Market Notes
May 12th, 2022
NEW CROP CALIFORNIA FINGERLING STALLS
Last week we told you we were loading in California for the east coast, and we did. Truck arrived Tuesday at 5:00 AM. All product was sold out by 10:00 AM. We hope to load another truck next week but that is far from confirmed. The fingerling market has officially gone off the rails. Price is no loner an issue. The old cliché “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it”, applies literally and perfectly for the next two weeks. Supply is gone as soon as the fingerlings are out of the ground. Grower, packer, shippers just can’t keep up with demand. Growers that hoped to load early next week are now loading late next week. Contract orders have been delayed or cancelled. With all this insanity it is getting better as there are potatoes coming out of the ground, whereas of two weeks prior they were not. What’s happening now is all wholesalers and distributors are running out of their inventory and they can’t get their orders filled. We will continue to quote with reasonable accuracy availability, but we will no longer comment on price as it is currently out of control. Please feel free to check in with your Culinary rep regularly as this market changes at least twice a day. In the morning it is what they dig and in the afternoon it is what they have. We do have some good news to slightly augment the yellow fingerling horror. We will start packing mixed fingerlings mid-week next week. How much will they be? Like we said, if you have to ask….
RAMP DOWN & MUSH UP
The hot sun and warmer evenings are taking down fresh ramp fields at a pretty rapid pace and it looks like a scant few week of foraging remain. This brings on the second life of the ramp plant, ramp bulbs. We will pick them and keep ‘em fresh for about 4-5 weeks then in the freezer they go. If this is a product you use, now would be the best time to purchase. First you get to receive them fresh and freeze them when you want, and second, as we get closer to the 2023 harvest the product goes up in price then completely disappears. Ramp bulbs are packed in single pound deli jars and can often be shipped second day air for maximum economy. We will be able to begin shipping by the week of May 23rd. Let us now that you are interested now and we will call you when the first bulbs arrive for packing. Morels mushrooms are on the rise.
NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – WHO AM I ???
I AM EVERYTHING AND MORE! People have the nerve to call me just a berry, but you’d never see me that way. A cliché of 70’s nouvelle cuisine, I originated in China over 700 years ago, but they only used me as a childhood tonic. The French call me “vegetable mouse,” and I must admit that I’m a rampant climber, deciduous and attractive. When cut, I release actinic and bromic acids to curdle your milk, soften your meat, and keep your gelatin nervous. Caress my skin if you want to eat it; on a picnic enjoy my fruit, then use my skin to patch your bicycle tires; or after dessert save my skins to make pillowcases. See, I told you I’m everything and more. On the culinary side, it took an inventive marketing mom to really make me famous in the U.S. While of few of my plants are hermaphrodites, we usually work as a harem, one male for every four or five females producing 100 lbs. of fruit on one vine. You’ll find me year-round, since my two main producers have complementary seasons. I’m also a handler’s delight, since I have a resilient skin and can last 3-4 weeks in your refrigerator or 6 months in cold, humid storage. Even after 6 months, I retain 90% of my Vitamin C. I need room temperature to really ripen. I get sweeter and mushier as I ripen, despite losing some vitamin content. Scoop, peel, slice, chunk, juice, or just bite in; use me like a strawberry or melon. Even with all my attributes, it just isn’t enough; they’re marketing my smooth-skin baby cousins and my new gold variety. I have ten times more Vitamin C than lemons and lots of potassium, and I’m diuretic and laxative. One oval berry can have as many as 1400 seeds, containing essential fatty acids.
Answer to last quiz….RHUBARB…Congrats to all winners!
Call 908-789-4700 –Lisa or Richard– Fax 908-789-4702 Visit us at www.culinaryproduce.com “like” us @ Culinary Specialty Produce on Facebook© Culinary Specialty Produce, Inc., 2020