Produce Update-February 20 2015

As usual here’s Randy’s weather report:  Crazy!  By the end of the week over 1000 record low temperatures will have been broken across the eastern US and dozens more in Eastern Canada.  That cold air is funneling from Siberia, directly over the North Pole and streaming all the way to Florida – where for the first time in decades they were scraping frost in the Disneyworld parking lot in Orlando Florida.  At the same time we bask in record breaking warmth here on the West Coast.  The bees are out, the ski season that never was will likely never be and the blueberries are budding. That being said, if it gets cold for March and April, which is not out of the question, there is a huge risk of blueberry buds and blossoms getting frosted, which is not good news.  The heat is on in California, with strawberries already starting to harvest as far north as Watsonville, although in very small quantities.   Your weekly California drought update?  99.84% of California is in drought, as is parts of Oregon, Washington and SW BC.  The area in exceptional drought, which includes all growing areas is already at 44%, when it was at 14% this week last year.  The Sierra snowpack is only 13% of normal and behind last year.That all being said, things are far worse in other places.  The first geo-political climate change related movement of people has begun.  The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil has the same population as Canada.  They are served by 6 reservoirs, which currently are between 2 and 11% full.  Water supply has been reduced to 2 buckets a week for the majority, especially the ‘poor’ people who represent 2/3 of the population.  Between 10 and 20,000 people are already fleeing weekly, with those numbers expected to increase substantially unless there is significant rainfall in the next few weeks.  In our terms, think what would happen here if everyone in Canada had 2 buckets of water a week?Back to produce news.  All is good on our tropical front, with good supply of quality bananas, excellent avocado selection and just stunning mangos (well, you probably know that because you are getting them.)  Expect ripening times to be 4 days next week.  If you are planning an ad and want riper fruit, let us know and we will schedule to move them to a warmer area where they will break more quickly.   While the Peruvian crop was unusually late and small, we were very lucky to get everything we wanted and more, and now the earliest Chiapas Ataulfo are here, although priced substantially higher.What is an Opal apple?  This is a “chance” variety – something that just appeared from natural cross-pollination – the same as the Ambrosia.  Opals ripen bright yellow and thinking is that Mom or Dad was a Golden Delicious.  It’s a European Variety and only grown on one ranch in Washington.   Our last large load of Fairtrade Grapefruit is about 10 days away as the Mexican season winds down.  Speaking of AweSum – beautiful Red Globe grapes in stock – and certified Fairtrade – excellent!  The rest of the fruit selection looks good – pineapple is very tight and we are looking for more options – pineapple supply from Costa Rica has far more to do with packing plant limitations and transportation than actual supply (except in hurricane season when it is a crap shoot.)The coldest place we buy green veg from right now is central Mexico so we aren’t shipping leaf lettuce this week until it has recovered from a little frost nip a few days ago.  Local cucumbers starting up but expect them to be a little smaller than the Mexican product – this is the first pick.  Romaine markets flipped yesterday with very little product and nearly instant price jumps – seems there is a looming shortage.Also in seemingly perpetual short supply – spinach, zucchini, and a quickly tightening market on bell peppers and cherry tomatoes with cooler overnight temperatures slowing production across Northern Mexico.