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Watsonville - Salinas:
Salinas and Watsonville have faced some foggy mornings with the sun peaking out in the afternoon and temperatures reaching the low 70s. We are still expecting strawberry volume to gradually decrease as the bush berries are expected to continually increase in volume. We are still seeing a good sized, color, and firm berry with counts at 16-18.
Santa Maria:
In Santa Maria, we are still producing a nice, full color, firm berry. Our Monterey variety is holding up well and our San Andreas variety has battled with minor bruising - counts are about 22-26. Our fall crop is looking good, and we expect to start scratching mid to late August. Blackberries are looking strong, and plants are pushing good blossom with a lot of green fruit hanging. Production will continue to increase over the next 4-6 weeks into our peak the first part of September. Quality continues to be very good, with a few leaky berries here and there, but we haven’t seen much red-cell developing. Santa Maria has seen some fog and light wind recently, however temperatures still remain in the 70s as the plants continue to produce.
Blueberries:
Weather in Oregon is starting off hot this week, and quickly entering into overcast, rainy days ahead, with temperatures to remain in the high 70s amidst showers. Our B.C. regions are anticipating some wet days this week as well. Be sure to reach out to our blueberry sales personnel to touch base on product this week and next following these showers. Despite the forecasted rain, quality has looked good with strong, firm blueberries.
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.
We're still on cloud nine from last week's 5th Annual Tour de Fresh and all the fun we had along the way. Our riders, on the other hand, are likely still recovering from the intense 4-day ride from Kirkwood to Monterey! We endured steep climbs, tough terrain, hot temperatures, lots of laughs and budding new friendships. But most importantly, we placed more salad bars into schools and raised $141,000! This year, we chose four different school districts across the country to provide at least 10 salad bars for each school district and couldn't be happier with the turn out thus far. That said, we are STILL accepting donations up until August 31, so keep them coming and let's get more salad bars into schools! We can't wait to see you all again next year in October for our 6th Annual Tour de Fresh through the beautiful California coast down to Anaheim to commence at PMA Fresh Summit. Stay tuned for details in the coming weeks!
Time has flown and tomorrow already kicks off the month of August! We know busy moms are rounding up their kiddos with school supplies and meal prepping for those early mornings and lunch boxes on-the-go. Not to mention the college students ready to grab 'n go before and in between classes, or for those late-night study sessions at the library! We love to make our consumers lives easier with fresh, delicious berry inspiration, which is why we're back at it with our 2018 Fresh Start Back to School promotion. We have two eBooks set to launch tomorrow -one for moms and one for college students, with the promotion to run from August 1-September 14. We have a plethora of tasty treats and hacks ranging from blueberry energy bites for on-the-move, berry yogurt stackers for in-between classes, and cinnamon sugar berry quesadillas for a sweet way to start the morning. Consumers that opt into email communications can download the eBooks and enter in for a chance to win a $250 gift card! We look forward to 'school-season' and incentivizing consumers with berry inspiration, quick, easy and energizing recipes for students all while keeping berries a front-runner in the produce department.
We loved meeting with our foodservice partners and friends at the 2018 PMA Foodservice show on Sunday in Monterey. We were proud to have Chef Invitational Top Chef Luis Reyes with Sysco, Central Florida with us to speak at our booth and represent Sysco on behalf of his winning dish that won the judges hearts at our First Annual Chef Invitational just earlier this month with his berry beet tomato salad. We hosted our partners from Sysco at our booth to conclude the successful day with a toast to Reyes, and a special congratulations to them all.
Already looking forward to next year's 2nd Annual Chef Invitational? We are too, and this video makes us even MORE excited. Watch below for a full video recap of the event from start to finish.
We spotted some huge, juicy California Giant strawberries at this South Lake Tahoe Raleys last week on our Tour de Fresh voyage!
