You don't have to wait until next Friday
to ask,
"What happened to organic Lemons?"
The harvest is over for now.
There is some fruit that is out there in southern California, slowly
ripening. It is green right now and we can't predict when they will
ripen. It is disconcerting when something that we take for granted
becomes unavailable. All we can offer is non-organic Lemons or organic Limes. Let this be an opportunity to try something different.
"What ever happened to?"
- Organic Russet Potatoes -
The
quality of the new crop so far is so poor that when I ask suppliers if
there have been improvements in quality, I get responses that include:
"not for pickies", (I am very picky), "no returns", "no credits", "even
our restaurant clients won't buy them", and "not good enough for Park
Slope Food Coop". We'll keep asking
- Vidalia
onions -
The season ended early this year. Enjoy the local organic sweet
onions. When they are exhausted, we'll then get Peruvian.
- Nappa Cabbage -
This crop does not fare well in heat waves. We expect to see some very limited, but very beautiful nappa this Monday. Very limited plus very beautiful equals very expensive.
- Baby Bok Choy -
Heat in California adversely affected the crop. We took a one
week time out, and found a local source for the coming week.
-Spring Onions -
Well, it is summer and we did enjoy a nice long run.
- Champagne Grapes -
These tiny grapes have a tiny marketing season, which has now ended
- Artichokes -
Too scarce and too crappy and too expensive to carry until weather cools a bit.
- Pink Lady Apples -
We tried Chilean pink ladies during the late season apple
vacuum. We received Argentine fruit, which we thought was good enough to
fill a vacuum, but after several tastings we decided to wait for new
crop apples instead
- Longans -
They came and blew out so fast that most members did not even see them. They return on Tuesday, again limited
- Organic Cherries -
The last batch we tried was sour and had small amounts of mold. So, we rejected them and said farewell to the cherry season.
- Organic Blueberries -
Strictly
speaking, the crop is not quite exhausted, but the quality and value
season is over. I might have tried to stretch out another week or two,
but more often than not that leads to problems.
I teach other produce buyers, that as far as seasons go, "Don't get in too early and don't get out too late". Of course I don't always get it right, and for that our soup kitchens are grateful.
Many
produce suppliers, as well as produce stores, sell two types of Plums,
red or black. They don't differentiate between varieties, and shoppers
never get to learn which Plums they like best, never developing their
favorites. (I remember when there were two kinds of Apple, red and
yellow, until the USA discovered Granny Smith, and suddenly there were
three!) We care about varieties of Plums at the coop and we annoy the
____ out of our suppliers urging them to provide us with the best
varieties. They would be happier carrying red or black. Our members look
forward to the first Santa Rosa, wonder where are the Larodas, wait for
the Friars, and savor the Mariposas. It's been a tough Plum season so
far, with very few varieties making their way east, and prices have been
very high. Pluots (crosses between Plums and Apricots) have also been
expensive and many of the varieties have so far been unavailable. We
have enjoyed several varieties of Amy Hepworth's Plums this year but it
has been increasingly difficult to distinguish the many varieties, which
have too often arrived , mislabeled or unlabeled. Today we surrendered and gave up our attempt to identify each Hepworth Plum. Here is our current list
Red plum
Redder plum
Reddest plum
Reddish plum
I hope you read this, Amy Hepworth, and recognize what you've done to my OCD.
Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator
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