Produce Update-April 17 2015
What a crazy week – nothing is ever perfect, but the perils of weather and transportation certainly took their toll. We had a truck full of Agrofresco /Ecocampo greens stuck in Utah for 2 days because of dust storms with 120 km/h winds closing highways. Another truck, trying to pick up avocado and grapefruit was stuck between Aptzingan and Nueva Italia, in Michoacán, with blockades of huge rocks and burning tires in both directions as another clash between vigilantes and military police broke out. It’s ok, everything is here or has crossed the Mexico border, but it’s always an adventure. Weather has also thrown a wrench into strawberry supply for the next few days, with a big flush last weekend, followed by a big drop in temperatures a few days ago, and only 25% of normal heat units forecast through next Wednesday. Sorry about the shorts and prorates, especially when we’ve been having a great run on Martinez berries – and the situation won’t improve until mid-week. Esteban scoured his fields and has cancelled next harvest until Monday. Avocado pricing has not increased, we are seeing great quality, and another truck is on the way, (although a couple of days late,) but we won’t gap on anything except bagged fruit.Have you tried that stunning Pragor grapefruit? We always get to sample it in the orchard when we are visiting and end up covered with juice – and then the little mosquitoes that just nailed us get stuck – it’s grim, but worth it. Look for great pricing on larger fruit. This program will wind down during May. And those traditional key limes are packed with flavor – at ½ the price of Persian limes, definitely look at them –Mexicans know their limes – who do you think invented the margarita in the first place? Little Churchill orchards, high in the hills above Ojai, California, has sent us some of their fabulous oro blanco grapefruit – just think grapefruit plus honey = oro blanco.We’ve sent you a special sheet on the launch of our Mexican fairtrade mango program. For years we have bought from Andres Palacio, an orchardist, packer and shipper under the elite label. Andres himself has seen the fairtrade light, and with a few other growers have joined the program – so the same great fruit, but with fairtrade certification. And of course, this fruit is also not hot-water treated. These will arrive early in the week – we’re hoping to ship starting on Tuesday. Don’t be shy – and if you want to do volume promotions, let us know so we can ripen them for you – ready-to-eat fruit always sells faster than hard rocks! After rocky roads for the Ecuador and Peru seasons, Mexico is primed for their biggest volumes ever.The greens market continues to be hopping busy, plagued by short-supply, which seems to happen every year around this time as organic sales bump up after Easter. Why is this? If you know please tell us, because we haven’t figured it out! The OTA just announced that there are now over 125,000 organic farms in the US, the largest amount of any country, and second behind Mexico in over-all acreage.We’re expecting an amazing assortment of fairtrade products for the month of May which is fairtrade month. Julie will be cramming out as much POS info as possible – if you need signage or pictures or whatever please let us know and we will try to do our best to back you up – and watch for lots of fairtrade product on ads throughout the month. Luckily, may is the month when we seem to have the widest selection of certified fruit and vegetables! For later in May, we will be introducing red and baby bananas from Cerro Azul – all these programs take a long time to put together, and this one is 2 years in the making, but we have confirmation!Blueberries are coming on incredibly fast across the central valley – most growers have moved to larger clams already. Homegrown, also marketed as their Tule classic brand, is always our primary vendor – a grower owned company heavily invested in social programs – reaching out financially to communities in the global south, as well as offering ESL programs at their ranches for their permanent Latino workers – including over $10,000 in scholarships annually.Globe artichokes from Gustavo at Agrofresco are incredible – considering this was a trial he did for us and he’s never grown them before we’re pretty thrilled – clean, tight heads, big and meaty! Asparagus prices are up – unseasonably – there has been a mystery die-off in one large growing area near Bakersfield – it’s in the news, but there aren’t answers yet.