The Buzz: Your source for farm fresh berry info

March 6, 2017

Spring is on the way!

We are looking forward to some favorable weather conditions in California to help dry out the fields and bring on the fruit. Last week was sunny and cool but we are seeing the night time temperatures inch up and the days get longer so that should help the plants and the fruit moving forward.

For more information, including crop and weather reports, please scroll below.

Crop Updates

Oxnard: Things are looking better with each round harvested. There was some fruit damage from the rain that is being cleaned off and affecting short term volume forecasts. However, with dry and warmer weather for the next 10 days, the fields are looking very good and the fruit being picked has good size (10-14 ct) and condition is very good. Even with all the cleaning, there will be an increase in numbers this week and weeks ahead.

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Santa Maria: Fruit quality looks nice and will continue to improve moving forward. Mostly 14-16 count. We are seeing a few green shoulders but we will work out of that quickly as the temps increase this week and into next week.

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Blueberries: Our Chilean Blueberry program is winding down & production is limited for the next two weeks. We have kicked off our domestic blueberry season in Oxnard, both conventional and organic, which production will slowly increase as the weather heats up. Our Georgia fields look great this year with an abundance of great quality berries which are forecasted to begin harvests April 1st. Our Central Valley fields in California are 2 weeks later this year with a forecasted harvest of April 25th. So far quality looks great and we have planted new blueberry varieties that we are excited to bring into the market this year from both Georgia/California growing regions.  

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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. 

Santa Maria

Florida

Oxnard

Watsonville - Salinas

Mexico

Central Valley

Reaching Consumers

Farm, Family & Food

California Giant Berry Farms has published a favorite collection of stories and recipes into a cookbook. The 90 page bound book contains more than 30 recipes, each with full color photography and is now available for purchase via the company website or lulu.com. All proceeds from the sale of Farm, Family & Food will support the California Giant Foundation and the continued effort to provide kids with greater access to fresh produce through the Salad Bars to Schools initiative and other children nutrition programs both locally and nationally.

Compiling the recipes and the stories took months of analysis on www.calgiant.com, selecting recipes that were the most favored, clicked-on and downloaded in 2016 by loyal consumer followers. The book entitled ‘Farm, Family & Food is truly a combination of stories from the California Giant family, meaningful family recipes and those consumer favorites all bound into a colorful array of selections, featuring all different meal types and berry types.

The book was created to thank the most loyal consumers within the California Giant database of followers that engage with the brand multiple times a year and value the offerings by providing more insights into their shopping behavior and preferences. These consumers continually assist the California Giant marketing team improve communication style, direction in recipe development and offerings to build on purchases and trust.

New Addition to the California Giant Family

California Giant is pleased to welcome Jonathan Sparks to the sales team bringing over 15 years of produce experience to the group. Jonathan was previously in sales as the berry category manager for Robinson Fresh so brings a lot of experience to the team and can hit the ground running. He begins work at California Giant headquarters on March 6, 2017 and will complement the existing sales team providing depth building relationships with new trading partners as well as serving current key accounts.

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