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To Market

This month, the fruit basket is bountiful

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published June 8, 2005

Peanut butter sandwiches with freshly sliced peaches instead of jam or jelly. Barely thawed cherries. Chockful-of-fruit smoothies.

The people whose job it is to ply us with fruit are brimming with summertime ideas.

And whether it's California peaches, plums or nectarines, Florida blueberries or Northwest cherries, fruit is plentiful this month.

Those looking for one that's unique might want to scout produce markets or roadside stands for the fruit that looks like a cantaloupe, but has the green flesh of a honeydew. In some parts of northern Florida, farmers call it a honeyloupe.

So says Bob Hochmuth, an extension agent with the North Florida Research and Education Center at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

"They're very, very sweet, very high in sugars. To a certain degree, they take the best of the cantaloupe and honeydew, put them together and they're a cantaloupe," Hochmuth says.

Hochmuth says some North Florida farmers grow the melon as a specialty product. It costs more than regular melons, he says. The honeyloupe, also called galia or passport melon, is more perishable than other varieties, Hochmuth says.

At City Produce Fruit Market, 2701 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg, owner Arsenios Paschopoulos sometimes sells a variety known as the Santa Claus melon. It's sweet and looks like a watermelon on the outside, but its flesh is similar to a honeydew, he says.

"People don't know what they are. A lot of people look at them and are intrigued," Paschopoulos says.

Cherries are another fruit to consider. This month, as the California cherry season winds down, Northwest cherries from Washington, Oregon, Utah and Idaho will begin making an appearance. Did you know you can freeze cherries and prolong the too-short season?

"It's a great opportunity for year-round enjoyment," says David Severn of the Northwest Cherry Growers organization. Frozen cherries, however, should not be fully thawed before being eaten or they will get mushy. Northwest Cherry Growers also suggests using Rainier cherries for savory sauces for pork, poultry, fish or beef. Frozen cherries can be used as ice cubes in summer drinks.

The California Tree Fruit Agreement offers suggestions for peaches, plums and nectarines. The peanut butter sandwich with sliced peaches comes from them.

Blair Richardson, president of the organization, says its recipe section is the most popular destination for visitors to its Web site, www.eatcaliforniafruit.com

In Florida, though the season is coming to a close, growers still have plenty of produce to offer, says Les Harrison of the Florida Department of Agriculture. Look for okra, green beans, avocados, mangoes, papayas, watermelons, cantaloupes and even strawberries. There's also an abundance of tomatoes and blueberries.

This month is a good time to shop for amberjack, mahi mahi, tuna, grouper, red snapper, scallops, mullet, pompano and speckled trout, says Paul Balthrop of the Florida Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing.

But Gib Migliano of Save on Seafood in St. Petersburg warns of higher prices for grouper later this month and probably most of summer. New, lower grouper quotas go into effect starting Thursday, because 50 percent of the annual quota has already been met. Also in markets this month will be yellowtail snapper, Spanish mackerel and plenty of Key West pink shrimp, he says.

Joanne McNeely, head of the state's Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing bureau, says efforts to increase consumption of wild Florida shrimp have been going well. The campaign, now in its third year, has been supported by seafood markets, restaurants and retailers such as Publix, Winn-Dixie and Kash n' Karry.

Consumers want shrimp "they grew up with and that gets its flavors from the natural waters," McNeely says, adding that they also want to know more about the product they're buying.

"So many people, before we started this program, they thought shrimp is shrimp," McNeely says.

Migliano agreed that the wild Florida shrimp campaign has stimulated interest.

"People are asking questions," he says. "There's a lot of conversation about farm-raised products, in general, the antibiotics that are in the feed, and are they safe for us. The more they know about it, the more they can choose what they can consume."

Recipes for wild Florida shrimp are available at www.wildfloridashrimp.com or write to the Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing, 2051 E Dirac Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32310-3760.

- Waveney Ann Moore writes about produce and seafood monthly for the Taste section. She can be reached at 727 892-2283 or moore@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 7, 2005, 08:39:04]