The landscape is definitely changing in local produce departments as
consumers become familiar with a wider variety of rare, exotic and
culturally diverse fruits that are gaining in popularity with the help
of television cooking shows and growing ethnic influences. While such
once-rare items as fuzzy-skinned kiwi and silky mangoes are now common,
several lesser-known varieties are showing up in the marketplace, made
available through enhanced preservation methods and sophisticated
transportation techniques.
Meanwhile, consumers are discovering hybrids of some traditional
American favorites. Cross-bred stone fruits, for instance, are coming on
strong as the plum-apricot blends, called plumcots or pluots, are
threatening to match the popularity of the well-known nectarine.
“There are so many varieties of plumcots, they come out almost weekly
from June to October,” explains Ryan Dwyer, buyer at Andy’s Produce and
Food Service, 101 W. Court St. “We had the first ones—the
flavorosa—they sold out. They were delicious. Plumcots actually started
wild in places where plums and apricots were both being grown; it
happened naturally. And they cultivated them as well.”
Dwyer has his hands full keeping current on what fruits are available
and filling orders for a seemingly endless variety from local growers,
domestic suppliers and shippers around the world to meet customer
demands from restaurants, grocery stores, food service businesses,
colleges, fraternities and sororities, hospitals and nursing homes.
“Ryan will also get on the Internet if he has to source a product,” says
Dwyer’s boss, owner Andy Boucounis. “Today, with the technology, it’s
so much more sophisticated. He does very well with that. He also has
many, many resources.”
On the retail front, Wegmans supermarkets are using their resources
to stock uncommon fruits alongside the regular apples, bananas and
peaches. Star fruit, uglifruit, pomelos and pluots have grown in
popularity in recent years, according to Steve Machin, produce
coordinator for Wegmans’ Syracuse division. “Pomegranates have been
increasing in popularity each year, although pomegranates are only
available for a short time: October, November, December. They seem to be
the item that has grown the most in popularity. Guava has a very small
market, but there are definitely people who have an interest in it.
Tomatillos are popular during the summer. A lot of people use those to
make salsa.”
In order to satisfy customers’ curiosity, Wegmans staff is trained to
be receptive to questions. “We have many inquiries about product taste
all the time,” Machin says. “We encourage our employees to give
customers a taste of anything they would like to try. We also encourage
employees to try things themselves to gain an understanding of the
products.” Wegmans recently held a Meet the Growers event at three
stores to introduce customers to the local farmers who supply their
produce.
As more sophisticated consumers demand a more varied and creative
selection from large retailers, their taste for something new is
stimulated by sampling exotic dishes on local restaurant menus, where
just-picked flavor makes for more appealing dinners. “I tell people who
are going to open a restaurant to try to use fresh because it tastes
better,” Boucounis confides. “It’s also best for you. We sell it all,
canned, frozen, fresh, but the people who seem to do the best are the
ones who use fresh.”
To supply clients with the abundance of just-picked fruits they
demand today, wholesalers have to purchase from a variety of sources.
While Andy’s buys heavily from local farmers and gets regular shipments
from California, they have to go the extra mile to obtain some products.
“We buy our specialty items like tomatillos from the Terminal Market in
Philadelphia,” Dwyer says. “We also do a little bit with the New York
Market, which is called IPEX.”
Producers are employing modern techniques to make sure the fruit
consumers buy is fresh. “Now we can still buy an apple that was picked
on one of our orchards within 20 miles of here and it’ll be hard and
crisp,” Boucounis points out. “When I first started in this business,
apples ended in March. If you could find them, they were mealy and soft.
They were good for applesauce or processing. Now with controlled
atmosphere, they put them in coolers that they don’t open and close like
other coolers. They try to keep the oxygen balanced.”
Produce that’s shipped long distances also gets special treatment to
preserve its quality. “Years ago, you’d buy a pallet of strawberries,
for example, from California,” Boucounis relates. “You never knew when
you opened the truck what the strawberries were going to look like. They
could be gorgeous or they could be strawberry soup. They came up with
this Pectrol. It’s a safe, FDA-approved gas. They shoot it into the skid
and tightly wrap it with plastic, so it’s airtight. Those berries can
ride five days on a truck and we’ll be able to get five or six days out
of them, too.”
As with many foods, some imported fruits owe their commercial success
in the United States to their popularity with particular ethnic groups
and nationalities. Tropical fruits from the Caribbean grew in
availability as the Hispanic population took root here and sought out
familiar favorites. Similarly, those with European or Asian ancestry
became the strongest customer base for produce that is central to their
culture.
“The cactus pear is a Christmas thing,” Boucounis reveals. “Italians
love them, go crazy for them. They’ll kill for that stuff around
Christmastime.”
Also known as the prickly pear, egg-shaped cactus pears needed a
cultural boost to overcome their forbidding appearance. “They really
come from a cactus,” Dwyer warns. “They have spines on them, too, and
they really hurt. They’re actually native to North America, Central
America and the northern part of South America. The Spanish took these
back with them when they were over here exploring and that’s how they
got into Italy and then into Northern Africa.”
Another fruit that owes its staying power to family traditions is the
ancient quince, believed by some historians to have been the forbidden
fruit of biblical fame. “Quince are very, very bitter,” Boucounis
concedes. “These I know a lot about because my late grandmother used to
cook quince with meat. It was an old Greek dish called kidonato. They
used a syrup that was made with cinnamon. Because it’s so bitter and so
dry, you could never eat the quince by itself. She made it with beef
that she cubed. It was off the charts. It was so good.”
Wise consumers overlook outward appearance to try some
out-of-the-mainstream produce. Guavas have a juicy, melon-like flesh,
while pomegranates are worth the extraordinary efforts needed to extract
their pulpy innards for the potent health benefits. One of the most
unattractive looking fruits is a citrus with two appropriate names:
uglifruit and uniqfruit.
“The uniqfruit is actually a cross between a grapefruit, an orange
and a tangerine,” Dwyer explains. “This happened naturally. Someone
didn’t do this. It happened over a course of nature, over years. It came
from Jamaica and that’s pretty much where it’s grown today.”
Although it has characteristics similar to popular citruses,
uniqfruit’s misshapen, lumpy rind puts off some customers. “With these,
they started doing a marketing campaign years ago,” Boucounis contends.
“But their marketing is not that great, the shippers, the country this
stuff comes from. If you want to sell something, you’ve got to give
samples, let people taste it. You’ve got to let them know what it is. I
think they’ve only done an OK job with that. They should be doing TV
commercials telling people it’s a unique time to eat uniqfruit. It’s in
season for two months a year and the time is coming. Get ready.”
Another thick-skinned citrus, the lime-green pomelo, travels a long
distance to local markets. “They’re from Israel,” Boucounis says.
“They’re spongy and very sweet, sweeter than grapefruit. I’ve heard
people say, ‘That thing is ugly. I don’t know anything about it.’ I
would say 78 percent of people are afraid to try something new. We’re
creatures of habit. The whole key is marketing and they have to do a
better job marketing.”
Your local retailer will often have in stock such relatively unknown
fruits as sweet and smooth papayas, lush angelcots, crisp Asian pears
and delicate persimmons. Paper-covered tomatillos and starchy plantains
have made the leap to mainstream by being eaten more as vegetables than
fruits, while the whimsically shaped star fruit is often used as a
garnish. Shoppers who look up from their grocery lists are finding
fruits that open up a juicy, tasty, exotic world that’s surely worth a
try.
“People need to break their routine a little bit,” Boucounis
advocates. “This is my opinion, but I would say to every person that’s
out there shopping, two or three times a month, pick one item that
you’ve never had, buy one and try it. If you like it, you’ve discovered
something new and exciting. If you don’t like it, what did it cost you, a
couple, three dollars?”
