Bins brimming with Florida produce

Heather McPherson | Sentinel Food Editor

Summer fruit is piled high in the produce bin and I'm thinking tarts are in order. While I load a few recipes for you on to my blog, sit back and enjoy your daily dish:

What's in season in Florida. Looks for good buys on snap beans, blueberries, cabbage, cantaloupes, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, oranges, bell peppers, hot peppers, potatoes, radishes, yellow squash, zucchini, sweet corn, tomatoes and watermelons.

You may not know that with yearly sales totaling more than $100 million, Florida is one of the nation's leading producers of watermelons, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Watermelons are grown throughout the state on about 25,000 acres and are available from April through July and in November and December.

Florida potato farmers, who are in the middle of their harvest, have suffered an estimated $45 million in crop loss from flooding caused by the recent onslaught of rain, officials reported last week.

To help mitigate further losses, weight restrictions on transporting potato crops out of northeast Florida have been eased to quickly harvest salvageable crops and transport them to processing and marketing facilities. Do your part and only buy Florida potatoes.

Food Editor Heather McPherson can be reached at 407-420-5498, hmcpherson@orlandosentinel.com, her blog OrlandoSentinel.com/thedish and you can follow her atwww.twitter.com/OS_thedish.