What's Ripe: Big or small, these grapes are delicious

The Princess grape is one of the largest grapes you'll find in the produce department. It looks like a Thompson seedless on steroids. It was developed by Dr. David Ramming at the U.S. Department of Agriculture research facility near Fresno. It is a cross between a muscat, from which it gets tons of flavor, and a Thompson, from which it gets the seedless part.

This Princess grape also has something all kids love: crunch. It's one of the crunchiest grapes I have ever eaten. Big, crunchy, seedless and sweet -- your kids will fight to see who gets the last one.

Let's travel to the other end of the size universe. The tiniest of all the grapes grown commercially also may be the sweetest grape grown on earth. It's the Black Corinth, also marketed as a Champagne grape. This is the grape used to make super-sweet dried Zante currants. These tiny pearls have as much as 23 percent sugar content. A really good Thompson will have about 18 percent sugar.

The Champagne grape is 100 percent edible, stem and all. Just pop a small cluster in your mouth and prepare for a grape flavor explosion. The Champagne grape is sold in 1-pound containers and should retail for around $1.99 to $2.49 per pound.

-- Michael Marks

In the bins	Growing area	Nutrition	Price	Buying tips
Cucumbers	Fresno, Salinas, local	low calories	69 cents to 89 cents each	It's tough to find a good cuke right now. We are seeing a lot of "yellow bellies" -- a sign that heat has gotten to the cucumbers and an indication the seeds will be large.
Honeydew melons	San Joaquin Valley	potassium	39 cents to 49 cents per pound	These melons are perfect right now. If you see "stretch mark" lines on the melon, they are sugar marks. When the melon feels velvety and sticky, eat it right away for a taste of melon heaven.
Cilantro	Salinas, San Joaquin Valley	low calories	99 cents to $1.29 per bunch	The cilantro bolted to seed during the July heat wave, which is why it is much more expensive than it usually is at this time of year.
Figs	Fresno	fiber	$1.99 to $2.99 per basket	The second crop of figs has begun, so we'll see better supplies and prices. Get them out of the basket and store them in a single layer.

Source: Michael Marks, known as "Your Produce Man" during the noon news Mondays on Channel 13 (KOVR), has been in the produce industry for more than 25 years.