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Unlike some vegetables, carrots don’t usually give me much trouble in my garden. I always sprinkle a few seeds randomly around my garden, mainly because I love to see my kids’ faces when we dig them up. As with potatoes, carrot harvesting is like a treasure hunt! Most are of a uniform size and shape but occasionally we get a giant or oddly shaped specimen that delights my children (and me). Home carrot gardening is pretty simple; you just make sure you have deep sandy soil, weed and feed occasionally, and chances are your crop will come in just fine.
Organic carrot forecasting at work is also relatively simple year after year as they are a staple for a natural foods store, and the supply and sales are generally very steady and consistent. Our business in carrots is so consistent that they are often used as an anchor for trucks. We will take amounts we are ordering up or down to make sure we are keeping trucks full. Carrots are so reliable that when we have a winter like this one — where ground temperatures are low and conditions are wet — the trouble with carrot production comes as something of a shock to everyone.
With the holiday season behind us, many look toward the new year with a renewed commitment to healthier eating. I know I do. While I still love my starches and proteins, they will move to the number two and three spots on my plate in favor of a larger portion of vegetables. Moving out of winter and into spring, the vegetables of choice will change; but for January it is all about broccoli.
We moved our national produce buying office (where I work) right after Thanksgiving. The office we had before was nice but the new one is spectacular. It’s located in downtown Watsonville, California — and the building reflects the flavor of the community surrounding it. But most importantly, we now have a functioning kitchen and are able to prepare dishes here! Last week we focused on guacamole and the office challenge was to bring the best ever “Super Bowl-O-Mole” recipes. Four team members rose to the challenge.
Call me a sap but I believe fresh herbs are just about the most romantic things you can cook with in the kitchen. I’m no critic of dried herbs, mind you – I have a shelf full of tiny bottles of indeterminate age that are fine in a pinch (pun intended), but nothing makes a meal or engages the senses quite like the look, feel, taste and, certainly, the smell of fresh herbs.
By December, we generally know what the domestic citrus season will be like. Citrus trees need a period of cool weather at the end of the fruit growth cycle to bring out the color and to balance out the flavor. Citrus trees also need rain at just the right time and in just the right amounts to make the fruit just right. This year the weather has been very good in some areas, not so good in others. For the most part, though, we are off to a good start.
For me, side dishes also include appetizers and there are plenty of quick and easy additions to the pre-meal. The first is simple – “easy to peel” citrus. Both Clementines and Satsuma Mandarins have started harvesting and by Thanksgiving the quality and flavor is spectacular. I’m a fan of the stem and leaf Satsuma — aside from the incredible flavor they are the easiest to peel, which makes them a favorite with the kids.
Every Thanksgiving, I brace for the inevitable “my stuffing is better than your stuffing” debate with my wife Erin. Growing up in the south, my stuffing is cornbread based. Hers is sourdough bread based, befitting of her Northern California upbringing. I’ve seen other changes in the Thanksgiving I remember as a kid — fresh cranberry relish replacing the red gelatin lump of my childhood, for example — but I have stubbornly remained loyal to the pecan cornbread stuffing of my youth, making it every year in honor of my southern roots.
September is an overlap month in the world of vegetables. Tomatoes, squash, corn and other summer vegetables are still available in abundance and while most of these are still quite good, the cool fall evenings and crisp mornings bring with them that familiar tug in my tummy to the hardier greens and roots of fall. The return of the harvest moon also marks the appearance of winter squashes and pumpkins along with the gateway event of the holiday season — Halloween!
At our global produce buying office, this is a touchy time as purchasing overlaps between our local/regional growers and the much larger national growers. As it is next to impossible to pinpoint the exact end of the local season across the country, our task is to make sure our office is ready to support each region during the cold winter months.
Many of the early squashes and pumpkins were affected as well, with stunted growth or by dropping off of the vine altogether. What is bad news for me is great news for the pumpkin growers and sellers in the area — it’s impossible for me to walk by a pumpkin display without buying something.
For most of us, September means back to school, changing leaves on trees and the gradual cooling (thankfully!) that marks the beginning of fall. For produce, September also marks a rare overlap of two distinctive seasons where the remaining bounty of summer is joined by the first of fall’s apples and pears. In a few short weeks, the lure of the fall harvest season will be irresistible, but for now, we still have time to celebrate the peak harvest of two of Mother Nature’s finest fruits: figs and grapes. 
