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CLICK ON LINK ABOVE.  PRODUCE PETE A CATEGORY ON JEOPARDY??  WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED!

 This weeks segment on New Jersey Tomatoes was filmed at Donaldson's Farm in Hackettstown New Jersey, one of Produce Pete's favorite farms.

 Donaldson Farms has been helping to keep the Hackettstown area green and healthy for over 100 years. There Northern New Jersey farm features hundreds of acres of fruits and vegetables, pumpkin picking, strawberry picking, farm education, group tours, private tours, birthday parties, corporate events and more. 

Five Generations of Donaldson's Farming the Land

 The Donaldson Family takes great pride in their farm and their heritage. They are dedicated to maintaining their reputation as a well-respected neighbor and business in the community. The Donaldson tradition of commitment to farming and to their community will continue with the next generation. 

NEW JERSEY VINE RIPE TOMATOES

  A fruit--oh yes, it's a fruit--but in the United States we treat the tomato like a vegetable. Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes at Monticello back in 1781, but they didn't really start to become popular here until after the Civil War. Now the tomato is the third most popular vegetable in the United States--after potatoes and lettuce.Once called the Peruvian apple, the tomato is a member of the nightshade family. It originated in South America, and our name for it comes from the ancient Nahuatl name tomatl. The French called it the love apple, and the Italians named it the golden apple because the first tomatoes were small yellow fruits. After the early Spanish explorers sent seeds to Naples, the Italians went crazy for tomatoes, and the rest--all the way down to pasta and pizza sauce--is history. New Jersey Tomatoes have received a great deal of notoriety as being the best in the nation for their flavor, tenderness, and juiciness. All of that's certainly true. However, it's not because of unique weather or soil conditions.  Flavor, tenderness, and juiciness, have more to do the selection of the variety, the special growing care, and how long they remain on the vine to ripen.  Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable grown by New Jersey gardeners  New Jersey tomatoes, planted as seedlings take 70-90 days to mature. The picking season depending on weather, can begin as early as mid-july and last until Mid October.  Sometime in the 1950's, in response to demand from the large commercial farmers and shippers, tomato scientists and breeders developed hybrids, new cultivation techniques, shipping, and storage processes that became a boom to the tomato industry in being able to grow, ship and sell tomatoes in huge volumes across the country at a sizable profit.   While the shipping of tomatoes across the country without bruising made tomatoes available to everyone in the country at an affordable price, it unfortunately resulted in the breeding of the flavor out of the commercially grown tomato.  Despite the success with some niche markets,New Jersey farmers were only able to obtain seeds from the seed companies that favored varieties that produced higher yields for large commercial growers.   Although the taste of the New Jersey grown tomato is far superior to the large commercially grown farms, many of these varieties of seeds were limited in taste and not optimum for the smaller niche farmers.  In 1968, the Ramapo Tomato was developed at Rutgers University by Dr. Bernard Pollack. This tomato was a very tasty tomato that was ideally suited for east coast soil and weather conditions. The downfall was that the Ramapo variety, although superior in taste to the other varieties on the market, had limited demand, and virtually none from the large commercial farms. As a result of the low demand, the Ramapo seed soon disappeared from seed catalogs.   However, in response to public outcry for the Ramapo tomato, in 2008, Rutgers University re introduced the Ramapo seed for commercial production for the small farm/garden market. This initial release of only 8,000 seed packets was aimed at the small, niche farms and the home gardener who were willing to take special care and cost in the growing of tomatoes to achieve the superior taste.   A really good tomato is sweet, tender, juicy, and except for the yellow varieties, a deep rich red color. When you get one of those hard tomatoes that tastes like cardboard, you've got one of the hybrids that started coming onto the market in the 1950's, when the businessmen and scientists got together and produced a tomato that could be shipped from one coasts to the other without bruising. Unfortunately, at the same time they also bred out all the flavor. A great tomato is worth looking for. And the way you handle it at home is almost as important as what you choose in the first place. The three most important rules to remember about tomatoes are: 

1. Never refrigerate! 
2. Never refrigerate! 
3. Never refrigerate! 

Refrigerating kills the flavor, the nutrients, and the texture. It just kills the tomato--period.  Unless you live in a really cold climate, the best tomatoes you can buy will be at your local farm stand, when tomatoes are in season in your area. That's true for most produce, but it's doubly true for tomatoes. About half the tomatoes shipped and sold in the United States come from Florida. They are the ones you find in the store in the winter. They're hard, they're thick, they never turn red, and they have no taste. A few winter tomatoes come out of Mexico and California, as well as from Holland, Belgium, and Israel. There are also more and more hydroponic tomatoes on the market. I may be biased, but I think that in season the Jersey tomato is the best around--maybe because of the soil. The truth is any local tomato, picked ripe, is going to be good. In the summertime, in season, buy local tomatoes.   Tomatoes come in scores of different varieties, colors, and markings--striped, purple, and even white--but these are found almost exclusively in season, from local sources like farm markets or markets that carry specialty produce. Again, if you want to see a wider variety where you shop, ask for what you want and help create a customer demand.

FAMILY BUSINESS

Jersey tomatoes are what my family built there business on. When I was a kid my father would go to the farms, buy up there tomatoes and we would peddle them door to door. As time went on and we opened our store in Bergenfield New Jersey, we built that business on crops that came right from the farm and the Jersey Tomato was the key to our success. We would sell 700-800  25 lb baskets of tomatoes , a week, straight off the farm, and the customers would come from miles away, for one reason only TASTE!!!  Some 60 years later I still can't get that sweet tasting, vine ripe taste out of my mouth.

LOCAL  TOMATOES

Depending on the local climate,are available from July through September, with the peak in late July and August 

  RIPENING AND STORING 

Tomatoes are considered "vine ripe" by the industry if they have developed a little color "break"--that is, a small yellow or reddish patch of color on the skin or a starburst of yellow at the blossom end. If the tomato has a color break or the starburst, you'll be able to ripen it at home.

 Don't ripen tomatoes on the windowsill. Never put them in the sun to ripen. Just put them out on the counter, stem end up, in a relatively cool place--not right next to the stove or the dishwasher. Put on a little Frank Sinatra music if you want them to ripen fast. If you want them to ripen faster--well, you can always put on the Stones. Never, ever refrigerate--not even after the tomato is ripe. If you've got too many ripe tomatoes, make a salad or a raw tomato sauce for pasta. Or make a cooked sauce, freeze it, and you'll have something nice for the winter. 

We have all kinds of upscale restaurants, and there is a lot of interest in complicated cuisines, but sometimes it's the really simple things that give you the most pleasure. When I was a kid, I had to help my father sell produce out of the back of his truck. At lunchtime he'd stop at some little store and buy a loaf of Italian bread. Then we'd find a place where we could pull off to the side of the road. He'd put down a piece of cardboard for a cutting board, slice the bread, cut up a tomato and an onion, and make tomato sandwiches. Sometimes when I come home from work and I'm too bushed to prepare or even eat a full meal, I'll make myself a tomato sandwich. Food brings back memories. You can sit down with the most ordinary things on your mind and eat something good and it will bring back memories - things you haven't thought about in years. Even memories that might not start out being so good seem to improve as time goes by. At the time I hated peddling fruits and vegetables out of that truck with Pop, but now I wish I had the time to pull off to the side of the road they way we did then. We don't have the luxury of slowing down - everything is geared to working and being productive. Produce, produce, produce! Wouldn't I love to be able to take my son and go sit by the side of the road and have a tomato sandwich? With the perfect ripe red tomato and good bread, there's nothing better.   

 Hawaiians call coconut water ‘noelani’ which means “dew from the heavens.” Quench your thirst and get rehydrated with natural fresh coconut juice from Hamona coconuts grown and imported directly from the lush tropical Mekong Delta in Vietnam. 

Today's show is about something new to the marketplace, a coconut that doesn't take a hammer to get to the coconut water and meat. I like to talk about new items that i think are great, only problem with this item is it might be hard to find at first. i will list some stores that i know handle these coconuts at the end on this report and when I talk about them on the show.

HAMONA COCONUTS

 The unique characteristics of Mekong Delta, one of the most naturally prosperous areas in Vietnam, have nurtured and grown coconut trees into a special kind of plants, not only for food and drink, but also been playing an important role in Vietnamese's lives for thousand years  Hamona coconut trees are specially selected from one of many species.  The coconut is sweet and full of flavor and it is very different from young coconuts in the market. 

 The first thing that has prevented us from daily drinking a coconut is that it is difficult to open it. Hamona changes that. Hamona makes enjoying a coconut easier than drinking a Coke, and even much more than that. 

COCONUT: LOVE OR HATE

 Coconut water is amazing, but opening a coconut is a real pain. Without a good knife or tool and the right technique, you cannot get through the hard and thick coconut husk to extract the juice. This is why most people choose to buy packaged coconut water instead of fresh coconuts! 

GETTING THE JUICE

 After de-husking, there are ‘three eyes’ on every coconut and one of them is the ‘sprouting eye’ where coconut sprouts. Plug the straw into this ‘eye’ and enjoy the freshness from Mother Nature instantly! Simple as 1-2-3, even a kid can do it easily. One more thing, you can crack open hamona coconuts with a metal spoon from the bottom of it and eat the tasty and nutritious copra (meat) as snack or use it to cook some wonderful dishes with it! 

  From a single Hamona coconut, you can drink the juice, eat the copra and recycle the shell for a variety of uses.

Unlike most coconuts that you are use to seeing at your green grocer or supermarket, this coconut has a thin shell and easy access to get to the coconut water and meat.

BENEFITS OF COCONUT WATER

Unliked bottled or package coconut water, Hamona coconuts contain raw coconut water, raw coconut meat without being processed, no added sugars or preservatives, it's all 100% natural.

Boosts Hydration  --     Boots Metabolism

Anti-Aging     --            Treats Headaches

Aids in Weight Loss    --  Lowers Blood Pressure

Boosts Immunity   --      Controls Blood Sugar

Enhances Hair Growth   --  Boosts Energy

Lowers Cholesterol  --     Fat Free

Increases Bone Strength  --  Nutritious in Calcium,Potassium and Magnesium

 Coconut is one of the most wonderfully nourished fruits of Mother Nature.
Just enjoy it every day and you will see through your own experience. 

STORES IN METRO AREA THAT CARRY HAMONA COCONUTS

Sickles Market  Little Silver, N.J.

Citarella   New York and Long Island

Stew Leonards  New York, Connecticut, Long Island

Key Foods

Mortan Williams   New York

Patel Brothers

Ranch 99  New Jersey

Bad Apple Produce

Grass Roots  Long Island

IF YOU CAN'T FIND --  JUST ASK YOUR PRODUCE MANAGER TO BRING IN -- REMEMBER YOU ARE THE BOSS !!!!

Click link below for Hamona Coconut segment

 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Produce-Pete_-Hamona-Coconuts_New-York-549215712.html 

  Watermelon to me brings back memories of my childhood which, of course, was a very long time ago. Years ago we used to peddle door to door - the time when the supermarkets came to you. Now in those days we used to have what we called straight loads, which most of the time were watermelons. Watermelons sold then mostly whole, never cut, except if you plugged it. Plugging is when you make a triangle cut into the watermelon, then you pull out the triangle cut to see if the watermelon is ripe. Red, juicy, with a thin rind is what you're looking for. Back then, everybody bought whole melons because they had big families. As the seedless variety began to get more popular, the cutting of watermelon also became the thing to do. Now watermelons are mostly sold by the piece. Summertime or year-round - there is nothing better than a good ripe watermelon. It didn't happen overnight or over the span of a few growing seasons. It took years and years to get rid of those seeds. Yet the result is somewhat truly amazing to behold, and even more amazing to taste. The seedless watermelon is sweeter and crunchier, with a nice thin rind. You ought to see all the ways people try to test whether watermelon is ripe. They thump them. They twist the stem to see if it will twist back. I've seen people balance straw on a melon to see if the straw will rotate. People have even brought buckets of water into the store to see if a melon will float. Everybody has some magical way to see if a watermelon is ripe, but there's one simple, sure way to tell. Look at the stem end: if the stem is shrunken and shriveled, the melon is ripe.

African in origin, watermelons are actually edible gourds in the same family as cucumbers and squash. The top three producers in the United States are Florida, Texas, and California, with Florida providing up to 90 percent of those we get on the East Coast. There are many varieties, many different shapes and sizes - a few with yellow flesh, most of them with red. Some people avoid watermelons because they're so big but a lot of small varieties have been developed that are terrific, and most markets sell large melons cut into halves or quarters. The average weight of a watermelon is five to thirty pounds, with some varieties as small as two pounds. 

Seventy-five percent of the crop is produced in June, July, and August, but watermelons are available year round - imported from Mexico and Central America in the hard winter months, although in December and January they're very expensive and in limited supply. As with most fruits, you should buy watermelons when the domestic crop is in season. 

Although a seedless watermelon will ripen after it's picked, if you want it ripe when you buy it, look for a stem that's shrunken and discolored. If the stem is missing, the watermelon is too ripe; it will be mealy and dark and not taste fresh. If the stem is green - the watermelon is too green and not ripe. The skin should be dull, not shiny. Slap the melon and listen for a hollow thump. A yellow belly or the underside of the watermelon usually indicates the fruit is ripe. Cut melons are usually more expensive per pound than those bought whole, but they may be a better buy because you see exactly what you're getting. The blossom end of the watermelon is usually the ripest and therefore the sweetest part. If you're buying a cut melon, look for the blossom end. Make sure the flesh is dark red and firm.

Store a whole seedless watermelon in a cool place, not in direct sunlight. Don't refrigerate it unless it's cut or you want to chill it a few hours before serving. 

Slice and serve or combine chunks or balls with other fruits for fruit salad; serve in the watermelon shell. Puree seedless watermelon for a delicious drink or freeze the puree to make ice pops or sorbet.  Enjoy! 

Soon to be published research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that watermelon is as much as 60% higher in lycopenes than tomatoes. Lycopene is a pigment that gives the bright red color to tomatoes, watermelon, grapefruit and guava. Recent studies show the intake of lycopene is associated with reductions in several forms of cancer, including prostate, breast, lung and cancer of the uterus. The anti-cancer properties of lycopene appear to be due to its effectiveness as an antioxidant. Warm days and cool nights in the watermelon growing areas help increase lycopene content. The riper or redder the melon…..the more lycopene. In addition to lycopene, watermelons also contain other properties beneficial to the body, including citrulline, an amino acid compound, which helps flush out the kidneys.

Top 10 Watermelon Fun Facts

1. Watermelon is grown in more then 96 countries worldwide .
2. Over 1,200 varieties are grown around the world.   
3. Every part of the melon is edible, including the seeds and rind .
4. Early explorers used  watermelons as canteens.   
5. The first recorded watermelon harvest occurred in Egypt nearly 5,000 years ago.     
6. The word “watermelon” first  appeared in the English dictionary in 1615.  
7. In some cultures, it is popular to bake watermelon seeds and eat them.  
8. In recent years, more than 4 billion pounds of watermelon have been produced annually worldwide.    
9. The first cookbook published in the United States was released in 1796 and it contained a recipe for watermelon rind pickles.     
10. Food historian John Martin Taylor said that early Greek settlers brought the method of pickling watermelons with them to Charleston South Carolina

NAPOLITANO'S PRODUCE

The story of how Napolitano's Produce in Bergenfield NJ got it's start, has to do with watermelons. My father was always in the produce business but really didn't care much for it, you know it was never his choice , it was what the family did. Now from time to time he would do other jobs, a butcher, truck driver, bar owner, and a bus driver. well it just so happened that he was driving a bus for Red and Tan Line in northern New Jersey, when my Mom came to him and said, Pete, I was getting gas at a service station in Bergenfield and I noticed that next to him was an empty lot and I thought , that would make a perfect spot for me to sell some watermelons off one of your trucks. Mom was always thinking of how to bring extra money in the household, those  days were pretty lean, and she was a woman ahead of her times. So being a good husband he bought her a load of watermelons, parked her on the corner by the gas station and went about driving the bus. To his surprise, but not her's, she sold the whole load that day. Now being such a good husband, he bought her two loads the next day, she sold all of them and he stopped driving the bus, and Napolitano's Produce was born.

So when people always say to me, your father had a great business, I always thank them with a little smile, if it wasn't for mom , who knows what would have been.

ENJOY YOUR SUMMER !!

 Click link below for PRODUCE PETE STEVE CARELL WATERMELON SHOW

 http://www.cc.com/video-clips/dxgyh6/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-produce-pete-with-steve-carell---watermelon 

Click the link for watermelon show

 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/511015791.html