May-June-2017_flipbook Revised

the Coffee issue

At Season’s Peak Alabama Silver King Corn In Lower Alabama, Silver King is, well, king. We get ours from the Bengtson family’s centuries-old farm in Robertsdale, Alabama. Silver King has bright, white kernels and a high sugar content, which gives it an exceptionally sweet flavor. Rouses also has bi-colored corn and Sweet Sunshine corn from neighboring Florida. National Corn on the Cob Day is Sunday, June 11, 2017. Silver King corn is best served firm; a quick blanching is all you need to cook it to perfection. Boil in salted water (there’s no truth to the old wives’ tale that salt in the water can make corn tough) for three minutes or less. Alabama Coffee Red Diamond and Fairhope Roasting Company coffees are available at Rouses Markets in Alabama. ​ Louisiana Creole Tomatoes Creole tomatoes may not be as pretty as their beefsteak and Roma cousins — they tend to be knobby, with orange-red to bright-red skin and flesh — but you can’t beat the taste. Creole tomatoes are grown in the fertile fields of the southeastern part of Louisiana, in particular St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. The unique river soils and warm climate of these parishes produce sugar-sweet tomatoes with an exceptionally intense “tomatoe-y” flavor. Although the Creole tomato was named the official vegetable of Louisiana in 2003, a tomato — even a Creole tomato — is technically a fruit. French Market Creole Tomato Festival Live music, food booths and chef demonstrations Saturday & Sunday, June 10 & 11, 2017. Vidalia Sweet Onions & Carrots Vidalia onions represent about 40% of the total national spring onion production. They are named for the area where they are grown near the town of Vidalia, Georgia. The abundant rainfall and low amount of sulfur in the sandy soil in Vidalia make the onions extra-sweet. Those same conditions yield Vidalia’s delicious sweet carrots.

Eubanks Produce, Lucedale, MS TRUE BLUE by Patrick, Rouses Produce Director

A llen Eubanks of Lucedale, Mississippi, has been farming for a quarter of a century. He’s the fourth generation in his family to work the soil. Eubanks Produce farms land in both Louisiana and Alabama, and Rouses buys fresh cantaloupes, watermelons, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, sweet corn and, recently, sweet potatoes, plus a large portion of Mississippi blueberries from this family business. We’ve been working with the Eubanks family for over a decade. It’s just one of many long- term relationships Rouses maintains with growers on the Gulf Coast. We talk to local farmers every day to make sure the fruits and vegetables you find at Rouses Markets are the best they can be. And of course, we visit the farms every week to check each farmer’s progress. We’re in the fields right now checking blueberries. Peak production for the fruit ranges from the end of May through July 4. Local blueberries — in fact, almost all of the blueberries planted in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama — are rabbiteye ( Vaccinium ashei ). They’re native to the southeastern United States and tolerant of the heat typically experienced in this region.They have their own bee, which “buzz pollinates” their flowers — the southeastern blueberry bee, which looks and sounds like a bumble bee, but is smaller and faster. Honeybees, bumble bees and carpenter bees are also attracted to blueberry flowers. Ocean Springs Red, White & Blueberry Festival This annual festival is a community, family-fun event, held on Saturday, June 3, 2017. Ripe for the Picking My wife Rikki and I like to take our kids Alex, Mason and Parker blueberry-picking near their grandparents’ house in Mt. Hermon, Louisiana. My in-laws, Terry and Ronnie Moak, and their neighbors have blueberry bushes on their property, some as old as 20 years. Washington Parish’s rich, fertile soil is great for growing blueberries. We source a lot of Rouses Markets’ Louisiana blueberries from the area. It’s also where we get most of our Louisiana watermelons. —Patrick, Rouses Produce Director

48

MY ROUSES EVERYDAY MAY | JUNE 2017