Holidaze

Holidays in general and midweek national celebrations in particular are problematic at best for the produce industry.  Canada Day and Fourth of July are among the worst for our industry.  The weather is hot, and most people will barbeque a few burgers and dogs and eat some watermelon, but that is about it gastronomically speaking.  Unfortunately, the fields in most of the northern part of the US and in Canada are bursting with lettuce, squash, cukes, etc. which for the most part are uninteresting to the public.  This creates a huge backlog in coolers across the country which will lead to low pricing for at least a couple of weeks.  My own micro farm is a microcosm of this situation.  The farmer's market this weekend is liable to be slow, but I will have an impressive array of produce available, much of which will probably wind up on a compost pile.  Produce,  you gotta love it...

The Veg Man Cometh

Now the rain and heat are out of the way for the moment, the crops are beginning to really hit their stride.  The summer squash is growing so fast you can almost see it happen.  The lettuce and broccoli transplants begin growing within days of planting and the first sweet corn is tasseling.  Now if only the weeds would take a holiday...  We are now getting to the time of the season where you definitely have to "sell it or smell it".  The proud seller at 8 a.m. is a desperado at 2 p.m. as the coolers fill up and buyers bypass him for those whose whiff of fear they detected hours before.  It is a little like poker, only instead of raising the ante, most people lower it, and the winner is the buyer paying the least amount in the pot.  More items are arriving on sales lists every day and the variety begins to lure more customers who are tired of the southern veg deals and unwilling to pay the high freights out of California.

Another Dull Day

Showers continue today, along with cooler than normal temps.  It is a welcome respite from last week's roaster, but after 3 days, the garden is going to demand a full scale weeding or things will get out of hand in a hurry.  One downside of all the moisture is the germination of millions of weed seeds left from prior failures at weed control.  One bad season, sometimes even one giant pigweed  or lamb's quarter can provide enough seeds to carpet the garden with vigorous competitors to my carefully nurtured seedlings and transplants.  My grandfather always said it takes seven years of dedicated weed destruction to get the farm relatively clean, but only one year of neglect to undo all that work.    Meanwhile, the cooler temps are helping get the commercial lettuce deal back on track quickly.   Other crops soon to make an appearance include cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli and summer squash.   The hot weather has taken a toll on areas to the south and the heavy rains in Florida have pretty much ended their season, so it looks like the stage is set for a fairly active marketing season in the North Country.

Ups and Downs

The temperatures here on the NCR have been on a roller coasterfor the past couple of weeks.  Our high today will be lower than our lows during last week's steambath.  Of course now we can take stock of the damage done by the high temps.  Additionally, the below normal readings over the next few days will cause gaps in production schedules as younger fields fail to mature in time to make up for cooked romaine and iceberg.  The showers and rain are welcome, but the weed germination will probably accelerate in the coming days, making the garden a nightmare of work opportunities.  Welcome to summer 2012.

Perfection

Or at least close to it this weekend.  The weather cooperated for the festivities surrounding my daughter's wedding and then Mother Nature stepped in and cooled things off with a nice shower on Sunday evening.  Of course if we are being a little picky, the aforementioned Mother could have added a couple of tenths more to the rainfall total, but who's counting.  After the scorching heat on Wed. and Thurs., the damage was already done to many crops and the rainfall on Sunday was an exclamation point.  Fortunately, the lettuce situation will change quickly this time of year as long daylight hours put the crops into overdrive and weather catastrophes can be ameliorated quickly.  The same problem in August could drag on for weeks.  The weather for the short term is for cooler and wetter conditions.  Here's hoping it lasts just long enough to repair the damage without encouraging other problems.

Our evolving microfauna

Saw an op-ed piece in the NYT this morning saying we need to eat more food from farmers' markets.  Sounded like a good premise to me.  The real point the author was trying to make is our food supply is increasingly becoming scrubbed clean of good and bad microorganisms and on balance it is making us a sicker nation.  We evolved with many good and bad bacteria in equilibrium in our bodies, and in this era of hand sanitizers on everyone's desk and wet wipes on every counter, we are depriving ourselves of the natural defenses these microbes provide.  In the produce industry, the mantra of food safety is so loud, we forget that people have been eating food right out of the field for thousands of years and I doubt they were dying from the experience in appreciable numbers.  At least not the way the media would have us believe.  Up until very recently, one spinach packer in Quebec bragged that his spinach pack included black dirt which he opined was good for your digestion.  Folk wisdom, that may actually be supported by scientific evidence.  So, go forth and patronize your local markets, for their health and yours.

June swoon

We always seem to forget the last couple of weeks of June tend to be fairly slow in the produce biz.  Many different areas up and down the east coast are shipping similar manifests and the chains and wholesalers are having buyer's remorse on items like squash and cucumbers.  Dry and warm weather is pushing the season into extremely early dates here in the North Country.  Lettuce is two weeks early; celery and cukes are probably a month ahead of schedule.  Growers are making use of season extending row covers and the early warm weather this spring pushed everything even more.  I would not be surprised to see sweet corn available here for the Fourth.  Meanwhile, if we don't get some serious rainfall soon, the garden will start to hurt.  The potatoes are blooming which means the spuds are starting to form and need the water.  Temps in the 90s today and tomorrow will make it even drier.  The weatherman is predicting showers on Monday and Tuesday.  I hope it's not more smoke and mirrors.  We haven't had a good rain in nearly a month.  That's good for weed control, but weed-less fields are only pretty if there is a crop in them.

Demanding time

The gardens and yard certainly demand it.  Unfortunately, the produce world is falling down in the demand department.  As I can attest, the lettuce crops are coming in at an accelerating pace and consumers seem to be able to find other things to do with their money.  From early pricing in the high teens FOB, the iceberg market is rapidly falling toward single digits.  Broccoli remains in high demand, but that will probably fall as more local producers start production.  One grower claims he will have celery starting this weekend.  Time to put the selling shoes on.

Trucking

Some academic from North Carolina with a blog about economics is puzzled why there seems to be a shortage of truckers which is causing bottlenecks in the delivery system.  He wonders why all the unemployed construction workers don't retrain as truck drivers.   What an elegant solution.  Trucks roll and unemployment is reduced.  What's not to like.  Well, if our pontificating professor had actually interviewed a few real truckers he might have gained an insight into a little known problem.  While most construction workers pull an eight hour shift and then go home to their families every night, the average long haul trucker is probably away from home for weeks at a time.  Working crazy hours for relatively low pay and not seeing your family very often is not something our academic friend would probably choose to do.  Then there is the little item called driver training; an eight week course costing several thousand dollars which will qualify you to make about $.25/loaded mile which sounds like decent money.  Hey, at 60 MPH, that's $15.00/hr.  What they neglect to tell  you is the load is 100 miles away and you don't get paid that rate for "deadhead" miles.  Also, with the new safety regs you would be hard pressed to work 40 legal hours/week.  Add in the logbook hassles, downtime between loads and the generally poor public perception of truck drivers and you can see why many unemployed workers would think twice about that particular gig.  The other wishful thought our gainfully employed bloviator opines is that the law of supply and demand does not seem to be working.  Just offer more money he says and potential drivers will be knocking your door down.  Tell that to the hundreds of freight companies that have closed their doors in the last few years because they could not generate enough money to survive at current rates.  Even the companies that are hanging on are starting to skimp on routine maintenence and are running older,  less efficient trucks because they can't afford to invest in new fleets.  The rates will go up when the demand is so overwhelming there is no choice but to offer attractive wages to get enough drivers to cash in.  Unfortunately, aside from exempt carriers who handle produce, everyone else is regulated as to the prices they can charge.  So unless Congress authorizes a new rate structure, the ranks of the "knights of the road" are unlikely to increase anytime soon.

Hot and dry and busy

It was a 10 lb. weekend.  As in I lost about 10 while trying to catch up on several tasks at once.  Farmer's mkt. on Sat.  Mowing and cleanup, planting, weeding and watering.  Rinse and repeat on Sun.  Not your Father's Father's Day, but it was satisfying in a perverse way.  Everything seems to be growing double fast with the heat, but without the problems usually asssociated with dry weather, since the subsoil moisture is good.  The potato beetles have made their annual appearance, but a dose of spinosad based organic insecticide took care of the first generation of larvae.  If only there was a sovereign remedey for the weeds.  Meanwhile, the wholesale markets are already approaching their midsummer doldrums and summer is still two days away.  High temps. have consumers in beer and chips mode and lettuce is plentiful which soon means it will be cheap.  Carrots look to become the next hot item, as there is a gap between Mexican production and new crop Canadians.  Broccoli is also in short supply, however eastern production will catch up to that demand shortly.  Potatoes will start in the North Country this week, even as some growers are finally finishing planting this year's crop.  The hot weather will probably get early peppers into production soon.  We'll also be enjoying the first zucchini of the season at Casa Monzeglio later this week.

Selling local

I just love the endless exhortations to "buy local".  It sounds like a no brainer.  Then you ship a load of  local Canadian lettuce and the customer says it looks great, but his trade would prefer inferior California product that has been shipped 3000 miles and had problems before it was shipped.  Unfortunately, despite the fact that with new varieties and state of the art cooling facilities, the Canadian lettuce is on average superior to the California average, the institutional memory of many buyers kicks in and they remember the shoddy uncooled product these growers were pumping out in the 80s and 90s.  That lettuce had the shelf life of a mayfly and looked like someone accidentally sat on it.  It takes a long time to overcome those negative mental images.  A story on NPR this morning regarding the revival of the Lincoln car brand by Ford makes a similar point.  They estimate it will take 10 years to turn around public perception of the dowdy Town Car and make it competitive with Lexus and BMW.  At least the Lincoln had a quality image at one point.  The Canadians and other local deals on the east coast can't even point to past reputation for quality.  It's more like trying to revive the Dodge Dart and convince everyone it is not your Father's Dodge.  Good luck with that.  We will just have to keep making good deliveries and trust that eventually people's perceptions will align with reality.  That and $10,000. California freight.

Broccoli and Health Care

If the Supreme court strikes down the Health Care Act later this month, a stupid remark by a buffoonish Antonin Scalia may have much to do with it.   The justice reduced the argument by the solicitor general to a platitude.  "If the government can force you to buy health insurance, then it can conceivably force you to buy broccoli".   Of course all good conservatives hate broccoli, because all good liberals must love it.  The sheer stupidity of our national discourse boggles my mind.  Millions of people's health care is on the line and idiots worry about being forced to eat vegetables.  I realize that broccoli  is just a proxy for the hatred the Republican base has  for a black president, but I wish they would just forget the veg and just let their inner racist out for everyone to see.

Raindrops and other weather musings

Had a nice rain yesterday.  According to the weather station in Peru we had between .3 and .4 of an inch over a 10 hour period.  With the subsurface moisture in good shape, this is welcome, but as with any farmer's agenda, I hope we get a couple of clear, low humidity days to keep killing some weeds and transplanting lettuce.  Then another gentle shower on Monday morning.  Of course, mother nature will not be as kind as I hope and I will not get near enough done to satisfy myself.  The brotherhood of dirt farmers is united by it's consistent disatisfaction with whatever the current weather offers.  It's either too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry or some combination of the foregoing.  I will break with this rant and say the conditions right now are pretty close to ideal, although maybe if it was a few degrees warmer...

Crack of Stupid

4:50 a.m. comes along pretty early, but the sun is almost up and I can see the weeds well enough to kill them.  As one wag refers to it as the "crack of stupid", but it helps me stay up with the weeds.  Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are up too.  At least for today there was enought breeze to keep them from landing.  It is really amazing how much you can get done in an hour in the morning.  Of course if it starts to rain too soon today a lot of the weed killing will turn into weed transplanting.  Everything is taking off with the warmer temps, and the rainfall expected today will accelerate the process.  Maybe the warmer weather crops like beans will germinate better now.  The soil temps are getting warmer, but we need a consistent week of warmth to get them in optimum range.

Farmer's footsteps

This time of year is when every stop to check a crop in the garden reveals another problem to solve.
Broccoli; flea beetles, carrots; thinning and weeding; potatoes; hilling and beetle removal and the list goes on.  By the time you get a handle on one problem, three others have popped up.  I think I know why so many commercial growers specialize in a handful of crops.  It definitely cuts down on the number of problems that must be dealt with on a daily basis.  Of course, weeds are the biggest problem confronting any gardener or small farmer.  My grandfather used to say it took 7 years to get a field to where there were very few weeds, but only one careless year to throw the previous 7 out the window.  I think I'm on a perpetual 7 year plan which seems to breakdown by midsummer.  The harder you work on one crop, the more the weeds get away on another.  Sorry, I just need to vent.

Produce and Insurance

An article in the NYT the other day points to the disparity in the power of the commodity ag lobby and that of the produce industry.  The congress is about to expand the government subsidy for corn and soybean producers to millions of marginally productive acres.  As one grower said, the government is virtually guaranteeing him a profit of $1000.00 per acre before he puts a seed in the ground.  He could basically plow up an acre of beach sand and insure the crop, even though he knows there will be no viable crop.  Contrast this with the produce grower in Salinas who pays $5000.00 per acre for the privilege of gambling his own money on the hope the market will allow him to recoup that cost and make a profit.  There is a land rush going on in the Dakotas right now as growers pay up to $2000. per acre for dryland with little or no fertility and a proclivity to erosion.  With government programs they can pay for the land in a few years with our money.  WTF....

The "nanny" state strikes

The usual suspects are in an uproar over Mayor Bloomberg's latest attempt at social engineering, namely limiting the size of soft drinks to 16 oz. servings.  It's Murcan's god given right to drink themselves to obesity and type 2 diabetes if they so wish.  We don't need no gubmint telling us or our children what to do.  Except if it is something they disapprove of, such as smoking marijuana or marrying someone of the same sex.  Don't let me get started on that.   Back to the mega soft drink ban.The fact corporations such as Coca Cola, McDonalds and 7-11 spend hundreds of millions of advertising dollars to influence our "free choice" is rarely mentioned.  As one blogger, Mark Bittman, points out, the impact of this avalanche of advertising precludes free choice as much as any government regulation does.  I don't know what others think, but I subscribe to the theory that government exists to level the playing field and give us all an equal opportunity to succeed.  If that means corporations must be restrained from force feeding the population a cheap, ruinous diet which will shorten the lifespan of future generations in the name of profit, then I support that effort.  A healthy dose of nutritional education would be good, but it cannot compete with the slick advertising which equates empty calories with sex appeal.  In a perfect world, the average well educated consumer would be immune to the stupidity which passes for food advertising today.  But as demonstrated by the congressional elections of 2010, you can get many people to believe black is white  (President Obama excepted) if you spend enough money on blatantly false and misleading advertising.  So, two cheers for Mike Bloomberg who at least is not cowed by the drumbeat of criticism of his initiative.  Probably the better course would be to levy a "health tax" similar to the tax on cigarettes to help pay for the future care of the soda drinkers.  A $10.00 BIG GULP would surely discourage unhealthy behavior more effectively than regulation.

This and that

The weather remains a little cool, but overall pretty nice this week.  Bright sunshine for longer periods each day makes it easier to accomplish more in the garden.  Weeding, planting, fertilizing, hilling potatoes and occasional harvesting asparagus, spinach and now lettuce is the order of each morning and evening.  If the sunny skies hold out over the weekend, I should get the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant into the open garden.  Up until now, the temperatures would not have been high enough to support any kind of growth for these heat lovers, but we are promised some 80 degree temps next week, so it is time to go.  It looks like commercial harvest of lettuce will commence this week in Quebec.  Romaine looks good and the iceberg will be outstanding if the current weather continues through the month and into July.  Prices are starting optimistically, but we'll see if they can be maintained as more and more shippers jump into the deal.  Trucks are available and ready to work, especially after the last few months of lower than normal business.   Rates remain stable, so the deal should get off to one of its best starts in recent memory.  The hardware crops; potatoes, beets, carrots and onions also look good. 

Weedy weather

Sing that title to the tune of "Stormy Weather".  Weeds are the watchword for the week and weekend.  Every day you don't kill weeds is another losing day in the long term battle.  As I told one friend, if you can see the weeds, you are already in danger of losing the crop.  Especially with the weather we have had recently.  You can spend 2 hours removing weeds from around your plants, and a brief shower will just transplant them in the area where you dropped them.  The cooler temps are also favoring the weeds over less vigorous competitors.  Off and on showery weather will challenge the best intentions this weekend.  I have to transplant the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant this weekend also.  It will be hectic.

It's the weather, stupid

A little chilly this morning, but beautiful weather for the first of June.  Too bad it will probably be the last nice day until next Wed. or Thurs.  It always seems we must have a rainy week as we get into the late spring planting season.  So now the planting schedule is messed up, the weeds are overtaking early plantings and the garden teeters on the edge of manageability.  Not to mention the plantings of flowers in the yard and shrub trimming that needs to get done.  Meanwhile, the veg markets are finally reacting to smaller plantings in California.  After taking a royal shellacking all winter, some of the growers actually cut back acreage.  Combined with cooler wet weather in Salinas, the outlook for almost all crops is bullish.  The roller coaster weather here in the east is affecting the local deals, so it will probably be up and down all season as local product gluts depress markets and the following scarcity propels the prices up again.  It will be an interesting summer.