Tis the season

For patronizing far off farms as we try to deny the seasonal eating which virtually every generation before the baby boom lived with.   Instead of eating the storage vegetables available in each region of the colder parts of the country, we have an iceberg or romaine salad courtesy of Yuma, Arizona.  The lettuce was probably harvested at least a week before the consumer ever gets their hands on it, so the freshness angle is greatly overplayed.  If there was ever any nutrition in the lettuce it probably was lost during transit.  The broccoli, cauliflower, greens , etc. are definitely more nutritious, but even they suffer from extended transit times.  In many cases, flash frozen veg has more nutrients than its stressed out fresh counterparts.   I guess I have been spoiled after many years of gardening, but I have become more and more reluctant to buy the "fresh" vegetables offered during the winter.  I usually succumb, but with the lengthening season in my own gardens the transition to week old veg is looking even less palatable than usual. 

Weather fixation

I know I have a weather fixation, but since it so directly impacts everything I do, I beg your indulgence.  Freezes in S. California and Arizona.  Torrential rains in the midwest.  Mild temps in the Northeast.  What is a produce broker and small farmer to do.  Mostly enjoy, I guess.  The spinach deal continues in New Jersey as some fields are coming back for recut for the third time with some of the best quality of the season.  Meanwhile, frost and freeze in the Arizona desert where most of America's winter lettuce is produced have forced the price up and limited availability for Christmas and New Year's promotion.  I still have lettuce in my garden, although it would be some damage to pick through.  Anytime you can pick fresh salad greens in December in northern New York, it is strange, to say the least.  Carpe diem!

Holding your breath

It seems both the weather and the veg business is holding their collective breath as the Christmas and New Year's holidays approach.  It was 35 degrees when I walked the family pooch this morning at 6 a.m.. Last year at this time, that would have been the high temp for the week.  The weatherman says some snow showers tonight, but no real deep freeze on the horizon.  I harvested a couple pounds of beautiful spinach for supper last night.  It went very well with some sauteed onions and a can of black beans.  There is still plenty more of that in the garden.  Meanwhile, the produce business is moribund.  The squeeze on the middle class has seemingly lowered demand for most vegetables.  I think many people are saving their more limited monetary firepower for the holiday meals and entertainments.  So they skimp in the weeks leading up to Christmas and Channukah and the result is sluggish sales for the chains and food service wholesalers.  I guess we need snow and tax cuts to get the season moving.  Everyone hum a few bars of White Christmas....

S.A.D.

Stands for seasonal affect disorder.  That's a feeling of depression brought on by low light levels as the day length shortens to it's nadir on the winter solstice.  I think the produce business is suffering from the malady, since everyone you speak to seems to think the world is ending.  Certainly the produce world is feeling the effects of low levels of sales and enthusiasm. 

Really strange weather

The ski resorts must think there is a celestial prankster on the loose.  After 10 inches of snow before Thanksgiving, we have had 2 weeks of milder than normal weather for this time of year.  On Sunday I played golf, mulched the garlic beds and harvested broccoli and carrots.  Skiing was not in the cards, unless you had rollers on the bottom of your skis.  Looks like the warm will continue, albeit not gardening and golfing weather, at least til the weekend.  I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, but it's looking more like the plot of the movie of that name.  We may have to wait until Christmas eve for the traditional blanket of white.

To market to market

Once again, the farmer strikes.  I deliver commodity A to a receiver who tells me he can buy the exact same commodity one bag at a time from another receiver on the same market for the same price I am charging.  The same grower demands an FOB price which precludes my making a profit and at the same time consigns product.  The result is he loses and I lose.  But the farmer feels good somehow because he is dealing directly with the customer and cutting out the parasitic middleman.  I know this sounds self serving, but the broker acts as a buffer between the farmer and the wholesaler, using knowledge of the markets to maximize the return to the grower while providing a fair price to the market.  I have been struggling to make sense of the grower's folly for over 25 years and to this day it still makes no sense. 

Fired up, ready to what

Beautiful morning here on the NCR.  The temp is a mild (For December) 28 degrees.  It makes you feel empowered to work and satisfy the intense demand for the healthy products you are selling.  Then you make the first call and get the first rejection.  "I can buy the same item for $1.00 less at so and so".  The balloon deflates and reality sets in.  Time to get into the grind it out mentality that has served me over the years.  There is a customer out there for every carrot, head of lettuce or cauliflower, not to mention spinach.  The trick is to find the willing buyer at a price we can both live with.  That is the essential process in our capitalist society in its most naked form.  Supply and demand in the most elemenal form.