The month of May brings a whole new excitement to the stores of Nino Salvaggio’s. The entire layout and product presentation has begun to transition from our winter displays into our spring and summer offerings. This makeover, if you will, is first noticeable as you approach our buildings and see the beautiful, colorful displays of all of our annual flowers. Where once we displayed salt and firewood, now we have hanging baskets, patio planters, bedding flats, mulch and much, much more.

New Crop Vegetables

Unlike the month of April, May has many new crop vegetables to offer. What most people do not know is that our friendly neighbors to the north (Leamington, Ontario, Canada) make up one of the largest greenhouse-growing regions in the entire world. They grow many varieties of tomatoes, such as stem tomatoes; large, round tomatoes; Campari Tomatoes; green tomatoes; and Kumato Tomatoes, which are a fairly new type but one of my personal favorites. Also grown in Leamington, Ontario, Canada are red, yellow, and orange peppers and the ever-popular seedless and mini cucumbers. All of these items are picked and purchased daily to guarantee the freshest produce available. With the proximity of our neighbors to the north, it is one advantage that I gladly do my best to take advantage of in order to keep all of these vegetables as fresh as possible.

Born In the USA

Although the weather has yet to warm up enough to enjoy our locally grown vegetables, there are a couple of cooler-temperature, USA-grown items that we can already enjoy. Vidalia onions, which are grown in Georgia, are known to be one of the sweetest onions available on the market and can already be found at our stores. The other popular, new crop vegetable already in our stores is our very own Michigan-grown asparagus. Although the window of availability is short (6 to 8 weeks), it is the very-first new crop Michigan vegetable of the year. This year, due to our very-cool winter/early spring, we had a bit of a later crop than usual. Michigan asparagus should be available until the middle of June this year.

Summer Fruit (a.k.a. Nature’s Candy)

May is the beginning of all that wonderful, delicious fruit that you enjoy all summer long. Among the first fruits to spoil us are California cherries. Soon after, you will notice southern peaches, tree-ripe California peaches, nectarines, California cantaloupes, and Texas-grown watermelon. Texas is known as one of the best watermelon-growing regions due to the extremely hot days and not-so-cool nights. Cool nights can cause cracks to whole melons and compromise sweetness at times. This is why when available (May to October), we only carry Texas-grown watermelons.

May is only the beginning of a great fruit and vegetable season that we are all sure to enjoy. Please follow me at @ProduceBuyerJoe, as I will tweet updates for all the mentioned fruits and vegetables.