MARKET REPORT - SEPT 25TH 2015

We always buy local first.  Period.

The apple selection continues to multiply, and with harvests pushed up from normal because of the long hot summer, you should expect to see every possible variety listed by mid-October, including the highest pressure late apples – Fuji, Granny, Braeburn and possibly even Pink Lady.  Just a few nights of light frost will sweeten these up, and ground frost is in the forecast for most of next week across most Interior growing regions.  The first early BC Fuji’s are already listed.We’re keeping bananas on special for another week – great supply from both our South American coops and such a great reaction last week, we will offer through to Oct 3 at this great low price.We continue to be in an awkward transition on my products, and this cool, wet September has not helped, with spurts of local product and dribs and drabs of California and Oregon mixed in – we always buy local first.  Period.  But when there isn’t enough product we have to go south and this year we’re going south earlier on some product and later on others.  The biggest factor this year is that it was so bloody hot and dry early on that some crops were a month early – like zucchini, and our local producers don’t usually do multiple succession plantings, so once those plants burned out after a couple of months, there was nothing behind them like there would be in California or Mexico.  Of course, every grower will be kicking themselves for not having those second plantings if the long range forecasts are correct – with El Nino now in full force we are forecast to have normal precipitation and much above normal temperatures through until the end of the year, if their modeling is correct.  This will be one of the three strongest El Nino events in recorded history, and the first one to coincide with a much different climate than ever before.  Either way – here’s the most recent predictions from NOOAIf you are looking at this in colour, the darker the range of orange, the warmer it should be compared to normal (white).  This is obviously an American product, so they don’t include much of Canada, but the Canadian models are very similar in their projections.  (Just couldn’t copy and paste it!) So the end result is that we may see an extended supply of greens from the Fraser Valley well into November, but no chance of that happening on tomatoes, zucchini, melons, cukes etc., which hare pretty well done.One definite weather trauma to report is pumpkins.  Growers across the Fraser Valley are going to be hard pressed to try to keep pumpkins fresh for another month – seems as they all ripened ahead of time, like everything else, and fields are covered with bright orange beauties, but a month early, and you all know how quickly jack o’ lanterns go from perfect to mush – will be interesting to watch!Highlights for the week – Fair Trade grapefruit – this is rocking, not just because of the Fair Trade label, it is drippingly sweet with great colour. In fact, these are the only ones we’re listing!  (Drippingly isn’t even a Scrabble word – but it should be!)  We continue to offer a great selection of local and California grapes – a full range of colour of course, and a great special on this week on late harvests of Coronations. The California Keitt Mango harvest is winding down, with last harvests done but relatively strong supply available.  Strawberries continue to wind down quickly, with most growers wrapping up in Watsonville, or done.Virtually all our root crops are local, and will be for many months, with good to strong supply on everything from sunchokes to coloured beets, carrots to cabbage.  Expect continuing high prices on the green veg we import year-round (broccoli, cauli, celery) with some major pain going on in California with under-supply, water and weather issues, and a poor start to the desert regions where plantings were once again delayed because of abnormally high heat through September.   You can’t put broccoli transplants into hot sandy soil when its 40C out and expect them to survive.  It is 43C in Yuma today, and highs aren’t expected to drop even below 40C all week – so we expect a rocky road as Salinas areas wind down much faster than desert operations open up.  This hot spell in the deserts has been going on for 5 weeks with virtually no let up.  We have greatly expanded our own custom projects farther south in Mexico this year, so we are hoping to avoid supply issues in November, when predictions are that the road will be the rockiest.After my rant about organic farming, and soil in particular last week - being a very important part of climate change solutions, this press release popped up a few hours ago.Speaking at the Moral Action on Climate Justice demonstration Thursday, Larry Kopald, co-founder and president of organization The Carbon Underground, said it's "a solution that will put carbon back in the ground, a solution that will feed us better, make us healthier, create jobs, and even boost our economy.""What is this magic solution?" he asked. "You're standing on it [...] It's the soil."Kopald and his organization are not alone is calling for soil to be seen as part of a climate solution, with organizations including the Center for Food Safety, Organic Consumers Association, the Rodale Institute, and Vandana Shiva's Navdanya also touting the approach. Regenerative agriculture's ability to heal soil was also the focus of the Regenerative International Conference in Costa Rica this June, as well as the Soil Not Oil International Conference held earlier this month in Richmond, California.Kopald explained the problem with the dominant method of food production, saying, "Industrial agriculture techniques have destroyed most of the soil. Seventy percent of the soil on earth is dead or dying, and all of that carbon that should be in the soil is now stuck in the atmosphere causing climate change."