October 22, 2018

Happy Monday!

Welcome back from PMA Fresh Summit! We had a great week at the convention meeting with our trade partners - and look forward to continuing to collaborate and work together in 2019. If you missed us at our booth, you can still watch a full recap of our 2018 marketing initiatives in the video below. As we soar through the fall season our goal is to promote and ensure that berries are a top menu item for consumers - as comfort food, savory berries and skillet desserts fill plates and bellies during the festive, fall season.  

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

Crop Updates

Watsonville - Salinas: 

Weather in our Salinas-Watsonville regions was overcast this morning, but looks to warm up the rest of the week with temperatures in the 70s - and no rain forecasted for the next two weeks.  A few Watsonville growers will begin planting strawberries tomorrow - with more photos to come of the planting process. Overall, volume is slowing down as our other growing regions ramp up their harvest season.

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Santa Maria

Weather this week in Santa Maria looks to be in the 70s-80s, with partly cloudy skies. Temperatures could creep up so we will continue to keep a close eye on quality. However, the current quality looks excellent and we are packing clean packs. Portola looks beautiful, and size and color is near perfect. Counts on conventional fruit is 20-22, while organic counts are 22-24 among fall crop, and 28-34 in spring crop with size slightly smaller.

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Oxnard:

Weather is warming up this week and temperatures could rise into the low 80s, with no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. Fruit continues to look good, and size is holding at 16-18 count, while color is 95-100 percent. We anticipate a steady crop for the next 3-4 weeks and overall, quality looks great and packs look clean.

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Mexico:

Looking ahead to the week, there appears to be showers forecasted in most growing regions. Despite weather, we have good quality raspberries - with good size, color and taste. Our blueberries look good as well, with minimal defects. Strawberry counts are on the smaller size, but will increase in the weeks ahead. Our blackberry crop looks strong and firm with good size.

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Blueberries: 

Some of our South American growing regions are expected to receive showers this week. Our blueberries are increasing in production throughout our Argentina and Uruguay regions. We have light production from Peru and Mexico, and overall, quality is excellent with firm medium-large blueberries. 

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Florida: 

We wrapped up strawberry planting in Florida and anticipate our start of harvest in early November. Weather looks to be warm this week in the low-mid 80s and potential for showers at the end of the week.  More progress photos of crops to come soon!

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

Florida

South America

 

News

Did you miss us at PMA Fresh Summit? Not to worry - you can see a brief recap of our year in the video below that says it all.

 

Reaching Consumers

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We're a little over a week away from Halloween and our Scary Berries promotion is well-underway. We have received multiple consumer submissions on social media with festive costumes and 'dressed up' California Giant berries. Consumers have a few more days to submit their best Scary Berry inspiration for a chance to win, and meanwhile, our very own brand influencers are whipping up their own take on Scary Berry recipes. Dianna at The Kitchen Prep made a 'Spider Web' Blackberry Dessert Pizza - and we definitely want a slice! We look forward to continuing to promote healthy alternatives and the berry category during this fun, festive and scary October season.

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Chef Shout Out
Spice up the season with this Spiced Buttermilk Grits with Fresh Berry Compote dish from our very own Chef Invitational competitor Sysco Chef Russell Kerman. It was a competitive submission process, and while not every recipe made the cut this year to be a Chef Invitational finalist - we still received a number of impressive, innovative recipes that we recreated in our very own California Giant kitchen, and plan to enjoy during these fall-winter months...this recipe is definitely one of them!

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Get to know Sysco Chef Russell Kerman:
 

Chef Russell Kerman is a Johnson and Wales University graduate with a degree in culinary arts and food service management. Chef Kerman began his culinary career in Providence, Rhode Island working for some of the cities most elite chefs, honing his skills while also attending college. After college, Russell moved to New York where he became the Executive Chef of the Main Course Restaurant and Caterers. During this time, Russell had the opportunity to lead a brigade of the finest wedding caterers in New York. Russell has executed over 300 high-end weddings, cooked for countless celebrities, as well as many politicians.

Chef Russell has had the pleasure of cooking for 5 U.S. presidents. After 3 years in New York, Russell took his skills back to Rhode Island where he became the Corporate Executive Chef of the Pinelli Marra Restaurant Group. During that time, Russell was the Culinary Director overseeing 9 restaurants and 3 catering companies - and  held that position for 8 years.

Russell came onboard with Sysco Foodservice in 2011, and now holds the position of Corporate Chef for Sysco Columbia. We appreciate his participation in our first annual Chef Invitational, and look forward to seeing another submission at the 2019 event!

Consumer Spotlight
3 for 3 - we agree with all the above, Deb!
 
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Pick of the Week
The littlest member of the family for our Director of Retail Sales is also one of our biggest brand advocates - not to mention - a big California Giant raspberry fan!
 
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  Send us your own "pick of the week" and we will feature it here!

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