BC Cherry season coming on strong now!

Monday night changed the crop outlook for the BC fruit season rather dramatically as one of the worst severe thunderstorm outbreaks ravaged the Similkameen and South Okanagan.  A line of storms developed quickly in northern Washington and pummeled growers with intense rain, wind and large hail.  Some areas have been hit hard, while other producers missed the bullet by a few kilometres.Growers are assessing the damage now, but we can tell you that the Osoyoos and Oliver cherry crops have been damaged extensively, and initial reports are that there will be widespread hail damage to apples.  There is an official grade for Canadian apples called “hail grade”, where apples have pockmarks in the skin.  Expect to see these in the market this fall.  What a tragedy – this was going to be the bumper crop that made up for losses in the last two years, especially in a year where prices will remain high because of high demand from the East, where the apple crop was all but wiped out by frosts a few months ago in Ontario, Quebec and the northern US states.  Apricot prices have dropped as the season picks up steam in Washington.  Spences Bridge cherry season is done, and we have good supply from Cawston, which escaped much of the rain and hail. The Cristalina cherry is heart-shaped and slightly compressed. Fruit size is moderately large, flesh is moderately firm and nearly as dark as the skin, and moderately sweet and they just arrived from the Organics Plus packing shed today! This year’s mango crop from Sinaloa and Nayarit is stunning fruit.  Hot days and zero rain are producing abundant, large and beautiful coloured fruit, with prices continuing to drop.  Many regions are overlapping, with Baja expected to be a month early this year.  Jeff Mettler’s watermelon are perfect, with another wall of bins just in.   Rocking sales on peaches and nectarines, with a great weekend special lined up for you.  The local greens supply should amp up substantially over the next 10 days, with less and less reliance on California on many items.  Finally, we have yellow bells back after a 6 week gap when Mexico ended.  There’s a beautiful packout of mini peppers in stock from GBE – a nice treat!