TIP OF THE DAY: Fresh Lychees

A peeled lychee. Photo courtesy Baldor Food.   Lychee is a a tropical evergreen fruit tree native to southern China. The evergreen grows wild in southern China, northern Vietnam and Cambodia, although there is evidence that it has been cultivated since around 2000 B.C.E. Today it grows throughout southeast Asia, notably in southern Japan, India,…
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Tiger Figs & Fresh Fig Compote Recipe

What to look for in farmers’ markets and specialty produce stores: striped tiger figs. Or, buy them from Melissas.com. The Tiger Fig (also called Tiger Stripe fig and Candy Stripe fig) is prized as one of the most flavorful varieties in the marketplace. It is a light yellow, small to medium, pear-shaped fig with unique…
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FOOD FUN: Watermelon Cucumbers

Mini watermelon cucumbers: fun food. Photo courtesy Melissas.com.   Cucumbers and watermelons are first cousins. Both are from the binomial order Cucurbitales and family Cucurbitaceae, differing only at the genus level: Cucumis for cucumber (the common cucumber genus/species is C. sativus) and Citrullus for watermelon (C. lanatus). That’s why you can eat the white portion…
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Ways To Use Orange Blossom Water For National Orange Blossom Day

[1] Orange blossom water is a by-product of distilling orange blossoms for oil. Some products are clear, some have an orange tinge (photo © Nielsen-Massey). [2] Most brands are from the Middle East, where orange blossom water is a key ingredient in sweet and savory dishes and drinks (photo © Maureen Abood Market). [3] Hot…
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PRODUCT: Maple Water

Be on the lookout for maple water, the newest maple product from Canada. Photo courtesy Wahta.   Following the galloping success of coconut water, the next “tree water” to hit the market is maple water, made from the sap of the maple tree. Maple water is actually pure maple sap that is tapped in the…
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