The Veggie Sneak Preview : From Apples to Zucchini, Produce Show Has the Hot New Items

SAN DIEGO — The come-on was straight and intriguing.

“Have you tried our onion ice cream?” asked Shirley Dillon of the Imperial Sweet Onion Commission of Imperial Valley.

It was smooth yet tangy, interesting but not impertinent. It was two years in the research and development phase in the kitchen of commission member Pauline McConnell.

“I wanted to get the correct flavor but without an aftertaste,” McConnell explained.

Dollops of Imperial Sweet Onion Ice Cream Supreme are available for inspection here at the 89th annual convention of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Assn., which started at the city’s convention center on Sunday and ends today.

Industry tub-thumpers call it the largest trade show of fresh produce in the country, 600 displays of everything from apples to zucchini, plus the latest in farm equipment, packaging, agricultural computer software and more.

You can talk to the Michigan Apple Festival queen or a man dressed as a banana. Or listen to a learned discussion about the seven kinds of sweet corn. Maybe a young woman dressed as Billy Broccoflower will whisper at you, “There’s no better time than now to have a salad.”

It’s a great place to introduce new products (viz: the miniature red banana from Costa Rica, carrots from Tasmania, garlic barbecue sauce from Gilroy, Calif., eggplants from Sinaloa, Mexico) and swap industry talk and gossip.

“Right now, flame is putting up a real challenge to the Thompson seedless,” said Marty Fischer of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Assn., relaying the latest news on the grape business grapevine. “I can see someday where we’ll even have a black seedless.”

There’s lots of talk of science and its impact on things that grow in the ground. “We’ve got a different gene in our sweet corn,” said Leo J. Zanoni, product manager of Asgrow Seed Co. of Kalamazoo, Mich.

Zanoni is equally bullish on Asgrow’s new carrot. “It’s a double whammo,” he said “It’s got higher vitamin A and a more orange color.”

The convention is abuzz with debate about new ways to keep fruit and vegetables fresh on the trek from the farm.

“Fruit is just like you and me, it’s a living, breathing object,” said Joe Cole, vice president of Chiquita Fruitpac, a leader in the use of “controlled atmosphere” shipping containers. “If you can slow down the aging process by putting the fruit to sleep on the way to market, it helps.”

Scientific breakthroughs notwithstanding, mostly the convention is a place to stand by your fruit or vegetable and tell anyone who stops by your booth what makes it the world’s best. Extremism in defense of your agricultural output is no sin here.

Ask Harold Quebedeaux of the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission what makes the Louisiana sweet potato so darn special and he says: “It’s our topsoil. Other states try to grow sweet potatoes but they just can’t get it right.”

His co-religionist Mike Cannon, of Louisiana State University, adds: “The Louisiana Beauregard yam just blows everything else out of the water when it comes to nutritional capability.”

Possibly the fiercest competition is between potato growers. Wise was the convention planner who made sure to put some space between the booths housing the Washington and Idaho potato growers.

“To make a perfect fluffy baked potato, potatoes need the clean water and soil that only Idaho has,” said Candy Odiorne of the Idaho Potato Commission. “Plus they need beautiful surroundings, like Idaho. They’ve got all those eyes you know.”

Even Donald Miller, covering the convention for Spudman Magazine, the bible of the potato industry, declines to take sides on the question of which state has the best potato:

“That would be the end of me.”