beXnlog

A Longing for Produce

Just to make us upset, the NYTimes ran an article today about the Berkeley Bowl Marketplace in California, where 20 different types of heirloom tomatoes, 20 types of regular tomatoes AND 10 kinds of cherry tomatoes are available. Writer Sharon Waxman:

The Pink Zebra looked like a cross between a Fuji apple and a peach; it was sweet, not acidic, with deep pink flesh inside. The Cherokee Purple was deep vermilion with dark green streaks on the outside. Cut open, it looked like a hunk of raw meat, with firm flesh and little juice. The Lemon Boy was pale on the inside, tart and less intense than the others. The Beefmaster looked like a gnarly pincushion on the outside; inside it had deep red flesh and burst with flavor. I also tried the Wilgenberg hothouse, the Miyashita Nursery, the Momotaro, Big Beef, Dr. Wych's Yellow, Zebras (striped bright lime on the outside, kiwi-colored on the inside), Pineapple Stripe (squat and small), Mountain Delight (orange shaped and deep yellow in color) and the plum-colored Black Prince.

I'm so envious! All you Bay area residents better eat some extra heirloom tomatoes for me.

An important note is that the Berkeley Bowl Marketplace was created in 1977 by Glenn Yasuda, a Japanese American. Since then, the BBM has grown tremendously and is now the largest supermarket in Berkeley. They have the largest produce section of any supermarket in the entire Bay Area - and they're independent!

All this West Coast/Produce got me thinking about how U.S. agriculture is so linked to Asian American history, especially in California. It was the Chinese laborers who made the San Joaquin and Sacramento River deltas such an important agricultural area. Interesting fruit facts:

- Those deliciously sweet and juicy dark Bing Cherries were developed by Ah Sit Bing in Oregon
- The entire Florida citrus industry owes credit to Lue Gim Gong, who developed the first Frost-Resistant Oranges
- Crossing peaches with plums, Kim Hyung-soon developed the fuzzless peach - Nectarines! in California

If you want to read more, i recalled the info from Ronald Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. On a modern-day note, if you love reading beautiful writing about farmers and small farm organic peaches, be sure to pick up a copy of David Mas Masumoto's epitaph for a peach: four seasons on my family farm. While reading there was nothing i wanted more than to taste a real Sun Crest Peach. From the prologue:

Yes, wonderful. Sun Crest tastes like a peach is supposed to. As with many of the older varieties, the flesh is so juicy that it oozes down your chin. The nectar explodes in your mouth and the fragrance enchants your nose, a natural perfume that can never be captured. Sun Crest is one of the last remaining truly juicy peaches. When you wash that treasure under a stream of cooling water, your fingertips instinctively search for the gushy side of the fruit. Your mouth waters in anticipation. You lean over the sink to make sure you don't drip on yourself. Then you sink your teeth into the flesh and the juices trickle down your cheeks and dangle on your chin. This is a real bite, a primal act, a magical sensory celebration announcing that summer has arrived.

Hmm, maybe there STILL is nothing i want more.

posted by beXn @ 11:47 AM