A Squash is a Berry; Shaw’s is No More

The phrase should perhaps be eat your fruits and fruits.

I had long known that tomatoes are a fruit, but somehow had never made the jump to winter squash. And not only is a squash a fruit; it is a berry. And it is not just a berry, but a pepo, a berry with a thick rind. Cucumbers, summer and winter squashes and melons are all pepos. Peppers, eggplants and bananas are just berries. 

Nor was I used to thinking of legumes (peanuts and beans) as fruits, but fruits they are. And most things we call “nuts” are actually fruits in the nut subcategory, but not almonds, which are drupes like cherries.

Do you have all this straight? It was a relief to learn that some “vegetables” are not fruits. But perhaps we should be calling them roots, shoots and leaves.

On the same day I was absorbing all this arcane knowledge, I also heard that my local supermarket, which I consider a great place to buy pepos and other fruits and vegetables, and where I discovered the parsnip, will be Shaw’s no more. Supervalu is divesting itself of all its Shaw’s stores in Connecticut. Most are being acquired by Stop & Shop, but no buyer has been found for the downtown New Haven store.

This is a blow to New Haven, particularly to the Dwight neighborhood, adjacent to Yale University. With its store on Whalley Avenue, Shaw’s is the only major chain with a presence anywhere near the downtown area. Many who live and work in the neighborhood do not have cars. It is about five miles away in any direction from Shaw’s to another store of similar size and quality.

It was quite an accomplishment when the Dwight Community Development Corporation succeeded in attracting Shaw’s to the neighborhood in 1998. Downtown New Haven had been without a major supermarket for years. Shaw’s became a place to shop, as well as a source of good neighborhood jobs.

I have chosen to shop at Shaw’s over its competitors. Its prices are fair. The store is clean and well-stocked. It is convenient. They have the best bananas around. Ask anyone. I am very sorry Supervalu has chosen to leave the state.

The developer of 360 State Street has promised to include a supermarket on the ground floor of the 500 unit apartment complex which is under construction in my ward. (There is a hefty penalty if he does not.) The footprint is not as large as Shaw’s, but the market will be close enough for me to walk there with a shopping cart. If an agreement can be reached, and the store is to my liking, I will have my grocery store.

But 360 State is a long walk from the site of Shaw’s, and a store at this location will not solve the problem for the people who live in the Dwight neighborhood, for the many residents who have jobs at Shaw’s, or for Yale students. Lower Whalley Avenue has already experienced the closing of Rite-Aid and Staples in the last few months, leaving empty retail space and parking lots and very few places to shop. For students without cars, The Yale Bookstore (Barnes & Noble) and Gourmet Heaven are the only convenient (albeit pricey) options.

Surely Shaw’s would not have remained in New Haven all these years without a reasonably good profit margin. I hope that one of the other chains can look beyond its usual suburban model to open a store in a city center. I am sure the City of New Haven and the Yale Office of New Haven and State Affairs are doing their best to find a buyer.

I hope they succeed. And, if they do, I promise I will give their pepos (and parsnips) a try.

Discoveries in the Produce Aisle

It is late January and snowing in New Haven, and yet another cold front is howling in.

I have turned all the apples we picked in the Fall into sauce. I have cooked all my butternut and acorn squashes. The tastes of Summer I had packed away in the freezer — poached peaches, ratatouille, and bags of Cape Cod cranberries — are dwindling fast.

CitySeed is running a Saturday market in Wooster Square, but only one a month. And the pickings are slim. By no means a locavore, I do try hard to keep my grocery list footprint small. Reasonably local dairy and bread are easy choices, fruits and vegetables much more difficult.

Late last Winter I gave myself a challenge: to scour the produce section of Shaw’s to try to find something from New England (CT is quite small, after all.) And find it I did. Next to the bright orange California carrots were stacked some one pound bags of what looked to be anemic carrot cousins. The something? “Sugar Mountain Fresh Parsnips,” “grown and packed by Manheim Farm, Whately, MA, USA.” (According to Google Maps, 91.4 miles from my address.)

Parsnips were on the short list of vegetables my family never ate. I was clueless, but resolute, and purchased a bag. I turned to The Art of Simple Food and Simply In Season by Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind for help. Alice Waters’s advice was to cook the parsnips in salted water until tender and then puree, alone or with other root vegetables. The Mennonites inspired me to try Maple Parsnip Soup — easy to make, thick and creamy, with a wonderful play of tangy mustard against sweet maple (a second New England product.) This success led me to develop my own improvisation— dicing a parsnip and a turnip, and then sauteing them in olive oil before adding to a batch of pea soup. What a nice kick these roots give!

I decided to learn more about these winter wonders. Parsnips, like carrots, are members of the parsley family. From the parsnip chapter of Root Development of Vegetable Crops, I learned that the parsnip has an amazing root system, with taproots commonly extending 8’ down. If you add that to the 17” height of the foliage, that makes a typical parsnip plant nearly 9.5 feet tall, a lot more impressive than what you see in a plastic bag!

Take some time to root around your produce section. Culinary adventures and botanical discoveries await those brave enough to leave their comfort zones.