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Watsonville - Salinas:
About 2 inches of rain swept this region over the weekend. Despite the showers – weather has cleared up beautifully since with clear skies and sunshine following the storm. Today starts the week off at a high of 79 degrees, with the remainder of the week trickling down into the mid-low 60s with rain on the forecast again for potentially Monday of next week. We are starting the week off cleaning fields from the rain and prepping for some harvest the second half of the week. Crops and fruit are looking great and large, and are expected to increase significantly in volume May- June, with our peak predicted for mid-June.
Santa Maria:
This region experienced light showers over the weekend – with most rainfall stemming north of our Santa Maria- Oxnard regions. This week, weather looks mild and temperate with temperatures ranging from high 60s- mid 70s, and an even warmer day today to kick off the week in the mid 80s. We have large fruit and flowers coming out, with San Andreas at 12-16 count, Fronteras 12-14 count with excellent quality, and organic San Andreas and Monterey at 16-18 count. Our organic fall crop is starting to regress slightly in terms of quality, but our fieldmen are being disciplined in packing. Labor is in good shape with a lot of foot traffic. Some ranches went piece rate last week, with more starting this week following the weekend showers. Volume is expected to jump industry-wide in this region in the weeks ahead.
Oxnard:
This week looks to be a warm one in Oxnard with today’s temperatures potentially reaching the high 80s. The rest of the week looks to fluctuate in the high 60s –low 70s with another day in the 80s predicted for Saturday. This warm weather should spike production, with our peak week being this week and lasting for the next 3 weeks. Size among San Andreas and Fronteras is 14-16 count, 95-100 percent color and very little defects. It was a busy last week in this region as piece rate just took of last Monday.
Mexico:
Our Mexico regions have remained consistently in the high 80s –low 90s, with nights in the 50s. No rain is scheduled in the immediate forecast. Quality among raspberries is still decent with counts mostly 30-33, with the occasional 28-30 in 6oz clamshells. Blackberry quality is similar, with minimal defects. Volume was slow last week, but we are expecting it to increase slightly by the end of this week as we begin packing blackberries in Zamora and Tangancicuaro.
Blueberries:
Our Georgia blueberry crop looks excellent and packed with fruit, and is set to start scratching this week. Blackberries are tentatively kicking off May 20th with a big crop on the way this season weather permitting.
For up-to-date weather conditions in all of our growing regions, click on the region below. Wunderground.com is our go-to weather resource for fast and reliable weather updates.
Thanks to our friends at United Fresh, we have FREE exposition passes to offer our trade partners to attend this years United FreshMKT Expo June 25-27 in Chicago. Click here to download your tickets, and come say hi to us at booth #1236. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to discover new insights on every facet of fresh produce marketing, collaborate with exhibitors, and chat with our team about our berry program, marketing initiatives and so much more.
Did you miss our Facebook Live ‘Ask a Farmer’ video last Friday? No worries – you can still view it here! It was a pleasure interviewing longtime Cal Giant conventional and organic strawberry grower Tom Jones on all things spring berries. Reaching thousands of viewers and answering an array of questions straight from the farmer themselves is one of the many ways we like to connect with our consumers. We look forward to more educational, interactive videos in the weeks ahead.
Submissions from our competing chefs are streaming in for our First Annual Chef Invitational Challenge this summer, and we are loving all the excitement we are receiving from our partners and chef participants. We already know it will be a challenge to sift through these recipes and ultimately choose the top 5 recipes and chefs to compete – but that’s ok! We are looking forward to seeing an array of innovative recipes come our way, and hope you make our decisions tough and tricky.
We want to stress the importance of innovation and creativity in your recipe submissions – as our goal is to take these recipes and utilize them across our website, blog and social platforms with a realistic approach for replication among our audience, while also utilizing berries in a way that some may not have thought to! Keep the submissions coming – we can’t wait to see what’s in store.
Question of the week: Can you explain travel accommodations for the selected chef’s traveling to Monterey, California for the event? What is included?
Answer: We are excited to invite the top chefs, as well as their plus-one to attend the event. All chefs will have king bed ocean view rooms – perfect for a spouse or significant other to accompany them. If the chef decides to invite a companion to attend the event, meals and hotel accommodations for the invited guest WILL be covered by California Giant (airfare is not included in travel package).
When you're headed to Albertson's and the only thing on the your grocery list is Cal Giant blues!
