Every kitchen has a few ingredients that make a dish taste right, and for Latin cooking those ingredients are usually vegetables and fruit you can’t grab at just any supermarket. At La Casa Latina in Ypsilanti, we keep a rotating selection of fresh produce chosen for how our community actually cooks and eats. Plantains and yuca for frying or boiling, jalapenos and tomatillos for salsas and sofrito, and a fruit selection that goes well beyond apples and bananas: mangoes, papayas, guava and other tropical fruit that taste like home to a lot of our customers.

We know produce is personal, whether it’s a vegetable or a piece of fruit. A tomatillo that’s too hard won’t break down right for salsa, a plantain at the wrong stage of ripeness changes the whole dish, and a mango picked too early never gets sweet. Our team pays attention to that, restocking often so what’s on the shelf is close to ripe and ready. Because we serve families across Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and the rest of Washtenaw County who cook Mexican, Central American, Caribbean and South American food, our produce section changes with what’s in season and what our customers ask us to bring in.

Shopping for specialty vegetables and fruit shouldn’t mean driving to three different stores. We built our produce section so you can grab the chiles, tomatillos, plantains and fresh herbs your recipe calls for, along with ripe avocados, citrus and tropical fruit for snacking or dessert, in the same trip as your groceries, meat and pantry staples. If you’re cooking something specific and aren’t sure what to buy, ask us. Many of our customers are doing the same thing: trying to recreate a dish or a flavor from home, and our staff can usually point you to the right item.

Come by 308 E Michigan Ave in Ypsilanti any day of the week, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and take a look at what’s fresh. Produce is one of those things that’s better seen in person than described on a webpage, and we’d rather you come check the shelves yourself than guess from a list online. Whether you’re stocking up for a big family dinner, need a few chiles for tonight, or just want a ripe mango, we keep our vegetables and fruit fresh, affordable and stocked with the specialty items Washtenaw County’s Latin community actually eats.