|
 Author | Topic: What's in season (Read 7,168 times) |
casimira
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-geCedqtD42k/T5nyULl9CqI/AAAAAAAAWGM/1EM9HKLEDUs/s512/IMG_2160.JPG "[avatar]")
Joined: Jan 2013
Gender: Female 
Posts: 373
Location: NOLA,USA
|  | Re: What's in season
« Reply #510 on Dec 30, 2011, 1:23pm » | ![[Quote]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif "[Quote]") |
Wow!!! Outrageous!! Do you know the name of the variety of those Bixa?
I'm curious as to whether or not they are like the ones we used to have growing here. My very first apartment here in NOLA had a tree in the back that used to produce very similar looking fruit. It died during a particularly hard freeze some years later and I've never seen another quite like it here locally. One of my local garden guides tells me that they can reach up to 60'!!!
There is one variety 'Duke' that is purportedly hardy to 20F.
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://i.imgur.com/23lJo.jpg "[avatar]")
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #511 on Dec 30, 2011, 5:31pm » | |
Tod wrote: about those avocados - does this mean guacamole for some time to come?! They look the hard skin type with a buttery inside flesh?
That's exactly how they are, Tod. I've mostly been eating them as-is. They don't even need salt, they're so tasty. I keep giving away the ones that are nice and keeping the ones I suspect have a couple of bad spots for myself. At this point I'm thinking of freezing some for guacamole later in the year, though.
Absolutely no idea of the name, Casimira, as it appears not to have a local name. It's been somewhat despised, poor tree. For one thing, its nice big leaves have no flavor, unlike some other varieties. For another, both the landlady & the busybody next door (who trimmed "his side" of the tree WAY too much  ) both told me the fruit was no good -- "it's okay on one side, but the rest is rotten". Apparently it never occurred to anyone that a tree whose roots are mostly covered by concrete might like a little WATER occasionally. There is a Japanese plum tree quite close to the avocado. It's in terrible shape, with lots of dead limbs and a huge strip of bark missing most of the way up. My other next door neighbor told me that the woman who lived here before me burnt her garbage next to that tree. The avocado suffered less, but has responded beautifully to just a little care. It's getting lots of flowers again!
I measured one of the avocados that's a typical size: 11" around & 5 3/4" from pole to pole.
| |
|
casimira
member is offline
Joined: Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 373
Location: NOLA,USA
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #512 on Jan 4, 2012, 12:51am » | |
Sounds like an idiot neighbor..... 
Please keep us posted with what you do with them please!
I was so amped to see these strawberries today!!!! From Pontchatoula,LA,just across the lake from us on the North shore.
I bought 2 pints of them!  ![[image]](http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/nowdocking/SMILEYS/t2812.gif "[image]")
![[image]](http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F0-5jc47e8k/TwOW1mSTElI/AAAAAAAAVoQ/LzJdXqVNdd0/s912/IMG_1515.JPG "[image]")
![[image]](http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HpYYHTlQkW8/TwOXdGQifhI/AAAAAAAAVoU/-7Q1Zrc8IUo/s1024/IMG_1516.JPG "[image]")
I almost got some cauliflower but we have so much stuff in the refrigerator from New Years still,it can wait until next week,they'll still be around.
| |
|
mich64
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/nowdocking/moonatnight.gif "[avatar]")
Joined: Sept 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,140
Location: Ontario, Canada
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #513 on Jan 4, 2012, 2:04am » | |
Those all look delicious Casi! I am a little envious of that fresh fruit and produce. For the next 6 months ours is trucked north, arrives not so fresh and sometimes a little frosted!
Enjoy!
| |
|
Don Cuevas
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Dp8GJpYQxRg/TV5U5-begCI/AAAAAAAAm_c/lGP03Y-46CY/doncuevas.jpg "[avatar]")
My name really isn't Don, but I used to be anónimo.
![[homepage]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif "[homepage]")
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male 
Posts: 2,949
Location: Michoacán, México
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #514 on Jan 4, 2012, 2:09am » | |
Avocados and mandarin oranges (tangerines) are dropping in price. Avocados around $20 pesos a kilo; mandarins at 2 kilos for $10 peso, if i recall correctly.
Present price for naranjas dulces para jugo (juice oranges) remain at $20 pesos for 4 kilos, delivered. Those oranges are cosmetically flawed and are not pretty, but they make good juice as good as any fancy ones.
|
Panza llena, corazón contento.
http://mexkitchen.blogspot.com/ |
|
kerouac2
helper
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq228/kerouac2/frog.jpg "[avatar]")
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,518
Location: Paris, France
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #515 on Jan 4, 2012, 9:41pm » | |
Jan 4, 2012, 12:51am, casimira wrote:| I bought 2 pints of them! |
|
I find it very strange for an irregularly shaped item to be sold by the pint. Okay, here strawberries are often sold by the container (of variable size), but more often they are sold by weight.
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #516 on Jan 5, 2012, 3:44am » | |
Essentially it's the same thing as your buying them by the container. The "pint" is a little square basket & usually the strawberries are somewhat mounded in the basket.
I have been doing avocado patrol every day in order to pick up any that fall. Almost missed this one!
![[image]](http://i.imgur.com/PwF0m.jpg "[image]")
| |
|
mickthecactus
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu60/Stapelia1/Avatars/Mick2.gif "[avatar]")
Joined: Aug 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,801
Location: Herts, UK
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #517 on Jan 5, 2012, 2:55pm » | |
I was surprised to see my collague eating blackberries at lunchtime today. Checked the box - grown in Mexico!
| |
|
casimira
member is offline
Joined: Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 373
Location: NOLA,USA
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #518 on Jan 5, 2012, 8:11pm » | |
I've never seen an avocado that big!!  How big is the pit inside Bixa?
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #519 on Jan 5, 2012, 8:16pm » | |
Mountainous country, Mick -- lotsa different climates. I didn't realize that the produce was exported that far afield, though.
That's one of the smaller ones, Casimira. Thank goodness, because it didn't break the little bird bath. The pit is the classic stick-three-toothpicks-in size.
| |
|
casimira
member is offline
Joined: Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 373
Location: NOLA,USA
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #520 on Jan 5, 2012, 8:29pm » | |
At first glance I thought that birdbath was a scale! I was looking for the numbers!!!! I said to myself,what an interesting garden feature!! 
| |
|
Don Cuevas
member is offline
My name really isn't Don, but I used to be anónimo.
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,949
Location: Michoacán, México
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #521 on Jan 5, 2012, 9:56pm » | |
Jan 5, 2012, 2:55pm, mickthecactus wrote:| I was surprised to see my collague eating blackberries at lunchtime today. Checked the box - grown in Mexico! |
|
We seem to have large blackberries nearly all year, here in Pátzcuaro Michoacán. Of course, they may have been grown elsewhere.
A peach tree in our side yard is blossoming, despite near freezing temps at night.
|
Panza llena, corazón contento.
http://mexkitchen.blogspot.com/ |
|
mickthecactus
member is offline
Joined: Aug 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,801
Location: Herts, UK
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #522 on Jan 6, 2012, 2:33pm » | |
Jan 5, 2012, 8:16pm, bixaorellana wrote:Mountainous country, Mick -- lotsa different climates. I didn't realize that the produce was exported that far afield, though.
That's one of the smaller ones, Casimira. Thank goodness, because it didn't break the little bird bath. The pit is the classic stick-three-toothpicks-in size. |
|
I wasn't so surprised that they were grown in Mexico but, as you say, they had travelled so far. It's the first Mexican produce I've seen here.
| |
|
kerouac2
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,518
Location: Paris, France
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #523 on Jan 10, 2012, 6:04am » | |
Lots of limes and avocados are imported from Mexico to France, but I'm a bit surprised that something as fragile as blackberries can travel that far.
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #524 on Jan 10, 2012, 6:42am » | |
We saw blueberries at the El Llano market on Friday. Where would they have come from? They were being sold alongside blackberries. My friend & I gazed upon them longingly, with a shared thought balloon over our heads: "How to get them home unsmushed?"
| |
|
tod2
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,286
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #525 on Jan 10, 2012, 8:15am » | |
We used to find imported blueberries on the shelf in Woolworths Food Market(can't remember where from) but now I see they are marked "Packed and produced in South Africa" - well I never!
| |
|
rikita
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3580/3649442119_9a72ec47da.jpg "[avatar]")
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,752
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #526 on Jan 18, 2012, 12:42pm » | |
hm i try not to eat things that came from so far away, but i often can't help myself... thing is some of my favourite food just doesn't grow anywhere near here...
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #527 on Jan 18, 2012, 3:43pm » | |
One of my trusted vendors told me that peaches for shipping are sometimes held as long as three years after picking! He said that's why they'll rot so quickly once you buy them.
| |
|
tod2
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,286
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #528 on Jan 18, 2012, 5:38pm » | |
Bixa - that sounds incredible! Must mean they are close to frozen then?
I bought peaches yesterday and am hoping in a few days they will be sweeter than the last lot I bought. I don't think these would be three years old but definitely picked too green for any real flavour to develope.
I find the best fruit comes from farmstalls along the highway right next to the farmer's field. Problem is you have to take a whole box full and be prepared to pig-out for days on fruit......could have consequences
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #529 on Jan 18, 2012, 6:10pm » | |
Tod, I don't know if three years is true or not. But I do know tons of produce is picked green, kept in cold storage & then ripened artificially with gas. From Wikipedia:
Ripening agents speed up the ripening process.
They allow many fruits to be picked prior to full ripening, which is useful, since ripened fruits do not ship well. For example, bananas are picked when green and artificially ripened after shipment by being gassed with ethylene. A similar method used in parts of Asia is to put a plastic cover over a bed of slightly green-harvested mangos and a few small open containers of clumps of calcium carbide. The moisture in the air reacts with the calcium carbide to release the gas acetylene (ethyne), which has the same effect as ethylene. Ethylene is not emitted by the plant naturally, and cannot activate the ripening of nearby fruits, rather, it is used as a hormone within the plant.[citation needed]
Calcium carbide is used for ripening fruit artificially in some countries. Since industrial-grade calcium carbide may contain traces of arsenic and phosphorus, the use of this chemical for this purpose is illegal in most countries. Calcium carbide, once dissolved in water, produces acetylene,[2] which acts as an artificial ripening agent. Acetylene is believed to affect the nervous system by reducing the oxygen supply to the brain[citation needed]. Agricultural industry PR claims that acetylene is not sufficiently reactive to affect consumers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripening
You are so right about how good fruit is that has not traveled. You could pig out & think of it as a cleansing process, or you could save some of it in the freezer.
http://coopext.colostate.edu/4DMG/VegFruit/Fruits/freshfrt.htm
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/freezing-fresh-fruit.html
There's also drying as an option:
http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com/ind....lay&thread=3874
| |
|
tod2
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,286
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #530 on Jan 19, 2012, 7:33am » | |
When I was about 12years old we lived on an orange farm in what was then called the Eastern Transvaal (right up close to Kruger National Park). When the oranges were still hanging on the trees -grass green, my father would drive the tractor up and down the rows spraying them with an 'arsenic' solution. This turned them yellow in a matter of hours/maybe days, I don't remember, then the pickers would start taking them off the trees. The workers were paid by the sack load so you can imagine the scurrying that went on as they ran back and forth.
What was even more fascinating was how fast the woman in the packing plant wrapped the 'waxed' oranges in tissue paper before placing in a carton ready for export. Their hands were just a blur!
| |
|
kerouac2
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,518
Location: Paris, France
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #531 on Jan 19, 2012, 9:01am » | |
I am fascinated by the tradition of tissue paper. In France, certain producers still wrap about 1 out of 20 oranges/tangerines/etc. in tissue paper. I have no idea why.
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #532 on Jan 19, 2012, 6:17pm » | |
Tod, that is fascinating! I always thought tissue-wrapped produce was special in some way -- a rare and delicious variety brought to our store and presented like a jewel. Certainly the tissue-wrapped fruit always seemed to cost more.
Do you suppose the tissue paper was to keep the chemical on the oranges long enough for it to set or something?
| |
|
hwinpp
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7113/mondulkiri01zv5.jpg "[avatar]")
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,885
Location: Phnom Penh
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #533 on Jan 21, 2012, 6:19am » | |
Yesterday we went and did our Chinese New Year shopping, shops are closing from today until next week Thursday.
We bought oranges and mandarins and pomelos (citrus fruit being good for bringing money into the house  ), yellow plums (gold) and peaches (not sure what they do but everybody was buying them so we did too).
Then we went to a supermarket and I bought ham, smoked ham, coppa and queso manchego and a camembert.
Then we went to a French bakery and got bread, very good there.
So now we're ready to tackle the off days.
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #534 on Jan 21, 2012, 6:26am » | |
Citrus is good for bringing money into the house? Yay! Although I'd forgotten about Chinese New Year, just yesterday I bought some pomelos. I kept some & gave some to my next-door neighbor, so our end of the street should be prosperous, right?
Aren't the peaches for long life?
Your life during the off days should be very nice indeed.
| |
|
hwinpp
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,885
Location: Phnom Penh
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #535 on Jan 21, 2012, 6:33am » | |
Could be, I'll ask about the peaches.
There were also little hald pound containers of cherries, I refrained, they cost 20USD per box
| |
|
casimira
member is offline
Joined: Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 373
Location: NOLA,USA
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #536 on Jan 25, 2012, 1:02am » | |
![[image]](http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yNzXu0-kVNE/Tx9MNPadPLI/AAAAAAAAVwo/ZY8XcAIk-Ds/s1024/IMG_1795.JPG "[image]")
![[image]](http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-PNZi1x7gicg/Tx9NETvReAI/AAAAAAAAVw4/UWET3Cs8SUA/s640/IMG_1798.JPG "[image]")
![[image]](http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iTIsntodDew/Tx9Nc4ixAlI/AAAAAAAAVxI/_XvRDlbMCyk/s720/IMG_1801.JPG "[image]")
![[image]](http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-dp-w_z-nfyg/Tx9NjNvQV6I/AAAAAAAAVxU/m3eogNgPrpc/s640/IMG_1802.JPG "[image]")
I winced,I cringed,I grit my teeth,I bought a bag...
(first time I have had to buy blood oranges in years...f'n opossums got every one of mine.!! )
![[image]](http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pJ7CEtj9NIc/Tx9N1qtDWDI/AAAAAAAAVxc/vBCR8ml5tAY/s640/IMG_1803.JPG "[image]")
'Lorenzo' heirloom tomatoes,they actually had a sweetness about them in the salad I put them in tonight.
| |
|
bixaorellana
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,318
Location: Mexico
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #537 on Jan 25, 2012, 6:00pm » | |
Those pictures are so lush & fresh looking, Casimira. Hope you saved some of the Lorenzo seeds!
| |
|
kerouac2
helper
member is offline
Joined: Feb 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,518
Location: Paris, France
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #538 on Jan 25, 2012, 6:57pm » | |
Well, at least the turnips I bought over the weekend look the same.
| |
|
casimira
member is offline
Joined: Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 373
Location: NOLA,USA
| | Re: What's in season
« Reply #539 on Jan 26, 2012, 2:45pm » | |
I did indeed save some of the' Lorenzo' heirloom tomato seeds. !!
| |
|
|
![[Home]](http://static1.grsites.com/user/folders/nowdocking/r3920049/button23550481.png "[Home]")
![[New Topics]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/topics.png "[New Topics]")
![[Help]](http://static1.grsites.com/user/folders/nowdocking/r3920083/button28195714.png "[Help]")
![[Search]](http://static1.grsites.com/user/folders/nowdocking/r3920086/button25710789.png "[Search]")
![[Login]](http://static1.grsites.com/user/folders/nowdocking/r3920112/button20487816.png "[Login]")
![[Register]](http://static1.grsites.com/user/folders/nowdocking/r3920117/button97266159.png "[Register]")
![[Search This Thread]](http://images.proboards.com/search2.gif "[Search This Thread]")
![[Reply]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/reply.gif "[Reply]")
![[Share Topic]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/share.png "[Share Topic]")
![[Print]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif "[Print]")
Logged