Guido Ferro and Dan Avakian are newspaper columnists and the hosts of their weekly radio program, "Dan the Produce Man and Guido the Gardener". Guido and his mother, Rita Ferro are the the Beyond Wonderful Internation Home Chefs, Italy.

Dan's November
Best of Season

Fruits
Apples
Honeycrisp apples    
 Pink Lady apples      

Cherimoya
Cherimoya

Gourds
Gourds/Fall decor

Grapefruit
Texas grapefruit

Lemons and Limes
Buddha hand citron
Meyer lemons
Sweet limes

Kiwi
California kiwi

Nuts
Chestnuts
Walnuts

Oranges
Fairchild tangerines
Navel oranges
Satsuma mandarins
Texas juice oranges

Pears
New crop pears:
Asian Sing, fragrant
Bosc pears
Comice pears
Concord pears
Forelle pears
Seckel pears
Red pears

Persimmon
Chocolate persimmons
Fuyu persimmons
Hachiya persimmons

Pomegranates
Pomegranates

Quince
Quince

Sunchokes
Sunchokes

Vegetables
Brussels Sprouts
Brussels Sprouts

Gourds
Fall decor

Pumpkins
Sugar Pie pumpkins

Squash
Hard-shell squash

Roasting sweet potatoes and yams is easy! Use our printable, step-by-step pictorial.
Start roasting!

Check out the different varaties of
yams at your local farmers market
or produce market.

Columns to Savor
Dan Avakian

Apples: A Great American Harvest, and Picking a Perfect Pear: The Secret's in the Squeeze

Summer Bliss: Basil and Tomatoes

Read more about Dan Avakian.

Dan's Web site www.producepair.com

Produce Expert
Dan Avakian

Getting Fresh

Pumpkins, Pumpkins,
Pumpkins Everywhere!

I Yam what I Yam—but a
Yam’s No Yam at all!

Pomegranates:
They’re Not Just for Staining Your Clothes Anymore!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins,
Pumpkins Everywhere!

IIt's that time of the year again, when the produce stands are filled with bins of mini pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, gourds and baking pumpkins.

Although many people just think of the pumpkin as a canvas for carving, it’s really a splendid vegetable for baking into muffins, quick breads and—of course—pie. My favorite pie pumpkin is the Australian Queensland blue. Don’t be put off by its gray-green exterior; inside, it has gorgeous, dense deep orange flesh with perfect sweet flavor for pies. Unfortunately, many growers skipped the Australian Queensland this year in favor of a variety called jarrahdale, which looks similar and holds up better, but doesn’t taste as good. Lucky for me, I have a jar of Australian Queesland seeds in the basement, and will be putting them into the ground next year.

Other good baking varieties include the white pumpkin or lumina. This is also a dense-fleshed pumpkin with thick seeds.  The traditional New England sugar pie, mystic, little ironside and cinderella varieties are also excellent bakers.  

Illustrated How To Roast Pumpkins

Illustrated How To Roast Pumpkin Seeds.

I Yam what I Yam—but a Yam’s No Yam at all!

Sweet potatoes and yams are widely known as one of autumn’s great delights. In fact, they’re so closely associated with the fall that few people realize their season actually begins in July. What’s more, these orange beauties can—and should—be enjoyed all year long in dozens of scrumptious presentations.

So, let’s get this part out of the way right now - All yams are sweet potatoes but not all sweet potatoes are yams. And all yams are sweet potatoes only in the United States!  Did I confuse you enough? Lets start over. A true yam does not possess any of the characteristics desired in sweet potatoes. A true yam is called "nyami," an African word which refers to the edible, starchy root of the Dioscorea genus of plants. Grown in the Caribbean, nyami originated in West Africa and Asia and is now available in the US via import.

Pomegranates:
They’re Not Just for Staining Your Clothes Anymore!

Throughout the San Joaquin valley pomegranate trees are flush with fruit. A pomegranate tree is really a big shrub, and it requires lots of warm summer weather to produce a good crop. In autumn, when the fruit has a pinkish to red color, it is ready for harvest. For those who are unfamiliar with pomegranates, they are unusual in that we savor the seeds, but discard the flesh. Peel back the inedible rosy red skin to reveal a spongy interior chock-full of brilliant ruby seeds that burst with juice when eaten. The scarlet juice is delicious, and also notorious for staining.

I used to make juice from pomegranates off of a neighbor’s tree that hung over my fence. Pomegranate juice is a bit labor intensive, but well worth the work. I would share the recipe, but nowadays I find myself buying a product, new to the market in recent years, called POM Wonderful. It is by far is the best commercially produced pomegranate juice that I have come across, and all of the work is done by someone else! Another product that I have enjoyed immensely is the already-seeded pomegranate. Fresh pomegranate seeds can be found in the refrigerated section of the produce department, packed in 4 and 6 oz plastic tubs. No mess, no Spray n’ Wash moments. 

Illustrated How To Peel and Seed Pomegranates.