Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
and cheeses in here from Spain.
So this is essentially from all over the States.
With the dairy boxes
is obviously much colder in here than elsewhere.
I can certainly notice the difference.
Yes.
Dairy and the cheese products…
We have product from France,
we have product from Spain,
e have product from…. Domestic product.
We have local product,
cheese products come from
throughout the world.
You notice different labels
which is on some of the boxes.
You seem to have
a lot, a lot of cheese here,
is that a popular
I guess commodity?
Does it go with the produce?
Or is it because you have the storage space here
o take care of it…
We, our client base
requests these products from us.
So they like a lot of cheese here in California.
Yes.
Cheese and milk.
What is your favorite cheese?
Do you eat cheese?
I do not eat cheese.
No?!
I do not like cheese.
I'm sorry to say.
I don’t really eat much either.
Lets walk in here
is where all our melons are
and if you notice on the case
behind you for instance
Product sizes
vary.
Bigger,
smaller.
Difference sized products
customers request different sized items.
I like big melons.
yes I know.
I do too.
These are more like grapefruits.
Yes
but I know, big melons,
I like those.
Talking about sizes,
the size of melon
does that come from how soon
they are farmed or is that the type of,
Particular type of family they are from?
No it is how they are farmed,
how the larger melons take a little longer to grow
than smaller melons and there is demand for all.
Small and large.
Does that affect price
at all, obviously if they want to get them out of the ground
to the customers…
The bigger tend to cost a little more,
but not always the case.
Now I have always wondered,
they price these by pound.
Is there a general currency I guess
for the different states or countries
or is that just across the board.
That a pound of watermelon might cost X amount
compared to that in Europe?
How does that work?
Generally speaking in this country,
produce is cheapest here than anywhere in the world.
Why is that?
Because of the growth and the amount
of farming that is done in this country.
And a lot of it has to do with sheer
distribution cost,
transportation is a huge concern now.
costs
Transportation costs have risen tremendously.
That's going to be a big factor
in purchasing local
and helping to I guess sustain our economy
especially in the time we are at right now.
We have…
This is local,
we have local products here,
That have been grown 20 miles away from here,
40 miles away from here.
So that’s a key point then
if you want to help your economy
buy local.
Ok what else have we got here,
melons…
some if this is locally grown stuff.
Lets see what we have got left in the back here.
Lets see what we got.
Trout pears,
I have never seen these before,
are these…
What are these?
Oh, no that is the label of trout.
It’s a variety, probably
of a bartlet…
I thought it was weird cross between fish and fruit…
Oh no.
For instance this,
is locally grown
in California, in San Diego county.
So this is a product that maybe comes
from 60 miles away from here.
You have got everything going on here,
pineapples,
and mango’s out there.
Are there any foods that
you only get in that season that you cant keep
with kind of with a longer shelf life?
Yes
many of these items,
these items for instance these melons only last
4/5 days.
Very few items are like apples.
Pears are not like apples.
They can perish.
They perish.
Apples hold,
and pears don’t
and they are in the same family.
Do you know if that will affect the nutrient value
in the fruit? Obviously
if it has got a long shelf life?
Well…
I believe it is always better fresher,
but the fact is in this country
people expect to have strawberries year round.
Not necessarily do they grow naturally year round
but they do expect them year round.
Therefore we will get product from New Zealand
we will get product that maybe isn’t as good as it should be
because it had to be harvested earlier.
It happens.
It happens. That’s an interesting point you see all of these
strawberry houses that we can grow our self.
Does that happen naturally
compared to when they are just naturally growing in the ground
and we pick them when they are ready.
How does…
What I am trying to get at is
you buy local
produce
because farmers can farm them at a particular time.
Right.
Are there particular fruits,
you mentioned apples already
that farmers will grow year round
even if it may not be the ideal weather?
Absolutely
a lot of products,
that is done for financial gain.
Quite frankly it’s financial.
Well,
For instance
lettuces. Lettuce items grow at the best time of the year,
is say spring/summer
but lettuces are grown
at some area around
Here,
year round
and you get a higher mark up at certain times of the year
than you do at other times of the year.
Now we are going into what we call the ‘Wet Box’.
Yeah, I can see why.
The reason why this is called the wet box
is that many of these items
are grown and sustain themselves with ice on.
It keeps them fresh,
we have got things like cilantro for instance.
A lot of times there is corn with it.
You are not kidding it actually is a box with ice.
These are
the items that come with ice
now less and less items
come this way
because ice tends to be or the water tends to be
where a lot of the contaminates are.
Which causes a problem with contamination.
I haven’t thought about that.
So even if a produce is farmed locally
and organically and its brought up as best practice the farmer can
do the transportation itself could effectively contaminate,
sure can.
They test..
Buying local should cut down on that chance…
Ok so that is another reason to buy local people.
Well I have one final question for you Stuart and that is,
When we buy these vegetables
and we take them home and they are in our kitchen.
Do we store everything in our fridge?
Should we store it as we found it in the store?
Maybe just give me a few examples of produce that we can…
Sure
most of the items in here that we buy should be refrigerated.
Such things as tomatoes and onions
don’t need to be refrigerated.
Really, so tomatoes we can keep in the store.
Yeah they should, be at 90 degrees,
so it shouldn’t be real hot
but they do not need to be in the lock in.
Naturally the best for those.
What about fruit?
Some people like my mum for example
she puts the banana in the fridge
and it turns brown.
Banana’s is not an item to put in the fridge.
It should stay outside.
You hear that mum
keep them out.
What about other fruit as well?
Pretty much all fruit should be outside?
Most fruits should stay inside other than the bananas.
Stone fruit,
what they mean is
a plum, peach,
an apricot
those items should stay outside for ripening purposes
when they get to ripe but them in the lock in.
Put them into your refrigerator.
How do you test for them being ripe?
Is it literally a case of squeezing, or…
The squeezing test.
Well quite frankly its not always that easy.
Sometimes as they ripen
all the do is soften.
Ok.
An item like pineapple,
when it is cut
people think that it ripens. It does not ripen when it is cut.
It stays the same.
Leave it outside
it softens up
that’s not ripen that’s soften.
So it’s knowing your fruits and finding out when
to cut them and squeeze them.
Exactly.
Ok
lots to learn when I am back in the kitchen.
its pretty cold in there
so why don’t we head back up to the office
and pick out a few produce to take back to the kitchen.
Why don’t we come here
and warm a little bit
and we will have some product pulled out for you
and you guys make some soup or salad…
This is just about what I was thinking,
I guess
I can remove this now.
I was getting crazy down there
you have got practically every kind of
variety of different
vegetables from all season
I thought what better way than to combine all of them into
a healthy delicious kind of vegetable soup.
Great well I guess we will get back to the studio,
I will thank you
and I’m sure from know we will be getting most of our produce
from you.
And any milk and yoghurt
and cheese that we do.
So guys
we will go back to the kitchen, so...
see you next time.
Thanks.