Buyer's Notes - May 28, 2021
Buyer’s Notes - May 28, 2021
Stefan Misse, Carter Selmes-Blythe, Brody Irvine, Jon Maheswaran - Discovery Organics
From Stefan:
Apricots - clear sailing here for a couple more weeks.
Berries – we are literally buried in all 4 berries this week. Fresh arrivals every 2 days and quick turns and premium weather finally and we are set to cover all your berry needs. Please ask first if you want to set up an AD so our amazing sales team can get you into the rotation. Mexican strawberries expect to wrap up in 1 more week and then we will (hopefully) be getting into stronger supply from Martinez. Esteban and his crew have tonnes of berries but the weather is still cool and they just aren’t hitting their peak yet. Forecasts look good for that to change in the first weeks of June.
Cherries – Jeff Ferrari is hit the peak couple weeks of his harvests and we are set up well here for supply and quality. Check in with our sales team if you want to run any specials.
Mango – Nissa from Crespo had a chance to get into some of the orchards this week and her notes to us are :
Mexico is dealing with some drought conditions and generally lower temperatures than normal so the fruit that is on the trees will likely be smaller than usual and there is certainly more fruit drop from the trees due to lack of water.
Nectarines – Also great eating fruit right now and there just hasn’t been any rain to cause issues (yet)
Peaches - supply is steady here and quality has been superb.
Plums – we will have some red and black in this week to get your displays a little wider for summer flavours.
From Carter:
Asparagus – Washington grass makes a return Saturday to our warehouse. Light supply out of Mexico arriving Sunday from Devine! Look for Gourmet Trading WA Asparagus to arrive early next week.
Sea Asparagus – available Monday in a 12x100g pack out!
Green Beans – Rico Farms officially wrapped up for the season. New crop California arriving Monday from Cal-O and look for Creekside Organics to arrive mid next week.
Eggplant – MX finishing up! CA up next on eggs.
Cucumbers - the Nogales season is almost finished, and Baja has started up. CA field/juice in a few weeks
LE Cucumbers – pretty well moving to all OriginO for the summer.
Fiddleheads- roughly 3 more weeks of Fiddles available from West Coast Wild. Get these tasty treats while you can.
Onions - New Mexico and California’s harvests are in full swing. Pricing is steady and quality is grrrrrrrrrreat!
Garlic – we have a confirmed arrival of Purple Garlic arriving Wednesday, June 2nd. Finally!
Mushrooms – morels available in light production next week in a 12x100g pack out.
Peppers – Wilson Produce Mighty Mini Sweet Peppers have arrived! Mellow, juicy, crunchy—all words to describe these little sweet peppers that we love.
Potatoes – fingerling potatoes should be arriving to Vancouver Tuesday. California reds have arrived and we should see our first arrival of CA russets June 7th.
Tomatoes Heirlooms – sensational fruit coming out of the greenhouse from OriginO.
Zucchini – BC Zucchini en route end of next week!
From Brody:
Baby Bok Choy – the great local baby bok choy from Blue House Organic Farm in Pemberton is almost ready! We should see the first drop of these beauties on Thursday.
Cauliflower – by the end of next week we should see some cauliflower arrive from Fresh Venture Farms, an independent small organic grower based in Oxnard California. This year they are trying out a pack of cauliflower that is plastic free… just letting nature protect the white head of cauliflower by keeping the long wrapper leaves on. It’s a great packout and has that ‘fresh from the farm’ look – because it is fresh from the farm!
Kale – the local kale season is starting up so expect to see more and more listings from our local growers. We’ll also have our Ecocampos program going and they are sending some really beautiful bunches of kale these days. They are giant!
Lettuce – local lettuce is hot to trot these days too! Gorgeous and straight from the field to our warehouse. This is the lettuce we’ve all been waiting for.
Spinach – our local growers are really coming into a glut of spinach and they need help! Please ask us for promotional opportunities and we can even help you set up in-store farmer profiles for you to help bring customer attention to this delicious local crop.
Radishes – another local crop that is just rad-ishing right now.
Mustards and Arugula – these mild spiced and zippy greens are sure to get some extra customer love this week. Great spring crops that really take salads and pizza up a notch.
From Jon:
Melons - transitioning from Mexico to California this week/next week. Last shipments from Mexico are extra sweet!
Grapes - red and green in full flow. The long list of specialty grapes from Divine Flavor is just a couple of weeks away – many new ones this year as their 15 year long trials and breeding programs continue to delight with superbly sweet, a variety of taste profiles, and great shelf life all add up to happy customers.
Green Dirt Salads - ready to go next week. Get your pre-orders in!