Broccoli Rabe Crisis!

Greens in better days at Dinics

"SUPPLIES VERY LIGHT. DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY."

That's how the U.S. Department or Agriculture describes the drought-ravaged market for broccoli and broccoli rabe in the winter growing areas of Southern California and Arizona. The bitter green adorns many Italian-style roast pork sandwiches in Philadelphia.

It's hardly available at any price, and is likely to stay that way for four or five weeks, Iovine Brothers Produce was told by its primary supplier.

And that puts purveyors of the sandwich like Joe Nicolosi who operates Tommy Dinics at the Reading Terminal Market with his father in a quandry. Should he use another green, like Swiss chard? Or perhaps Chinese greens? Or maybe just forget about it until supplies in reasonable quantities resume.

With crowds expected to swamp Dinics beginning next weekend with the opening of the Philadelphia Auto Show across the street at the Convention Center, Dinics doesn't want to disappoint its cutomers. But there may be no choice.

Weaver's Way Greens

Plenty of greens, including rainbow chard, at Weaver's Way stall at Headhouse last Sunday

Guacamole Season

I know we're in the heart of the gridiron season when Iovine Brothers' Produce features good prices on both limes and avocados. The avocados come from the Dominican Republic, the limes from Mexico.

Iovine's manager Charlie Gangloff was marvelling at the amount of collard greens they sell. During the week before and week of Thanksgiving last year they sold 90 cases, at 20-25 pounds per case. And that's not even counting the kale or mustard green. The collards mostly come from Richardson's Farm in Maryland, located about 15 miles northeast of Baltimore, and Gangloff said greens buyers love them because the stems are relatively small.

Iovine's also reports that California produce is becoming pricier; Charlie isn't sure they'll be able to hold the $1.99/pound price on green beans, a Turkey Day fav. He suggests considering asparagus. The produce guy was also gushing about the excellence of the honeydew melons; the canteloupes are good, too, he said, but very pricey. So the pre-mixed fruit containers sold in Iovine's refrigerator case is low in lopes, high in dews.

Ramps, Fiddleheads Still Here

The Fair Food Farmstand at the Reading Terminal Market had plenty of fiddleheads $16/pound) and ramps ($4/bunch) this afternoon. They are considering adding a ramp supplier from a more northern area of the region, which means at least a few added weeks of availability. Both ramps and fiddleheads were quite fresh and in good shape. I'll be combining the ramps I bought today with mushrooms (both roasted) to accompany leftover flank steak.

Bunches of different greens were prominently displayed at Fair Food today, too, all supplied by Paradise Organics. In addition to a variety of tender greens for salad, you could obtain Lacinato and Curly kales, rainbow chard, collard greens and mustard greens.

A.T. Buzby's Jersey strawberries, available at $5.50/quart Sunday at Headhouse, could be had today at Fair Food, with a markup to $7.

Simply for comparison's sake, I picked up a pint of strawberries at Iovine Brothers' Produce, $2.49, from their contract Bucks County grower, Shadybrook Farm. These berries are smaller than Buzby's giants, but still nice sized. They get the taste test for dessert tonight.

Beyond berries, Iovine offered plenty of other local produce, especially various green things from Flaim Farm in South Jersey. Bunches of spinach were featured out front for 99-cents, but there was also green and red leaf, Boston and romaine lettuces, arugula, dandelion,  green chard, leeks, basil, cilantro, radishes and sweet potatoes from Flaim and other South Jersey growers.

They weren't local, but the 'C' sized red and yukon potatoes (photo above) sure looked tempting, especially at 99-cents/pound. Might be time for some potato salad.

Busman's holiday?  Tom Nicolosi, proprietor of Dinic's, can't get enough of the heat from his ovens. So he went out and bought himself one of the Green Egg outdoor ceramic barbecues. He started experimenting last weekend and loves it; he even is going to try to make red gravy (Italian tomato meat sauce) in it!

In my garden, the chives are starting to flower. They should be fully open tomorrow when I'll add the edible blooms to salad.

Pictures and Words
As always, click on photo to enlarge

Colorful swiss chard enlivened Earl Livengood's

display at the Reading Terminal Market Saturday.
No doubt they'll also have them Tuesday afternoon
at South Street and Thursday afternoon in Fairmount.

Livengood's also proudly displayed these
turnip greens with proto-turnips.

Not to be outdone, Benuel Kauffman's Lancaster County
Produce stand artfully arranged these samples of brassica:
cauliflower in three colors, broccoli and brussels sprouts.
Not pictured was Ben's romanescue.