Mother Knows Best 2008

My mother-in-law, in her infinite wisdom, always makes sure to let her grandchildren know that peeling fruit is not a good idea. "Don't be Mr. Peeler the vitamin stealer," she tells them. I've always liked this sage advice and now I can give her (and Mother Nature) credit for being well in front of the scientific community on this fact. Turns out that apple peels fight cancer! An October, 2007 issue of the Berkeley Wellness Letter (which you can access for free via The FruitGuys) noted a Cornell University study in its Wellness Facts section: the skins of apples contain nearly a dozen compounds that restrict or kill human cancer cells in laboratory tests. Thus, when you peel the skin from fruits and vegetables, you lose a lot of nutrition and important phytochemicals. Harold McGee in his book On Food and Cooking, talks about how the color of fruits reflect the specific kinds of phytochemicals (antioxidants) that their skins contain. As McGee notes on page 271, humans are among a small group of animal species that can visually distinguish between reds, oranges, yellows and greens - something that allows us to more easily pick out anthocyanin and carotenoid-rich plants from others.

Fall Fruit: Our fruit mixes are changing rapidly at this time of year. Since we buy from local growers on both the west and east coasts, we are seeing fruits come and go at different rates. I've talked a lot about Torrey's Asian Apple Pears from Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA and now want to mention one of our eastern growers. This week's east coast boxes have wonderful Asian Apple Pears from Subarashii Kudamono in Kempton, PA. I love the fact that this farm "employs" a team of husky dogs to chase critters out of its 200 acres of orchards that might eat the fruit waiting for harvest. They also place speakers around their trees and play bird distress calls to keep the damage inflicted by avian friends to a minimum - a nice sustainable solution. On the west coast, we have lovely apples from Prevedelli's Farm in Watsonville, CA that have just been harvested. This farm grows 24 varieties on 90 acres and we'll be featuring a number of them over the next month or two. Please visit our website to see what's in your regional mix this week.

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Enjoy and be fruitful! chris@fruitguys.com.