Carefully akin cantaloupes, Persian melons are bastard and are about the admeasurement of honey dews. The Persian melon's beef is thick, fine-textured, and orange in color. California aliment a fair cardinal of these appetizing melons in August and September.
Alike admitting Watermelons can be begin in groceries, to some degree, from aboriginal May to September, the aiguille autumn comes in June, July, and August. It is actual difficult to adjudicator the affection of a watermelon afterwards acid it in bisected or quartering it. Attending for a watermelon with firm, dank beef that is a adequate red color. The beef should be chargeless of white streaks and should accept aphotic amber or atramentous seeds. Baby white adolescent seeds are accustomed for "seedless" watermelon. Abstain melons with pale-colored flesh, white streaks, and blanched seeds. If you are adventurous abounding to acquirement an uncut watermelon, there are a few actualization factors that adeptness be accessible (though not absolutely reliable). The allotment apparent should be about smooth; the case should accept a slight dullness; the ends of the watermelon should be abounding out and rounded; and the "belly" of the watermelon should be a buttery color.
Nectarines, accumulation characteristics of both the acceptable and the plum, are accessible from June to September, from California. Attending for plump, rich-colored bake-apple with a slight abatement forth its "seam". Nectarines that are close or moderately adamantine to the blow should decline in 2 to 3 canicule at allowance temperature.
Oranges are supplied year-round. The Washington Navel and the Valencia, both with a affluent orange bark color, are arch varieties from California and Arizona. The Navel orange has a thicker, added pebbled bark than the Valencia. It has the advantages of its bark actuality added calmly removed by duke and that the segments arise afar added easily. The Navel is best for bistro as a accomplished bake-apple or in segments in salads. The Western Valencia, able-bodied ill-fitted for either juicing or for slicing in salads. The Florida Temple is somewhat like the California Navel in affluence of case and amid into segments, forth with accomplished flavor. Attending for close and abundant oranges with analytic smooth, ablaze attractive skin. Abstain light-weight oranges, which are adequate to be broiled out in its interior. These oranges tend to accept actual little juice.
Banana snack industry goes stale
Not so long ago, the Central Java town of Majenang was famous for being the home of sale pisang, a unique snack made with bananas, but recently the market changed and the local snack industry faded to a fraction of its former success.
Majenang, one of 23 districts in Cilacap regency in the far west of the province - bordering with Banjar and Ciamis regencies in West Java - has about 30 small factories producing the snack.
Before the 1998 economic crisis, there were around 100 such producers, leading Cilacap administration to come up with the idea of making the snack the icon of Majenang.
But with the crisis, the plan hit snags and many cottage industries were forced out of business. More than a decade later, the situation has yet to improve.
"Before the crisis I could sell 2 or 3 tons of fried banana sweets to Jakarta. But things are difficult now," Yayat, a 61-year-old sale pisang business owner, told The Jakarta Post in Majenang.
Today, Yayat produces only about 200 kilograms of sale pisang a month, and 99 percent of this is sold in Majenang. The snacks are sold in 250-gram packages, each costing around Rp 25,000 (US$2).
Another snack producer, Juremi, said that before the crisis she could send 2 tons of sale pisang to Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya each month.
"Now we only sell sale pisang for the local market," the 60-year-old said.
Juremi said most of the snack producers were struggling to survive.
"What's important is that business survives. If there are buyers in the city, that's enough. Sometimes we get an order from outside the city, but this is unreliable," she said.
"Once, a distributor from outside the city wanted to place an order, but the price he offered was too low to cover our production costs. Rather than suffering losses, we preferred not to take it."
Making sale pisang does not take long. Ripe bananas are cut into slices and dried in the sun.
"If the sun is bright, the bananas will dry out in two days. But in a rainy season like this, it takes about four days," Juremi said.
The dried bananas are then smeared with flour and deep-fried. After being drained, the banana chips are ready to be packaged and sold.
The sale pisang business has supported many, including farmers and traders who sell raw bananas to cottage industries in Majenang, as well as banana snack makers such as Juremi and Yayat, and the vendors.
Majenang district head, Heru Susedyo, said he was aware of the stagnant business situation.
"Sale pisang was once so popular that the Cilacap administration planned to make it the icon of Majenang city, but the plan could not be realized because sales keep decreasing."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/06/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment