MARKET REPORT – SEPT. 11, 2015
Lots to talk about this week
Many new apple listings including the first pick of Ambrosia and Spartan expected on Tuesday morning – they are listed, but not available until early in the week. The local fruit sector continues to look fantastic, with good supply of peaches, plums, grapes, melons - summer has returned! We should have about 10 days worth of peaches available comparing sales, inventory at packers and last fruit on trees. Plums will go for longer with the latest varieties like Presidents just starting harvest. California mangos are also a hit – quality is superb as usual. 6 pear listings plus the first release of “apple pears” – Asian pears, with 20th century the first variety being harvested. It’s up to the weather at this point to decide how big the crop will be because the fruit is still growing. Berry supply is good – blacks, blues and straws all plentiful, despite Watsonville winding down. Most conventional producers there have started to pull plants to get ready for transplanting next year’s crop. It wasn’t a great year for packer/shippers in that area, organic or conventional, with ever-growing labour shortages plaguing most growers (along with water issues.)
A near perfect selection of BC greens, although there have been some shorts and gaps, which is why you will see the occasional California listing, plus our mainstay producer in Washington – Ralph’s Greehouses, whose greens range we try to keep in stock as much as possible. Other local semi-tropical field crops are also in fine shape, although zucchini has been tight, and will likely remain that way – plants are tired, and cool nights bring on leaf damage, but cukes, tomatoes, cherries, eggplant and peppers are all doing fine, and if the weather returns to normal, or warmer, the season could go well into October on those.For us, the excitement this week will be the first of the German Butter potatoes from Bruce Miller at Across the Creek. This has been our number one potato for centuries it seems, and for good reason – good lookin’ and good tastin’ – and adding the word “butter” into the name seems to make a big difference.The broccoli, cauli and celery markets continue to be stressed with prices fluctuating substantially every few days – but we do have a huge load of Esteban’s broccoli arriving on the weekend, and on special. He really needed to finish his broccoli harvest so he can clear those fields for strawberries. Unlike conventional growers, organic growers rotate crops – which is also the reason we will have Esteban’s berries through another 5 weeks, because he doesn’t have to strip them out to replant next year’s berries – they will be on another field!Here’s a great story out this week: Published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, a new research review suggests ants can control agricultural pests as efficiently as synthetic pesticides, with the bonus of being more cost-effective and generally safer. Ants offer a surprisingly effective alternative to synthetic pesticides on crops ranging from cashews to sugar cane, according to a new review of more than 70 scientific studies. And since many pesticides pose a danger to helpful wildlife like birds, bees and spiders, ants might be a key ally in feeding the planet's booming human population.Because ants are organized as a colony with individual ants moving around independently, they are uniquely capable of hunting down pests and then overwhelming them. “They are great hunters and they work cooperatively. When an ant finds its prey, it uses pheromones to summon help from other ants in the nest. By working together, they can subdue even large pests”, explains Joachim Offenberg, a biologist at Aarhus University in Denmark.In one three-year study, Australian cashew growers recorded yields 49 percent higher in trees guarded by weaver ants versus trees treated with synthetic chemicals. But higher yields were only part of the prize: The farmers also got higher-quality cashews from the trees with ants, resulting in a 71 percent higher net income.Cool eh?