Specialty Items- Baby green summer squash and baby zucchini is on the pricier side, baby sunburst is the best deal. Baby peeled carrots with tops are steady. Yellow Beefsteak Tomatoes are fairly reasonable, who doesn’t love to eat some fresh mozzarella in between stacked red and yellow tomatoes with some nice olive oil and fresh herbs.
Seasonal Items- Baby Brussels Sprouts are available in both green and purple colors. Dragon Fruit is available and not too expensive. Hedgehog mushrooms are the star of the wild mushroom scene right now, get them while available. Some really nice Kyoho Grapes (Concord type) are still going, so much flavor and great for specials. Fresh Brown Figs from New Zealand are available, they are the opposite of cheap, they will fill your craving for the fresh fig until we see CA start later this season. Fiddle Head Ferns are a great spring item best cooked properly by steaming or boiling until tender crisp. They can also be pickled for future use. Ojai Pixie Tangerines, they are awesome.
Local- Connelly Gardens has beautiful hydro boston lettuce looking really sharp and tasting super fresh. Don’t forget their micro rainbow mix, a garnish with universal appeal. The farmer, Tim Connelly is growing a bulk of our culinary herbs that are seasonally available in the spring. Suzie’s Farm has wild arugula cut fresh from the field along with lettuces, braising mix and a spicy salad mix. Baby beets, turnips and radishes of many colors and types are available to round out the selection. Blue Heron Farms is back with their organic baby greens mix, we are happy to see them available again. They are offering organic strawberries, let us know if you are interested in these local berries.
Onions: Imperial Valley will begin shipping red and yellow onions by the end of the month. Yellow supplies are steady while red have become very scarce. Prices continue to increase.
Berries: Recent weather has been wreaking havoc on the berry crop. Production is trying to come on but cold and rain keeps knocking us back as shippers are stripping quite a bit of fruit due to heavy bruising. California blueberries remain very high as production is slow to kick in. Raspberries and blackberries also in short supply. Hopefully this week’s warm weather will help get these spring berries rolling.
Citrus: Valencia oranges have begun but with very low sugars we will stick with the late navel crop. Prices are up slightly. Lemons remain on the short side out of central California. The lime market also seems to be trending upward this week.
Melons: Cantaloupe imports are winding down fast and prices are up sharply. Honeydews continue to be the better buy. Seedless watermelon quality is much improved and prices have started to ease up.
Vegetables: With the Nogales season winding down we are seeing a jump in many prices. Until Coachella and Baja get going next month, we expect to see prices continue to rise. The strongest market so far is the bell pepper market. Red and yellow bells have been hit the hardest so far. Greens will not be far behind. Baja is starting with some colored bells and that might give some relief by next week. Eggplant, green bells, and blue lakes will be short until Coachella gets up and going. Best buys this week look to be Italian and yellow squash and asparagus.
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