Produce News

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August 16 - 22
What to Expect

LETTUCE: Previous weather issues in the Salinas Valley in California are still causing quality issues with Romaine and other lettuces. We will probably see high Romaine prices for a couple of more weeks. The 24 count Romaine pak is up $4 this week. Iceburg lettuce is up $1.50. Green leaf is up $3 – probably because of other lettuce markets being high in price.

PEPPERS: Both medium and large green bells are down $1 and green chopper bells are down $2 – both locally grown and very nice quality. Yellow bells are down $5 and the 25lb. chopper red bells are down $1.

TOMATOES: The 25lb. No.1 mediums and large are both down $1. Grape tomatoes are down $1 and about the same price per flat as cherry tomatoes. There is about 2 and ½ times the number of grape tomatoes in a flat than the cherry tomatoes and the grape tomatoes have had great color and flavor. The 25lb. Roma pak is down $1.

AVOCADOES: The 48 count California Hass avocadoes are up $3 this week as the market is driven up because Mexico is done, Chile hasn’t started shipping yet. The new crop out of Mexico could start in about two weeks and then we’ll see the market drop down in price.

BERRIES: The price of strawberries went up $1 at midweek, last week, with no price change so far this week. The berries still show some bruising due to hot weather, but the color is good. We will have to switch to California raspberries for a week or two because the hot weather stopped local raspberry production. Blueberries and blackberries are still local and very nice quality.

LEMONS: When the freeze came through California and Arizona a couple winters ago a lot of trees were damaged, production dropped and prices went up. Traditionally lemon prices go up in the summer because of higher demand and drop off in pricing in the winter. We’re seeing some price drops now as supplies are good. The 115 size standard grade is down $3. The 140 count choice are down $5, the 115 choice are down $4, the 235 fancy grade (Sunkist) are down $2 and the 165 fancy grade (Sunkist) are down $9.

VEGETABLES: Asparagus is down $4. Asparagus prices have been high with product coming out of Mexico. The 25 lb. pak of large topped beats are down $1. They are locally grown and you can cut them up and cook them, then chill and dress in oil and vinegar dressing for a cool summer salad! Red cabbage is down $1 and also locally grown now. Corn is in heavy harvest locally and the yellow is down $3 and white is down $1. Snow peas are down $3 in the 10 lb. pak. Tomatillos are down $1, also locally grown now. Cauliflower is down $2 in the 12 count pak

What's New, What's in Season

FRESH CORN: With a lot of our local produce running two to four weeks behind because of cold early spring weather, we’re going to see big jumps in local produce availability and fresh corn is coming into full swing right now! We stock 48 count cartons of white corn (item # 480533) and yellow corn (item # 825425). Be sure to store fresh corn at the rear of your cooler (coldest area) and be sure to use it as quickly as possible. It’s ok to ice corn to maintain freshness- just toss a scoop of ice on top of it. If you are serving half ears to customers be sure to cook the ears whole and cut them in half after cooking. If you break them in half before cooking you will bruise the kernels and they will cook up brown. At our last Thursday’s information update (8-14) ,that we do at the warehouse, I demonstrated a really fast way to shuck fresh corn. Wayne Roland (one of our marketing associates) video tapes each Thursday’s update and it is e-mailed to your sales person- ask to see it! Bicolor (white and yellow mix) corn is also available by special order.

TOURS OF THE CALIFORNIA GROWING REGIONS: I and several sales associates toured the Southern California growing regions of the Salinas Valley a week ago and what sights to see! We walked through one of the many strawberry fields of “Nartureripe” and learned about production and harvest of fresh strawberries. There are 400,000 cartons of lettuce packed per day in the Salinas Valley at this time of year and we saw Iceberg lettuce being packed in the field and drove by many fields of romaine, red leaf and green leaf too. On Tuesday of last week we spent the morning at “Earthbound Farm” and saw the packing of many of the fresh organic produce items that we stock from “Earthbound Farm.” They are a company that we partnered with many years ago and we both look forward to a long association as the trend to organic produce just keeps going up. We saw new items throughout our travels and you’ll be hearing more about these items from your salesperson soon.

DINING OUT IN THE NORTHWEST: This Saturday tune in at 1410 am or 1600 am from 12:00 to 1:00 pm for great Northwest restaurants. You can call in at 503-227-1410 or toll free at 1-88-214-9237 and ask our guests or the chefs a question. We’re stream’en live at www.KBNP.com too!

FINAL THOUGHT: As many of you know, I am the master of putting things off until later. It always seems to me that I’ve got too much going on all the time and all of my projects get a little less than the attention they deserve. I’ve got to get my 1950 Ford fired up, I just bought a natural gas heating system for my shop a couple of weeks ago (I love craigslist!), my 1956 Ford hasn’t seen the road for a few years (but it’s close to running), there is a Model A frame in the shop that looks very sad just standing up against the wall ( but there’s a hot rod Model T frame arriving soon that will keep it company), but everything changed last Sunday when a friend of mine stopped by the house and showed me videos of his Model A coupe going down the road. That was it – I will be working on my 1928 Model A sport coupe to at least get it fired up from now forward! It will be a sweet day when its’ straight pipe exhaust creates some noise around the neighborhood! More to come –

-Have a fresh week-

Ben Bocci (“Broccoli Ben”)
Produce Specialist
503-980-2589