It's Panettone Season

 They're everywhere. In stores. Gracing bakery windows. On every Nonna's holiday table. What are these popular holiday treats?Panettone or panetung if you grew up in a Piedmontese household.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about thos beloved and historic bread in today's New YorkTimes Food section. This traditionally Northern Italian treat has become a global moneymaker with all sorts of variation over the world. The standard which originated in fifteenth Century Milan is a domed sweet bread with a golden crumb. scented and stidded with sugared fruit.It's in the same family as German stollen,Polish chalka and British fruitcake.It was made with expensive ingredients like eggs and butter, refined flour and sugar, spices from Asia and preserved fruit from the Mediterranean.Later on bits of chocolate were added and regional ingredients such as lemon from the Amalfi coast and hazelnuts from Piemonte. As Italy unified panettone became the national symbol of Christmas.It was beribboned and wrapped in fancy paper. However thanks to commercial baking the bread lost some of its' famed luster.They became dry and flat tasting thanks to cheaper ingredients like candied squash (!!!) and milk powder.

Luckily there is a renaissance of sort for the treat.There are more artigianle ones being made as opposed to industriali, that is it's going back to it's hand wrought origins instead of being mass produced.There's also the threat of outside sources such as  Peruvians, Argentinian and Brazilian producers like Bauducco and D'Onofrio where Northern Italian immigrants settled in the late 19th Century (especially in Argentina). The other problem is that panetoone from MIlan is protected like San Marzano tomatoes or prosciutto from Bologna. Luigi Biasetto, a top baker in Padua is leading an effort to have the bread declared as part of the world's cultural heritage.It is a difficult bread to create. Two separate doughs are required, each a challenging mix of high gluten flour. The first dough is slowly fermented to a specific level of acidity which takes twelve to twenty four hours, depending on microbial activity.It requires constant monitoring of temperature and humidity. rich ingredients , much like during panettone's early days are being added in. Gucci (yes Gucci) and Fornasetti are adding Belgian centrifuged butter and pure Madagascar vanilla. The king of panettone Ray Schvartzapel creates a more bready one  with cherries and pistacchios. There are even World Cup style panettone competitions.

Panetoone is such a cherished holiday treat. You can spend a lot or a little on it. Every slice is a wonderful bite into tradition.

Where Does Your Produce Come From

Ever wonder where those January strawberries came from? Or those tomatoes that  you ate last month and during this one? Probably not from the US. Think Mexico, Centra andl  South America and even Australia and New Zealand. Produce is not all American anymore - and with it comes a whole host of problems and dilemmas.

David Karp, a pomologist or self proclaimed "fruit detective", wrote this interesting and eye opening piece in yesterday's New York Times Food section.Supermarkets have a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, now during a Northern Hemisphere winter. It's easy to get tomatoes and grapes along with blueberries and peppers./ Years ago, the only  fresh produce you could get during mid March was oranges for fruit and winter cabbage for veggies.That was it.I had to f you wanted anything else, you would have settle for canned, pickled or preserved. Now, thanks to farms in Mexico ,and the southern hemisphere where it's the height of summer, we can have a wide range of just picked . Of course this is wonderful, especially for families with growing kids and teens. A varied diet, full of fresh produce is vital to having a healthy kid.There's also other pluses too . It's sometimes fresher than the domestic kinds. Gala apples, harvested in New Zealand are crunchier than their American counterparts. Chile's pink , seedless Muscat grapes are more flavorful than locally grown ones.Imports, though , can also go the opposite way. Mexican and Peruvian asparagus tends to be fibrous and rubbery while our stalks are plumper, juicier and just more tastier .

There are a lot of downsides to these imports. They do suffer in transit.. They are perishable, after all and can arrive bruised , nicked and rotten. They could also be prematurely picked  and allowed to ripen in the store. or lose their flavor thanks to treatments  to kill pests. Mangoes, have to soaked in hot water while citrus has to be kept in cold temperatures to control any bugs that may sneak in..Another issue is the large carbon footprint imported produce can cause  which can irk eco minded consumers..Most harvests arrive here by plane which guarantees fresher ,"younger " fruit  but that also means carbon emissions and pollution. A scarier aspect of importers is that they can be connected to drug cartels.looking to launder money and diversify their operations control. Even scarier extorting  the production and packaging of certain crops mostly from Mexico, Growers and militias have fought back . The implications of cartel control has remained unclear, especially in the areas of quality, cost, and healthfulness. Imported produce also has one more damaging side effect - hurting local organic farmers. They suffer the most , especially in when their crops are in season. After all consumers go for the cheaper which is the non organic., whether local or imported.If we buy nothing but  imports , then these small or niche growers will suffer greatly.

What should a home chef do? If you value nutrition over the earth then buy the produce,If you;re more green minded, then don't. It is your choice and sadly there is no  happy middle ground.