Market Outlook  

Lettuce: 

The lettuce market is trading at the bottom. Great value.The Yuma season is underway. Quality has been good on inbound.

Leaf: 

Romaine and Romaine hearts are steady. Quality has been mostly good on all Romaine items this week. Green leaf and Red leaf are about steady. Quality has been good on leaf overall.

Broccoli:

The commodity broccoli market is a little lower out of California for next week. Quality has been good on inbound.

Cauliflower:

The cauliflower is much lower with better supplies. Quality has been good on inbound.

Carrots:

The carrot market is up just slightly again for next week. We are sourcing great quality product out of Canada.

Celery:

The celery market remains strong with good quality out of California.

Strawberries: 

Market is strong for next week with limited supplies of good quality fruit. Overall, quality is only fair to good. We are seeing some minor bruising and an occasional soft berry.

Potatoes:

The Idaho market remains strong for next week, mainly due to increased freight costs. Quality has been very nice.

Onions:

The Western onion market is strong for next week on all sizes. Transportation costs are high. Quality has been very good.

Citrus

The California lemon market is strong as demand exceeds supply. We are seeing good quality overall. We have California navel oranges in stock with availability improving.The Lime market is steady for next week. Overall, we are seeing fair to good quality on inbound.

Cucumbers:

The cucumber market is slightly lower for next week. Quality has been good.

Peppers:

The green pepper market is strong with limited supplies out of Florida. Quality has been good overall.

Tomatoes:

The round tomato market is very strong with very light supplies on the East coast. We expect a strong market for at least the next few weeks. We are seeing mostly good quality. The grape tomato market is lower, but still on the strong side with mostly good quality. Cherry tomatoes are strong and very short, but showing good quality. The Roma market is steady out of  Mexico. Demand is high and quality remains good.

 

 

Recipe of the Week

Clementine Cake

Ingredients

 4 to 5 clementines (about 1 pound total weight)

6 eggs

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/3 cups ground almonds

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit in the processor (or by hand, of course).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper.

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines. I don’t like using the processor for this, and frankly, you can’t balk at a little light stirring.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, when a skewer will come out clean; you’ll probably have to cover the cake with foil after about 40 minutes to stop the top from burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the pan on a rack. When the cake is cold, you can take it out of the pan. I think this is better a day after it’s made, but I don’t complain about eating it anytime.

I’ve also made this with an equal weight of oranges and lemons, in which case I increase the sugar to 1 1/4 cups and slightly Anglicize it, too, by adding a glaze made of confectioners’ sugar mixed to a paste with lemon juice and a little water.