Crop Updates
Watsonville - Salinas:
In Watsonville and Salinas, the weather has been on our side with temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s - falling into the 50s at night. Quality has been good as we continue to produce a firm and full-color berry. Size has fallen since our peak with counts around 16-18 with some 20-22. Our only significant issue with strawberries here have been softer fruit in the afternoon. We are looking forward to a strong few weeks as we expect production to creep back up.
Santa Maria:
Weather in Santa Maria has been favorable in the high to mid 70s with a lot of sunshine. We are expecting to see a warming trend coming up soon that may push the temperatures up into the 90s with the lows falling at night to the mid 50s. As the weather heats up labor has also become scarce. Quality has been hit and miss for the most part as we continue to fight with soft afternoon fruit. We will be wrapping up freezer crops soon and our season is expected to be over in the first week of August.
Blueberries:
Pacific North West
Oregon: We're well underway with harvest of our Duke variety blueberries throughout our Oregon growing regions. Quality and weather couldn’t be better. We have large, firm, sweet berries moving through our packing house as fast as possible. We anticipate a steady supply for the next 6 weeks.
Washington organics: We have excellent quality, large firm Duke blueberries steady for the next 2 weeks.
British Columbia: We started picking last week, but Mother Nature had other plans. We were rained out much of last week. Cool weather has kept the fruit just ripe for harvest, with no significant issues so far. We anticipate steady supply picked up this week moving forward.
Weather Conditions
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.
Watsonville
Salinas
Santa Maria
Oxnard
Mexico
Georgia
News
Another reminder to snag your tickets for our Annual Skirt Steak BBQ Tuesday, July 17th. If you can't make it to our California Giant Berry Farms office for this delicious, savory lunch - you're welcome to place your orders for donation. All proceeds help local organizations within our very own community!
Reaching Consumers
Consumers can look forward to some savings, and our partners can look forward to some intel because next week July 11th, we are kicking off our iBotta offer to run through the summertime months. With this program consumers will be able to hop on their iBotta app and with every California Giant strawberry and blueberry purchase, they redeem an instant rebate of $0.25 at any participating chain. Shoppers that click on the rebate offer will also be added to our database, and encouraged to enter the traceback number on their strawberry clamshell to track their berries back to the farm with the chance to win a gift card for participating in the process. Blueberry purchasers will be directed to a landing page to input their email addresses to enter our database, and enter for a chance to win a gift card as well. With this program, we not only look forward to creating an incentive around strawberry and blueberry purchases during heavy volume months, but also tracing back our berries to the farm, and providing us with valuable shopper insights in the process to relay back to our trade partners following the program. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for results – we can’t wait to share them with you!
Foodservice
Have you met the Chef Invitational Final 5? Tuesday, July 10th the competition begins as each of these 5 chefs duel to become named the First Annual Chef Invitational Top Chef.
From left to right
Chef Matthew Lauer (SYSCO):
Chef Matthew Lauer discovered his passion for cooking while taking any and every culinary class that he could while in high school. When he left home and started cooking for himself, he decided to follow his passion and enrolled in the Arizona Culinary Institute. From there, he started to work his way up the ladder in different restaurants to continually to learn new techniques. Eventually, he moved back to Montana and landed one of the best cooking jobs as at Sysco Montana, where he is able to stretch his creativity and help delight customers.
Chef Luis Reyes (SYSCO):
Chef Luis Reyes is a very valuable piece of Sysco Corporation, leading the culinary team in Central Florida as their Executive Chef, in which he has enjoyed the opportunity to impress exceptional people and elite celebrities, but he explains that the real satisfaction of his career comes from helping and supporting small “mom and pop” restaurants that lack great marketing budgets like big chain restaurants.
Chef Laura Vaughn (US Foods):
Award winning pastry chef Laura Vaughn started her career working in restaurants and private clubs, and her professional and educational experience includes a background in both pastry and savory cooking as well as teaching and sales. She joined US Foods in 2013 as Corporate Sous Chef, and quickly moved into the Bakery Product Development role, creating a robust portfolio of artisan breads, pastries and desserts sold nationally. After years of working with bakery manufacturers across North America and Europe, Laura went back to her roots in the kitchen and took the helm as Corporate Brands Chef. These days, her role includes lending her culinary voice to new product concepts and acting as liaison between new product development, customers and sales teams.
Chef Ty Baloca (Renaissance Food Group):
Chef Ty Baloca was born and raised in Salinas, California. He graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 2002. Prior to graduating from culinary school, he completed a 3 month externship at the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, CA. After graduation, Ty relocated to Sacramento, California where he worked his way up from a line cook to the Executive Chef of Scott’s Seafood in Folsom where he worked for 8 years. He moved on from the restaurant business to become a Chef Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts where he shared his real world experience with his students for a 3 year tenure. The past 4 years he has been a Corporate Chef for Renaissance Food Group as part of the Product Development team.
Chef Shane Henderson (Markon):
Shane’s passion for cooking began while learning on the job. After graduating high school, he enrolled at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Speech Communication and Criminology. As a college student, Shane’s culinary passion grew while working at the Jonesboro Country Club. Shane enrolled at the prestigious culinary school at Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI. Not only did Shane excel at school, he also took full advantage of his time on the East Coast to learn honored methods of preparing fresh seafood and to embrace the art of home-style Italian cooking. After culinary school, Shane returned to his native Arkansas roots, and continued to hone his culinary and management skills. He has worked for a number of well-known establishments including John Brown University, Ridge Pointe Country Club, Simply the Best Catering and the Argenta Market. For the last seven years, Shane has served as Executive Chef for Ben E. Keith Foods, Mid-South Division, in North Little Rock.
Consumer Spotlight
Did you hear? Cal Giant strawberries... the best berries this year!
Pick of the Week
This kiddo loves Cal Giant! Here are some 1lb. strawberries spotted at Publix in Winter Haven, FL.
