The first few vegetables that come out of our garden at home hold a special meaning for me that is hard to replicate in a store or even a farmers’ market. It was summer squash this year; a half dozen round green scaloppini and yellow sunburst varieties. These were small and still had the blossoms attached – barely enough for a side dish and all had that delicate layer of spiked fur that the plant produces to protect itself from insects. As I slice them for a sauté, I know I’ll be swimming in squash in a month or so but this first small sample of the flavors of summer always comes with a simple but special kind of joy and pride at having provided for my family with my own two hands. Read the rest of this entry »

The last few years have brought a renaissance in local and regional farm support. Consumer demand for produce grown close to home has increased exponentially, and that demand is serviced by farmers’ markets and retailers who are able to successfully blend local and long haul purchasing. You might think that since I run an office that specializes in buying and shipping product from around the world that I would feel my livelihood is threatened by this local farm resurgence, but nothing could be further from the truth. In most cases the carbon footprint for a local purchase is smaller, the return to the grower is, on average, greater and, in the case where the product is more flavorful, purchasing and selling local produce can increase overall consumption (which benefits long haul as well). In essence, I believe there is room and need for both. Peaches are a great example of this and pride in local production is furious.

In the places in the U.S. where I have lived or visited during local peach season, local growers always share a reason why their local peach is the absolute best. It might be the soil, the number of chill hours in the winter, the pattern of spring rainfall, heat units in the summer, the variety and its compatibility with the region, or just the way the fruit is picked and handled in post harvest. I generally agree with whoever is telling me about the local virtues, since it gives me more time to wolf down the fruit they have just picked off the tree for me. Read the rest of this entry »

In the back yard of our home in Aptos, CA, we have a cherry tree. It’s easily as old as our house and about as tall (40 feet at its highest point). The variety is Queen Anne – a yellow cherry with a red blush that sizes very well and has excellent flavor. We moved in our home towards the end of April last year, just as the tree was finishing its bloom. From May through mid June I excitedly watched the fruit get larger and color change from green to a yellow/red. Midway through the second week in June, I decided they were ready and planned to harvest them with my son the following Saturday – the fruit was plump and beautiful; a few more days on the tree I thought, and the sugar would be just right. Read the rest of this entry »

The time to worry about apricots is in February. Every farmer in the central valley dreads the series of warm days and moderate nights that awaken their trees from their winter dormancy. Being the first to put out a bloom anyway, the apricot is particularly susceptible to early signs of spring and as the delicate white flowers emerge the apricot farmer knows his crop is in trouble. Joining the late variety citrus grower, the apricot farmer must now endure the last of the winter’s weather – with a fragile blossom’s survival deciding the fate of the season.

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Around the middle of April, lots of things start happening with fruit in the produce biz. Citrus starts to fade – we still see plenty of great late availability in oranges, lemons and grapefruit but many of the cool varietals finish for the season. Apple and pear variety generally tends to shrink at this time as well, though they will get a boost in the form of new crop off shore arrivals from South America. Berries are in full swing but very weather dependent and the early soft fruit (peaches, plums, apricots and cherries) choices are limited to non-existent. Springtime marks a time of renewal and growth but, in the world of fresh produce, spring also means a gap separating the end of the domestic winter (or hard fruit) season and the beginning of the summer (soft fruit) season. It is in this gap that mangoes are at their seasonal best – a “bridge fruit” that carries us from winter to summer. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in 1988 I thought I knew everything about produce. At the ripe old age of 26 I had already spent a third of my life plying the trade so, of course, there was nothing anyone could teach me. At the time, Whole Foods Market had just six stores – five in Texas and a new one in New Orleans (acquired through a merger with what was then called the Whole Food Company). We had just signed leases on two new stores – one in Richardson, Texas and the other in Palo Alto, California – our first store out west. I was produce team leader at our Dallas store and was drawn to Palo Alto because much of the organically grown produce we sold in Texas was grown around the Bay Area. I always remember the Palo Alto store during springtime because what saved me from my own insufferable arrogance was not a person but an item – artichokes taught me I did not, in fact, know everything about produce. Read the rest of this entry »

Ripe in the field – Santa Maria, California

One of the great annual events of spring is the beginning of the domestic berry season. The true starting point has blurred because of global production, early producing varieties and weather protection technology (like hoop houses). Mother Nature also plays a huge role — too much rain slows production down; too much sun brings all the fruit on at once; a late freeze burns off the blossoms or even kills the plant, which can put whole growing areas out of business for a season.

Here at the Whole Foods Market produce buying office in Watsonville, California, we are surrounded by miles and miles of strawberry, raspberry and blackberry fields — Watsonville is the last of three major growing areas for berry production to come online in California. But the large and small berry producers here make up only part of a dynamic and ever-changing industry that spans the U.S., springing up (pun intended) everywhere and sometimes in some very unusual places. Read the rest of this entry »

The coming of March marks an awakening of sorts here on the Central California Coast. With daylight savings time bringing longer afternoons, more folks are outside – assessing their yards and plotting what early projects can be squeezed in to take advantage of March’s generally abundant rainfall. I’m among them, doubly so as this year is the first full spring in our new neighborhood (and my new backyard).

Asparaguscape- Yolo county, California

This awakening is not lost on the local nurseries and farmers markets- suddenly we go from the drab and ordinary dregs of the winter to a world of fruit trees and flowering plants, seed potatoes and garlic, in addition to tempting starter plants of all kinds. Spring for me is a circus of optimism – and like every year I start the season believing I can grow anything. Mostly though, I just stay out of the way and let Mother Nature work her magic – trees bloom, vines put out leaves and dormant seeds push their first shoots up from the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Pink Tulips – California

Every year right around the start of February I start yearning for more color in my life. The part of the world where I live is not uniformly white in the dead of winter, but like most places the California coast is not as vibrant as it is other times of the year. What makes me start to search out color is an unconscious anticipation of spring – brought about by the first of the winter rains. That first speck of moisture has turned the normally brown wild grasses green and the Acacia trees are starting to put out their tiny yellow blossoms (jam packed with pollen by the way). The ornamental fruit trees are blooming but the “real” fruit trees’ fragrant blossoms are weeks away and the poppies, foxgloves, and sunflowers of summer are still little more than seeds. What I crave are the true colors of spring – and tulips are my winter surrogate. Read the rest of this entry »

Navel Orchard – Central Valley, California

During the cold, grey days of January it’s hard to imagine that anything can come out of the ground or off of a tree. Here on the Northern California coast the berry farms are quiet, the apple trees are bare, even most of the row crop winter vegetable production has migrated to the warmer deserts of the south. Here at the national produce buying office things have settled into something of a winter routine – the summer fruit-fueled buzz is replaced by a low hum as trucks slow down on the icy roads and we all wait for the world to thaw. The only exception is Julie’s desk – as January ends our national citrus buyer finishes round one of the winter citrus season and, rolling up her sleeves, busily moves on to round two. Read the rest of this entry »