Aliza Green - Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market

DISCLAIMER
There are thousands of varieties of produce, and addressing all possible types is difficult. While we have taken care to represent a wide variety of those available, the author and publisher cannot be held responsible for not including them all.

Copyright 2004 by Quirk Productions, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2003095961

eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474-848-6
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-931686-80-8

Trade Paperback designed by Andrea Stephany and Karen Onorato
Edited by Erin Slonaker
Photography by Andrea Stephany

All photographs copyright 2004 by Quirk Productions, Inc.

Quirk Books
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Philadelphia, PA 19106
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Theres a whole world of wonderful produce in our food markets to discover and enjoy. Every year, the selection grows larger, the origins more exotic, and the choices more difficult. Heres a small, easy-to-carry book to guide you through the overwhelming array of available produce, whether common, exotic, heirloom, or ethnic. You will learn all about durian (a Southeast Asian fruit with a potent aroma that you will either adore or detest), yuca (a tasty Brazilian root vegetable), cardoon (a Mediterranean cousin of the artichoke), and many more.

Each entry gives the Latin name (important to help sort out the confusion), a little history, and alternate names. Youll learn when the produce is in season, how to identify the different varieties, how to choose the best, and storage and ripening tips. When describing the peak months for each produce item, Ive indicated either the season in the primary growing region or the respective season in the Northern Hemisphere. Detailed preparation instructions, simple recipe ideas, and flavor affinities make it easy to buy and serve lots more vegetables and fruits. Turn to the photo section to help identify any unfamiliar produce or those that are not labeled.

Ive combined my many years of hands-on experience as restaurant chef, mother (and home cook), caterer, food writer, and teacher with extensive research in order to cram as much information possible into this little book. While it would take a book the size of a grocery cart to describe all the produce sold in todays ever-changing, global food market, I have included as many fruits and vegetables as possible, along with accompanying accurate information.

Aliza Green

General Description:

The apple (Malus pumila) is a small round fruit with crunchy flesh . This is one of the earliest fruits to have been cultivated, originating in Kazakhstan and carried by traders on the Silk Road. As early as the second century B.C ., people were producing apples of a consistent variety by taking cuttings of a tree and grafting them onto suitable rootstock. This must be done because the exact same type of apple wont grow from a planted seed.

Immigrants to America brought apple seeds, which gave rise to entirely new varieties further diversified by breeding with native American crabapples. The spread of American apples was encouraged by the aptly monikered folk hero Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman in Massachusetts in 1774, who collected large amounts of seeds from cider mills and planted them on his travels.

About 2,500 known varieties of apple are grown in the U.S. and more than 7,500 are grown worldwideall of which must be picked by hand. Apple varieties are categorized as eating (or dessert), cooking (or baking), cider, and crab.

The Braeburn apples color varies from orange to red over a yellow background. This New Zealand apple is aromatic, juicy, and crisp with a very firm texture. Braeburns are best for snacking and baking.

Cortland apples have very white flesh and are an excellent dessert apple. Their flavor is sweet, and their skin has a flush of crimson against a pale yellow background sprinkled with short, dark red stripes and gray-green dots.

Crabapples are quite tart, but they are excellent for making jellies because of their high pectin content. Apples qualify as crabapples only if the fruit size is 2 inches (5 cm) or less in diameter. Native American crabapples remain green even when ripe, but some hybrids and Asian varieties turn red, yellow, or purple when ripe.

Crispin , developed in the 1930s, doubles as a fresh apple and a processing apple. It is typically green outside and creamy white inside with firm-textured juicy flesh and moderately sweet flavor.

Empire combines the mild tartness of McIntosh with Red Delicious sweetness. It is redder and firmer than McIntosh, and because it stores longer it provides the marketplace with a McIntosh-type apple well into the spring. Some claim that storing improves Empires flavor. It is excellent for eating out of hand and for use in baking and cooking.