October 15, 2018

Happy Monday!

It's THE big week - PMA Fresh Summit is just days away and we are looking forward to meeting with our fellow produce friends at the convention to talk berries, brews, and our 2019 programs and initiatives. That's right, we said brews - we're debuting our Scary Berry Blonde Ale as part of a collaborative local partnership with Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing. To learn and taste more - stop by booth #2159 to say hi to our team, and try this custom beer flavor. We'll see you soon!

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

Crop Updates

Watsonville - Salinas:

Weather is beautiful today with sunshine starting first thing this morning. Temperatures today forecasted for high 70s and back down to low - mid 70s for the rest of the week. Fruit quality looking a lot better than the past few weeks. We are not seeing rain damage, light- colored fruit and are seeing less decay. A week from today will be our first day of strawberry planting for the 2019 crop year. Satsuma Farms in Watsonville will be the first one out of the gates on Monday. As of right now, we have no rain forecasted for the rest of October.

Santa Maria:

Despite light showers last week, weather has cleared up and looks to be in the 70s-80s this week, with mostly sunny days and no rain in the immediate forecast. Monterey is looking good, but has downsized slightly. Our conventional Portola is facing minor bruising as the temperatures warm up. Our organic Portola looks great, with some small fruit counts at 25-28 but quality looking excellent. Organic San Andreas has smaller counts in the lower 30s, but overall, everyone is doing a great job of packing clean packs.

Oxnard:

Oxnard weather is relatively similar to Santa Maria, with temperatures in the 70s-80s this week. Today looks to be overcast and cloudy, but the rest of the week is forecasted to be warm and sunny. Fruit overall looks good, at 16-18 count and 95-100 percent color. We are experiencing our first Santa Ana wind event today - winds started around 4:00 am this morning, 25-30 mph with gust up to 40 mph. Fortunately the winds will die down by tomorrow. Our organic ranch is somewhat protected from the strong winds being up on a slope, and surrounded by avocados and lemon, but we still do feel some of the gusts. Fruit quality will continue to be monitored from these wind events today, but overall packs look great.

Mexico:

Raspberries look great - quality, size, color and taste are on track. Blueberries are looking good as well, with minimal defects. Maravatio strawberry counts look to be on the smaller side, but the plants look strong and nutritious with a lot of bloom. Production should rise in this region, and we're about 10 days to 3 weeks out from harvest. Our Ziracuaretiro blackberries look strong with good color, firmness and size. The slightly humid conditions in this region have been great for the crops. Overall, all regions are experiencing temperatures in the mid-upper 70s and dipping to the upper 50s at night. Days are still partly cloudy - but we are getting enough daylight. We receive scattered showers mostly during the night, which is not affecting quality.

Blueberries:

Mexico and South America blues are looking good. We received our first ever Peruvian berries last week. Argentina and Uruguay are slow to start, but increasing in production with steady supply for the next 7-10 days. Mexico crops are looking nice - growers in Celaya, Mexico have the most volume for us right now. The market is active and everyone is doing their best to harvest top quality for California Giant.

Florida:

Planting is about wrapped and harvest should begin in a few weeks. Weather is warm in the 80s-90s, with some showers underway mid-week this week. More photo updates to come.

* Our thoughts and prayers are with those families, friends, produce members and Florida residents affected by Hurricane Michael in Florida and surrounding areas.

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.

Reaching Consumers

Have you heard about our local partnership with Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing? We've teamed up on a 'scary' fun collaboration using our organic Watsonville strawberries to create a custom flavored Scary Berry Blonde Ale to serve at our booth #2159 at PMA Fresh Summit this week. Local folks can also try the custom beer flavor at the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing tap room.

If you want to swing by our booth to talk berries, we'll have a refreshing berry beer waiting for you!

Chef Shout Out

We may have had 5 chef finalists selected to attend and compete in our First Annual Chef Invitational, but that doesn't mean we didn't also salivate over some of the other recipe submissions we received during the selection process! This week, we are shouting out Markon Chef Demetrio Marquez, aka 'Chef D', to his friends, culinary colleagues, and restaurateurs on the Mississippi gulf coast.

This Markon Chef submitted a delicious Very Berry Egg in a Hole recipe. This dish is the perfect breakfast-brunch option, or, if you're in the mood for a breakfast-inspired dinner! Consumer's will be able to find this chef-inspired recipe, along with other Chef Invitational recipe submissions that didn't quite make it to the main event on our Buzz Blog and social channels - so they can recreate them at home!

Meet Chef D:

Born in Ft. Worth, Texas, Chef D began his cooking journey while living on a farm. He would farm and hunt with his dad, and cook with this grandmother - this was the earliest experiences he had cooking farm to table. Chef D began working in the food and beverage industry at the age of 15 as a dishwasher - this was his first stepping- stone in the kitchen.

Chef D worked as an apprentice under many highly credentialed executive chef's, becoming certified as "Chef D’ Cuisine” from the American Chef Federation by the age of 24. Chef D has 30 years of professional culinary experience cooking, instructing and leading as executive chef with several major hotel resorts, such as the Radisson, Renaissance, Sheraton, Hyatt Regency and many more. He has also cooked for many of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Casinos - such as Boomtown, Hard Rock and The Beau Rivage.

Chef D was the former Chef and owner of a successful southwestern-cuisine restaurant in downtown Ocean Springs, MS named "Chile Poblano". He is proficient in many cuisines, such as World Fusion, Pan Asian, and Classical French, Central and South American, Italian and regional American Foods. He was noted to instruct at the University of Southern Mississippi in the Culinary Program as Chef Garde Manger.

Consumer Spotlight

Sometimes the best things in life are simple and sweet - just like our raspberries. Thank you Moxxa from Mexico!

Pick of the Week

El Valle Produce in Watsonville is stocked up with some conventional strawberry 1lb. clamshells - the perfect afternoon pick-me-up snack.

Send us your own "pick of the week" and we will feature it here!

October 15, 2018

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