The efforts of Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne notwithstanding, Florida will have a fall harvest. Some crops, though, may be delayed, and in a few cases shoppers could face slightly higher prices.
"God willing, and if no more storms come, we should be okay," said Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture.
"We anticipate that we will have a reasonable crop in the stores, not only in Florida, but in other parts of the country. We should have a good tomato crop, sweet corn, green peppers, squash and other vegetables and fruits."
Citrus, he conceded, will be diminished in volume.
Fortunately, said Les Harrison, also of the state's department of agriculture, some of Florida's main growing areas escaped major storm damage and others were just preparing for planting when the bad weather came.
The Immokalee and Homestead agricultural areas, for instance, were relatively unscathed, he said. "It's not all doom and gloom," Harrison added.
"There will be a crop out there. There's some people who really have some problems, but we're still in the business."
In North Carolina, neither hurricanes Ivan nor Jeanne succeeded in seriously hurting the state's prized sweet potato crop.
"There will be some loss, but it will not be a large percentage at all," said Sue Langdon, executive director of the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission, an organization that spells the vegetable as one word.
North Carolina is the nation's top supplier of sweet potatoes, growing almost 40 percent of the country's crop. Langdon said, not surprisingly, that most sweet potatoes are consumed at Thanksgiving. Her group, however, is trying to encourage Americans to make sweet potatoes a year-round treat.
"We're not just for turkeys anymore," she said, noting that sweet potatoes are included in the South Beach diet.
"Sweet potatoes are becoming trendy and more people, especially chefs ..., are making signature dishes using sweet potatoes," Langdon said.
A good way to prepare them is to cut them in rounds, half-inch slices, then glaze and bake them. Take a cranberry sauce and heat it until it becomes liquid, then use it on sweet potatoes. For a savory glaze, Langdon suggested coating sweet potatoes with olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.
Fall also means bushels of freshly harvested apples and occasions for enjoying them, such as Halloween. In California, the country's fourth largest apple grower, this year's crop has been plentiful, said Kenton Kidd, president of the California Apple Commission.
Granny Smiths, the state's specialty, are good for making candy apples, he said.
"The apple inside has a very dense flesh. It holds the stick in very well, and you get the combination of the sweet and the tart," Kidd said.
Besides, children like the tart fruit.
"We did a test on sweet apples versus tart apples at a number of school lunch programs, a number of years ago. They blindfolded the kids and then they cut pieces of sweet apples and tart apples. They came back 80 percent of the time for the tart apple," Kidd said.
For a quick dessert, Kidd offered this suggestion: Core an apple, but not all the way through, and fill it with a favorite ingredient. He suggested cinnamon, nuts and brown sugar as one possibility and red hots as another. Microwave on high for 41/2 minutes.
"And what you've got is a lumpy apple sauce, self-contained, easy to make," he said.
The hurricanes have not been good for the seafood industry, but with stone crab season opening Oct. 15, better news could be on the horizon.
"These storms have caused the fleets in the entire gulf and East Coast to be disrupted," said Gib Migliano of Save on Seafood in St. Petersburg.
Migliano said he hopes October, with its promise of kingfish, pompano and Spanish mackerel, will be better for both the seafood industry and shoppers.
Paul Johnson of Seven Springs Seafood Co. in New Port Richey said scallops should be a good buy this month. October also should be a good time to shop for blue crabs, he said. "Grouper has been a little scarce. I hope things will begin picking up toward the middle of the month."
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Waveney Ann Moore writes about produce and seafood monthly for the Taste section. Contact her at 727 892-2283 or moore@sptimes.com
