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For those planning a traditional Memorial Day cookout of hot dogs and hamburgers, Georgia commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irving is recommending what he believes is the perfect accompaniment: sliced Vidalia onions.
The state's famous sweet onions are headed to market this month, along with its peaches, which survived the capriciousness of spring and will be particularly sweet this year, Irving says.
May also will bring the first blueberries and such tropical specialties as lychees, carambolas and mangoes. It'll also be a time to say goodbye to stone crabs and to welcome salmon from Alaska.
When you're shopping for Vidalia onions, make sure they are good and firm, Irving says. Properly stored, he adds, the onions will last for six to eight months. One suggestion for keeping the onions around is to store them in clean, sheer pantyhose; tie a knot between the onions and hang them in a cool, dry, ventilated spot.
Irving isn't the only one singing the praises of this year's Georgia peaches.
"It's one of the best crops we've had in many years, with little or no damage," says Duke Lane, president of Lane Packing Co., one of the state's largest growers, outside Fort Valley.
"We really have a good quality peach with excellent flavor," Lane says. "Mother Nature has been mighty good to us. We've not had any frost-killing weather in the spring, and we've had exceptionally dry weather. It makes them a lot sweeter. The sugar content is not diluted."
Lane is convinced that most people just don't know how to treat peaches. A peach should be ripened like a banana, he says.
"You have to let it sit on the counter at room temperature and, as soon as that peach ripens, put it in the refrigerator and it'll last for two or three weeks," he says.
Lane, who owns the fourth-generation farm with his two brothers, a sister and a cousin, says the peach business has been good to his family. The farm, which devotes 3,200 acres to the fruit, has expanded to include a restaurant, gift shop, fresh fruit and vegetable division and a mail order business for products such as peach pies and peach cobblers. Go to www.lanepacking.com or call toll-free 1-800-277-3224. Lane Packing Company also grows pecans and does a brisk business of selling pecan pies year round.
Harvesting the farm's more than 35 varieties of peaches, including the exceptionally sweet white-flesh variety, will begin in the middle of the month and continue until August, Lane says.
Most supermarkets want their peaches "defuzzed," while smaller markets and flea market vendors prefer their fruit to look natural, as if they've come straight from the orchard.
Besides Georgia peaches and Vidalia onions, this month markets also should be brimming with Florida spring produce. Growing conditions have been favorable for Florida blueberries, which are grown north of Ocala, Les Harrison of the Florida Department of Agriculture says.
Look as well for guavas, sweet corn and watermelon.
Produce
May is a good month to buy apples, apricots, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, broccoli, lettuce, lychees, snap beans, blueberries, cantaloupes, cabbage, sweet corn, cucumbers, mangoes, carambolas, Vidalia onions, peaches, bell peppers, pineapples, strawberries, tomatoes and watermelons.
Seafood
Seafood prices traditionally dip after Mother's Day, so shoppers have some savings to look forward to, Gib Migliano of Save on Seafood says.
Just don't expect to pay low prices for Copper River salmon from Alaska, which will be available this month. It's "very good and very pricey," and fillets could cost about $13.95 a pound, Migliano says.
Stone crab season ends May 15. Grouper, though, should be plentiful, with prices running about $8.99 to $9.99 a pound.
Look as well for an abundance of shrimp, blue crabs, pompano, kingfish, mackerel and mahi-mahi this month.
Waveney Ann Moore writes about produce and seafood monthly for the Taste section. Contact her at 727 892-2283 or moore@sptimes.com