Produce notes from Allen.....55 local items!

Odds and ends, comings and goings in the produce aisle:

The season has recently ended for:

·      Local Stayman Winesap and Pink Lady Apples, and the quality is gone from the organic Granny Smith.

·      Butternut Squash (that is the storage crop from last fall) 

·      South American Blueberries

·      Sumo citrus (Dekopon) and soon Pomellos

·      Organic Green Grapes quality has faded. The report on the next batch, which we will not buy, was "3% mold, 4% amber, 12% loosened Grapes"... and then I stopped listening

Grab an excellent deal on the end of the season Hepworth Farms Gold Potatoes!

Some gaps in supply:

·      Raspberry price went loony and supply tightened so we dropped out for a week or two.

·      Blackberries became scarce

·      Artichokes are not even listed in organic offerings to us. Conventional prices are either very high or "offerings insufficient to quote"

·      Green Beans were severely damaged by frost and available at high prices, in fine quality and absurd bags

·      Organic Ginger is very scarce. We are buying every pound of Peruvian and Hawaiian available to us and not buying any from China

·      Organic Turmeric is very scarce. Even though we have managed to buy a huge percentage of the stock from the company that imports it, we can't get enough. Turmeric has two r's in the spelling. If you insist on pronouncing it "toomeric", you can't have any.

·      The Mexican organic Mango has season has only barely started and we have had limited supplies of the Haden and Tommy Atkins varieties. We found some Haitian organic Francis Type Mangos and hope for better supplies next week.

·      The southern California Broccoli harvest is winding down and the more northern harvest isn't there yet. Even at higher prices we couldn't get enough and are supplementing with some of the conventionally grown crop. 

·      Cauliflower may not gap but price is starting to climb.

New or returning soon:

·      South American Bosc Pears

·      Fava Beans for Karen Mancuso and everyone else

·      Turmeric-a half week supply (we hope)

·      Raspberries

·      Organic Black Grapes with seeds 

·      Jerusalem Artichokes. We have been waiting for the spring thaw to allow our local farmers to dig up the "wintered over" crop

·      Ramps - This deep freeze has delayed much new growth.  Last spring was really warm!  We probably won't see any ramps for at least another couple of weeks.

·      Nettles – Soon!  Maybe next week.

Here are the coming attractions from Hepworth Farms over the next couple of weeks:

We are seeding lots of cut greens tomorrow in our tunnels and expect to have LOTS of Baby Arugula, Asian Greens and Mustard in 21 days.  I wanted to give you a heads up -

we are planting the following beds of:

Mustard Mix	Garnet Giant, Golden Frill, Green Wave,Purple Osaka, Red Giant, Ruby Steaks
Asian Green Mix	Purple Mizuna, Mibuna, Komatsuna,White Stemmed Pac Choy, Vivid Choi, Tat Soi, Prize Choy Pach Choy, Yukina Savoy, Mizuna, Shanghai , Red Choi
Asian Greens	Yu Choy Sum, Red Choi, TatSoi
Arugula	Surrey Greens

We also have others greens already seeded and you will be getting:

Red Russian, Pac Choi, Tat Soi, Mizuna, Premium Mix, Yukina Savoy, Collards, Cress and Beet Greens (they are a bit slower maybe next week) in smaller quantities than will be available in 21 days!