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48
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
MAY | JUNE 2017
the
Coffee
issue
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
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