Late Citrus Varieties and Abundance of Green Beans in Stock

Well, we certainly missed the weather bullet here on the Coast.  You may want to look at what happened just to the south of us - the worst winter storm to ever hit Washington and Oregon.  Up to a meter of snow, 120 kmh winds, ice storms and now balmy and flooding, including some of the farms we work with in the Willamette Valley.  This only means some northbound trucking delays for us, with one truck already delayed 30 hours. 

We’ve reduced our mango prices a bit – the high prices this year seem to be a deterrent, although they are mirrored at the conventional level as well. 

Late citrus varieties – bloods and kumquat have arrived.  Lemon pricing is slowly easing off – we desperately need more growers, and the only place with rapidly growing supply is in Chile and South Africa, which doesn’t really do us much good. 

Fair Trade avocado and grapefruit sales continue to be brisk, with another load just in – keep it coming!  Pricing is holding and supply will be excellent through the spring as we transition to Peruvian product. 

Although a late start to the season the first Sweet Valencia’s are arriving from Sonora Growers Association on the weekend.  With California about to finish, timing is perfect.

Green beans are more than plentiful.  It just took one more large grower (Sr. Tepia at Rico Farms) to get into the swing and prices are now demand based.  Don’t worry – they are still making good money, and lower prices increase turnover and quality everywhere. 

All it took was a few warm days to bring on a flush of broccoli – and a pleasant price reduction. All supply is from the Salinas and Oxnard areas along the central coast. The quality is excellent and its nice to have another label – Josie’s from Braga Farm, who has 12 years growing broccoli in Salinas. 

With Ray out of the leek market due to rather extreme weather, supply is now coming from our next in line sources farther south into California.  Of course, under higher demand, prices are rising (Ralph’s Greenhouse is the largest leek supplier in the U.S.). 

Hate to see the last of some varieties of B.C. squash, but you can only stretch it out so far.  Supply will be tight this spring because the eastern U.S. had 40% crop loss last September with a freak frost.

Greens prices are otherwise high – this is NOT a weather related issue, except maybe this week.  There is simply an increasing demand for organic greens that the growers are not keeping up with, and nothing can change that overnight!