and over 300mg of potassium.

Preparation: Kiwis are ripe when they give slightly to pressure. They’re easy to eat, peeled and sliced, or like an eggcup—cut in half and spooned out. The adventurous smoothie maker can rinse kiwis in cool water, remove small calyx nubs, and throw skin and all into the blender.

Storage: Keep kiwifruit at room temp until ripe. Once ripe, kiwi will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Very firm kiwi will keep refrigerated for up to two months.

We will have kiwifruit in mixes all across the country this week. To see what’s in your mix and where it came from, visit our Mix Pages at fruitguys.com/mix, and select your region and mix type.

Enjoy & Be Fruitful!

P.S. Mark your calendars: National Bike To Work Day is Friday, May 18!

By Heidi Lewis

The National Cherry Blossom Festival was recently held in Washington, D.C. This year’s festival commemorated the centennial of Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the U.S. in 1912. The ornamental trees rim West Potomac Park’s Tidal Basin, which reflects their snowy canopy. Their beauty and a slew of special events attract about a million visitors to the festival annually.

This year the event was scheduled between March 20 and April 27. Alas, the blossoms peaked nearly a month early due to a warm winter. Ten days later, the walkways were littered with petal drifts.

Have you noticed an earlier than usual flowering of your neighborhood trees? Many U.S. regions have experienced a premature warming trend with a bit more consequence. Coming out early puts fruit blossoms in jeopardy of the last of winter’s wrath. When the soil warms, buds emerge; when the air warms and the blossoms open, the petals fall away, and the tiny fruit sets. At that delicate stage, any frost, hard rain, or hail can easily damage them.

Late spring storms and frosts affected many of our farmers across the country these past weeks. Severe frosts wrecked much of the grape and apple crops of Mick Klug Farm in St. Joseph, MI, and wiped out 75 percent of the apple crop at Nichols Farm & Orchard in Illinois. Hail knocked numerous baby plums to the ground at B&L Farms in Fresno County, CA; and Kauffman’s Fruit Farm cherry orchard in Lancaster County, PA, took a major hit. All these farms are family-run, and damaged crops impact their livelihood.

As The FruitGuys’ buyers assess the impact of the weather on spring fruit, buyer Rebecca North says, “We are still committed to working with these farmers, especially as they may feel the financial impact of these short but not-so-sweet storms. This may mean some aesthetically challenged pieces of fruit in FruitGuys cases. Hail or other weather damage may leave some scarring on the outside, but the inside is still delicious!”

There are numerous interpretations to T.S. Eliot’s quote “April is the cruelest month”—as our farmers well know, none of us are out of reach of winter’s backhand in April.

As always, see what’s in your mix this week and where it came from by visiting our Mix Pages.

Enjoy & Be Fruitful!

It’s spring. Blossoms are abundant. Time to get pollinating in the fruit orchards. But since colony collapse disorder has been decimating the honeybee population, we’ll have to look outside the organization for some help. As they say in the bee biz, “No bees, no honey; no work, no money.”

We all admire the functionality of honeybee hives—the awesome productivity of the bees, the seamless flow of communication, all the great honey products. But frankly, not everyone is cut out to work under a monarchy. Honeybees have iPheromone phones with which they collectively regulate hive temperature, population, and housekeeping chores. They’ve got waggle dances, complex vision, and navigation intelligence to boot. With tens of thousands of bees per hive, that equals a pollination powerhouse.

But let’s say your hive is going through a re-org or supersedure, or getting ready to swarm. It’s a good time to think outside the box and examine the résumés of some independent contractor pollinators:

Bumblebees
These drones are always first to the office. The gentle buzz of bumblebees is the signal that spring has arrived. Darwin called them humble bugs, but don’t let their torpid flight fool you—these bees get in those flowers, buzz away, and get the job done.

Hummingbirds
Able to type 1,000 words per minute, these multi-taskers favor red flowers. Migratory creatures, hummingbirds are able to work between Alaska and Mexico.

Bats
Willing to work the night shift, bats are especially attracted to white flowers. They help pollinate a wide variety of tropical plants, cacti, and more. Their primary strength is in pest control.

Plant for Pollinators
You can help pollinators of all kinds find jobs—choose native plants for your garden that provide forage. BeeSmart is a handy iPhone/Android app that lists region-specific pollinator-friendly plants. Consider creating a habitat where pollinators can nest. Or if you’d like to apply for the job yourself, try running around a meadow sticking your proboscis into flowers.

The cuckoo clock at the Greenwich Mean Time offices popped its head out at 5:14 a.m. on March 20, letting all us inside people know that it’s officially spring. For the outside world, the tightly wound mechanisms of nature’s internal clock are springing plants into action. Petals and birdsong may fill the air, but spring is a delicate interval when seedlings and fruit tree blossoms establish themselves for the fruitful seasons ahead.

A warm winter can trick the blossoms into emerging early. A late spring storm can knock the tender blossoms to the ground or trample tender seedlings. This is why spring is the trickiest season for farmers. Their ability to balance instinct, experience, and weather predictions will help them determine when to take seedlings from the greenhouse after the danger of frost.

Fruit trees’ success depends on winter. They require a certain number of chill hours to garner enough rest-time to produce fruit. Their genetic alarm clocks vary from species to species. Apricots may require 500–700 hours below 45°F, pluots only around 400, and some apple varieties as much as 1,400 (that’s 58 days). The vast matrix of thousands of fruit varieties projected against the myriad climates and microclimates in our country ensures us a bounty of fruit over most of the year.

The planet has rung the bell for the half-time show—the vernal equinox and the broadening of the days. Yet the time differs for each region’s ticker-tape parade of petals floating in the air and chorus of birds ushering the heroes onto the field. Plants have their own clocks—quiescence tells them when to start fruiting—and if you put your ear to a tree, you just might hear it ticking.

When you gaze into your TakeHome case, think “salad.” If you’re still leaning against the counter looking for creative inspiration, consider taking these four steps toward salad creativity: Research. Percolate. Illuminate. Assemble.

Research: Ever since our Paleo-dude forbearers set their mammoth steaks on beds of miner’s lettuce and Romans splashed olive oil on dandelion greens, salad as a dish has been evolving. The Latin root for salad is salata, meaning “salty.” A common accompaniment to a meal was raw veggies with a sprinkle of salt. Salad became its own dish when elites like Mary Queen of Scots dressed her boiled celery root in rémoulade.

Percolate: What favorite salads come to mind? Perhaps a Lunch-on-the-Patio Salad—a towering pile of crisp lettuces and veggies that avalanche at first fork. Or a colorful fresh salad like Cobb, Caesar, or Niçoise. Could be a Honeymoon Salad—a few leaves with a drizzle of oil and lemon juice (lettuce alone—get it?). Possibly a Composed Salad—artful arrangements of beet and orange or tomato and mozzarella. Or maybe a Gemischte Salat—cooked veggies with dressing, like potato salad.

Illuminate: If you still need a little help coming up with salad ideas, call on a muse. Poetry has Erato, music has Euterpe, dance has Terpsichore, and salad has—Mark Bittman. Bittman is a home cook, professional food writer, and author of the weekly New York Times column, “The Minimalist.” His list of “101 Simple Salads for the Season” (with pictures) is practical and will inspire you to get choppin’.

Assemble: They say with ideas you should “rinse and repeat.” With lettuce or veggies for salad, it’s rinse and dry. Drying is the key to getting your dressing to stick. Assemble your salad masterpiece, admire, and ring the dinner gong.

Preparation:
Alice Waters’ prescription for washing lettuce—remove stems and damaged leaves, fill sink with cold water, place leaves in sink and separate, swish in water for two minutes, and drain. Dry greens with a salad spinner or place in a single layer on clean dish towels and gently roll up.

Storage:
After washing and drying lettuce, place unused loose leaf lettuce in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the fridge (unwashed head lettuce may be wrapped in a damp paper towel first), and use within 3–5 days.

There’s a scene missing from the outtakes reel of The Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo some vitamins: “You take the blue pill, the story ends—you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” And then a third hand emerges from Morpheus’ black trench coat holding a gleaming, bright-orange kumquat. “Or—you could choose the tangy, orange kumquat. It’s got a powerful, exhilarating taste that will break you out of this 2D world so you can walk out of this theatre and into the sunshine!”

Sadly, The Matrix’s kumquat scene ended up on the cutting-room floor. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy their tangy goodness! Kumquats may not protect you from a rainstorm of bullets or scary agents morphing into your daily life, but 100g of kumquats (around 5 or 6) contains about 44mg (73% DV) of the antioxidant vitamin C, which helps prevent neurodegenerative diseases by removing free radicals. They are also chock-full of other polyphenolic flavonoid antioxidants such as carotenes and lutein.

The name “kumquat” derives from the Cantonese word “gam gwat,” which means “golden orange.” Kumquats have grown in Asia since the 12th century, and they grow well in temperate U.S. citrus zones. If you’ve never enjoyed kumquats before, eating them takes a leap of faith—you pop the whole fruit in your mouth, peel and all (note that kumquats often have a seed or two). When you chew, you will experience the POW! of the original sweet tart.

Preparation:
Rinse kumquats before eating. Roll between fingers to release the essential oil limonene and its uplifting citrus scent. Eat whole (peel and all), or slice and add to salads. Kumquats can be candied or pureed and added to a variety of recipes. They’re also an excellent perk-up to iced tea or water.

Storage:
Kumquats keep well on the counter for 3–4 days but will hold up for a week or more in the fridge. Kumquats keep well on the counter for 3–4 days but will hold up for a week or more in the fridge. (Déjà vu? Whoops—glitch in The Matrix!)

Enjoy & Be Fruitful!

“Shoot!” was likely what Annie Oakley said if she missed a shot. Cursing and shootin’ went hand-in-hand in the old west. She may have muttered “shucks” or “jeepers,” which were also considered pretty bad in 1910. The gravity of the ersatz swear words may have changed over the years, but profanity expert Timothy Jay maintains the core 10 swear words used by 80 percent of people have remained consistent for the past 20 years.

In his paper on taboo words, Professor Jay says, “The uniquely human facility for swearing evolved and persists because taboo words can communicate emotion information more readily than non-taboo words.” When you see the fresh pea shoots in your TakeHome case this week and joyfully exclaim “Shoots!” consider adding some of the colorful assertions from back in Annie Oakley’s day: “Yippee ki-yay!” “Bees knees!” “Cat’s meow!” or “Hot Diggety Dog!”

Sprouted pea shoots are really something to get excited about, taste-wise and nutrition-wise. Their levels of vitamins C and A and folic acid are higher than other fresh fruits and legumes of comparable weight. Dried peas have long been an important legume in human history—“Pease porridge” a protein cornerstone, and steamed, shelled, fresh peas an exquisite treat. But now the advent of modern sustainable and clean-growing methods make sprouted pea shoots a great way for us to enjoy this dynamic super food.

Mark Schneider of Living Waters Farms in Strawn, IL, says pea shoots grown in controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) “are grown like peas in your garden, except not in soil.” Some folks that are concerned with the potential spoilage of traditional alfalfa or clover sprouts will prefer pea shoots, as there is no seed to consume. “Also, it’s grown in a drier environment, and as they sprout over 10 days, you’re getting a leafier green.”

Preparation: Cut off the pea root “sponge” for the amount of stems and leaves you are ready to use. Add leaves and stems to stir fries, salads, sandwiches, or soups, and compost sponge.

Storage: As the leaf is part of a living root, it will last up to 10 days in the fridge in a plastic bag or the sealed container of your choice (glass is good). Pea shoots will store best if they are dry to the touch when refrigerated.

Photo courtesy of Beechwood Farms, Biglerville, PA

Great contemporary dramatists like Beckett, Ibsen, and Chekhov were the first to indicate a “pause” in their scripts. Nobel Prize–winning playwright Harold Pinter became inextricably pinned to his dramatic use of silence, which was famously dubbed the “Pinter pause.” The pause was meant to convey unspoken dialog between sentences. In television drama, we’ve learned that the pause is code for a Big Reveal. In clowning and humor, the master delicately builds the pacing to tingle the audience’s spine. An old showbiz adage is: “Theater is the art of keeping the audience from coughing.”

The dramatic pause is also called a “pregnant pause”—and that might be the best description of this time of year in farmers’ fields. In between the last of the root crops and the planting of seedlings, it’s time to wait, ponder, and reflect on the next event. An intermission.

The East has been experiencing a wet and warm winter, which has farmers crossing their fingers that it doesn’t get so warm the tree buds think it’s spring already. “It either needs to freeze or dry up before we can get in there and plant cover crop,” says John Garretson of Beechwood Orchards in Biglerville, PA.

Photo courtesy of Beechwood Farms, Biglerville, PA

Winter in the West has had the agricultural audience on the edge of its seat. With exceptionally little rain for this time of year, farmers have had to irrigate. “This is the first time in 30 years that we’ve had to push water,” says Paul Miller of Full Belly Farm in Guinda, CA. But farmers like Paul are making hay while the sun shines, “We’ve had the opportunity to disk fields—eliminate weeds and make the soil ready.”

In the Midwest, they call the four seasons “almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction,” and their winter has been a bit more typical. Farmers there continue the practice of setting up preserves and dry goods for the winter, repairing equipment and recharging their batteries.

Although the stage may be bare, the behind-the-scenes crew is working in the wings. Tuning up their tractors, primping the starlet seedlings, and training their spotlights for the season’s next big act.

Buzzzzz.
“Whoooooo is it?” answers a languorous voice.
“Sir, Brite Skies Incorporated at your service! We’re here to take measurements for the mammoth fake sun you ordered.”
“Ex-squeeze-me?”
“Sir, as it says on our website, it’s guaranteed to brighten your day.”
“Whoa, dude—I didn’t mean to click on that link.”
“Grey skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face…” sings the salesman.
“Oh, wow—so sorry you came all this way, dude. But we got this stellar delivery of tropical guava in our FruitGuys TakeHome case, and we’re pretty happy kicking it on the patio.”
“You do sound cheery…”
“Vitamin C, dude. Vitamin C hip-checks cortisol, the stress hormone. Plus tropical fruits taste so good, it reminds me of party-time on an exotic beach.”
“Sounds fun, sir.”
“Hey, wanna come up?”
“Yes, sir!”
“OK, but don’t call me ‘sir,’ dude.”

Tropical fruits like guava seem to be optimally created to maximize the riches of the sun. Their glossy green leaves absorb the sun’s warmth and keep the plant warm on cool nights. Their blooms look like extraterrestrial insects or a pop diva’s headdress. They hardly need their mild perfume to get pollinators to call. Humans and animals alike adore guava’s tasty fruit. The typical guava variety is the Apple, or Common guava, which needs a tropical climate to thrive. Other guavas, like Feijoa (Pineapple) or Strawberry guavas, can grow in more temperate areas.

The skin of the guava is high in its principle nutrients of vitamins C and A, flavonoids, beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein. The skin is edible, but may be too strong tasting for some. Of course guava can be juiced or blended. To capture its heavenly “take me away” aroma, guava is well-suited for cooking into jam or curd.

Preparation: Ripe guava should be somewhat firm but give gently under pressure. Wash right before use. May be eaten like an apple or peeled and sliced, but is favored by many in juice form or added to smoothies.

Storage: Ripen guava at room temperature. Use as soon as the flesh gives slightly, or store in the fridge for up to a week.