Best Fruit Now

Take this sheet with you to the market! Shop as if you have Tommy K at your side!Click here for the print-friendly version

Recommended Selections for May

• Best Now
• Avoid Now
• Try Now
• Fruit Odds

Best Now

Fruit in Foreclosure

Many fresh and delicious fruits are top quality and being discounted NOW! Of all the fruits being promoted in the produce section, these are the BEST VALUES NOW. Prices are per pound. The prices listed are what you might see at an agressive store. Pink Lady apples $1.29lb, Fuji apples $1.29 lb, Golden Delicious $ .99 lb, Granny Smith $.99 lb, lemons $1.49 lb, bananas $.79 lb, kiwi $ 1.59 lb, cantaloupes $1.19 lb, honeydews $1.29 lb strawberries $1.69 lb, and grapefruit $.99 lb! That is price per pound, excellent quality, REAL FOOD on the cheap!

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Apricots and Apriums, Then Local Strawberries

What a great way to welcome the Summer fruit season! California farmers are just NOW harvesting the first summer fruit worth eating and be sure to find them NOW. Both of these varieties look like orange apricots, the Apache are generally larger than the Tasty Rich. These both have their own distinctive flavor, Apache have a honey like flavor and add to that a tinge of "old time" plum (like the Santa Rosa) to imagine the Tasty Rich. This is because the Tasty Rich is an Aprium and Apriums have about 25 % plum heritage to go along with around 75% apricot parentage. Look for fruit that is full colored, do not fall for green apricots! Apriums are still good if bruised, suprisingly those ones usually taste the best. These are not a value pick, expect to pay $4.00 lb early in the month and $2.00 lb by the end of the month. Treat yourself and you will not be sorry!

As we approach Mid May the local farmer's markets will begin to open up. I live in Bucks County PA and I spoke to a local farmer today (May 15th) who says the local strawberries were damaged pretty bad by the 10 straight days of rain we just experienced. There will be a crop coming to market next week, but the fruit will be on the small side and there is not much of it to harvest. I still will be out looking and buying what is available. Seek out a local market in YOUR area and perhaps you will find some great berries... Here is a National Directory of Farmer's Markets to help in your search.

FYI, whenever a crop, fruit or vegetable, recieves alot of rain, the shelf life will be dramatically reduced. So, if you buy local strawberries in the Northeast in May 2009 ONLY BUY what you will consume THAT DAY. If you buy more than that, it is likely you will be throwing the berries away, a big waste of money.

Pineapple, Kiwi and Limes!

Now is a great time to prepare a fresh tropical fruit salsa using fresh pineapple, kiwi and limes. Each of these fruits is great NOW! Watch as Chef Melissa prepares salsa using the best of ingredients:

I suggest using Del Monte golden pineapples, follow this link to print out a coupon for 75 cents off your purchase of a Del Monte pineapple.

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Avoid Now

Chilean Green Seedless Grapes

The green grape party is over for the moment. It's possible they can be found in very good condition, at the right stores, on the right days, but most are only fair, beware of deals as there are many very poor lots at stores this month. By the second half of May you will start seeing California green grapes; I suggest looking for those. Avoid the Chilean. Most green grapes from Chile being sold in stores NOW were picked in February. Yikes! When you get the California grapes they will less than a week old, this is very fresh for grapes. When the California green grapes do start coming in, avoid them if they are hard green, wait until they have a more creamy color to them.

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Anything OLD looking!

I go to many, many, stores every week, checking quality, reviewing retail prices and seeing what stores are promoting. One reason for this website is that many of the items on sale are only fair quality. Often times retail stores over stock expecting to move more than they actually do. With shoes this doesn't matter, with produce this means OLD product on the shelf. For example, in December most stores had California red grapes on sale and quality was poor at best. Clementines can be tricky too. Very often chain stores are overstocked on Clementines. Use this site to get ideas, but hone your own fruit buying skills. Look closely at your fruit. Is it tired looking? Many people just pick up a bag of grapes without even looking at them. Be Smart. Shop in stores that have FRESH looking displays. Shop in stores where you can ask a question and get an answer. For instance, "Excuse me, but I would really like FLORIDA Navels and all I see are California. Do you have any Florida I am missing?"

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Try Now

Maradol Papaya

Fresh from Mexico or Central America the Maradol papaya is the gigantic greenish yellow, football shaped fruit most of you aren’t sure what to do with or how to eat. NOW is a great time for the Maradol, so give them a try. Add chunks of the raw fruit to ice cream or yogurt smoothies. Cubes of papaya are a nice contrast in a fruit salad with pineapple, strawberries, orange and banana. Top with a little shaved coconut and a squirt of lime juice. Instead of melon, wrap slices of prosciutto around slices of papaya. Diced papaya and mango with red onion and chilis make a fiery sweet salsa that's good with grilled chicken or fish. Halve the fruit from top to bottom and simply use a spoon to take out the black seeds. Once you have the seeds removed you can cut it up in the same way you would cut up any melon. Having digestion problems? Papaya can help. Papayas are the only natural source of papain, a natural digestive aid. This is truly a super fruit! With more vitamin C than 6 oranges and more Lycopene than 5 tomatoes the papaya is power packed. Treat your body today!

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Florida Lychee

By mid May Florida will begin shipping their crop of Lychee. This is one of the most special fruits grown. Have you tried these? If not, you need to! If it is May and the source is Florida, then they are fresh. Don’t worry about the skin being a bit brown, that is AOK. I have been told that some lots of the imported Lychee are dyed red to keep the color. Yuk. This fruit is very exotic and will take a little courage the first time you try one. Once you get over the texture (one can imagine this is what eating an eyeball would feel like) you will grow to love these juicy tropical treats. For me, the texture is not an issue at all, I love them and I hope you will give them a try. If you have never opened a Lychee, here's how I do it. I simply, slowly and yet forcefully pull them apart while being careful not to let the slippery insides slide away. Once exposed I just suck the whole inside (flesh and nut) into my mouth and enjoy the fruit and then spit out the nut, or large seed.

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Haitian Mangoes

Grown in Haiti, these mangoes are world renowned as some of the best fruits grown on the planet! They are available NOW! I know many Indians that will not agree that any mango is as good as their country’s finest, but these mangoes are awesome. Indian mangoes are likely as good or better, but they are not available in the USA, at least not mature ones. If you want a great fruit at it’s peak of flavor, available NOW, the Haitian mango is a fine choice. They are "Killer." Just as this roadside stand in Haiti advertises!

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Fruit Odds for May

These are the percentage chances of blindly buying excellent quality fruit off the store shelf this month. Click on the headers to re-sort the list.

Tagged as: apache apricots, florida lychee, fruit in foreclosure, green grapes, haitian mango, indian mango, kiwi, limes, maradol papaya, pineapple, tasty rich apriums