Market Notes October 20th, 2022
THE GREEN SCENE TRANSITION
For the commodity market lettuce, times are tough. The Salinas Valley and surrounding areas, the northern growing season done. The move down south is about three weeks away, and in the meantime, there is little if any product available. Some product arriving from Mexico, but it does not come close to the demand. We, fortunately, do not dabble in commodity lettuce, we do specialty. The outlook on mesclun, spinach, and kale is smooth sailing for the next three weeks or better put, until the transfer to Yuma. There are a few problems. Baby Lolla Rossa and baby Red Oak are very tight which puts BMX in the same category. Green Oak is easier to come by. Volumes anticipated to increase in the next two weeks. Organic spinach and organic arugula are showing some issues of wilt and mold, so we recommend holding off there until southern exposure harvest kicks in. As always with transitions, there will be hell days (first day of running and packing product). We will let you know the dates and do our best to make transition smooth and your loading smoother. From our lips….ORGANIC RULES
The on-line comment webinars will be completed by the end of business today. The National Organics Safety Board will have it’s in-person meeting on October 25th-27th in Sacramento, California. At that time many of the recommendations will be voted on and sent to the USDA. For those unable to travel The meeting Zoom links, agenda, proposals, discussion documents and Federal Register notice are available on the NOSB Fall 2022 Meeting webpage. One of the issues that is slated to be voted on is organic handling. We previously wrote about this with tremendous objection to the NOSB charging brokers who do not touch, store, or alter organic product as handlers who can corrupt the process and therefore must be fully certified in order to sell organic product. We find this to be self-serving and opportunist by the NOSB and certifying companies. We believe we can provide a valid service with traceable integrity, and additional charges will simply make the organic market more expensive while enriching the bank accounts of the administrators. If we are not there yet, the certification process is going to become more expensive than the growing process make organics available only to the 1%. We have heard through semi-reliable sources that brokers who simply buy and sell, will not require certification. We hope this is true, but we overall question the motives of those who regulate, and we are comforted in the future of biotic farming. Maybe we’ll become a biotic certification company. Yeah, that’s the ticket!NEW PRODUCE QUIZ – WHO AM I ???
I am a member of the nut family. I am native to Southeast Asia and Melanesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. I am the year-round King of tropical and subtropical regions. I have a thick hard green to brown (depending on stage of maturity) shell. I constantly bear the “need a trim” look with my tough brown fibers tousled around my shell. Each of my parts has special characteristics and each serve their own unique purpose. The wood of my palm is used by carpenters, and my leaves are strong and fibrous, and used to make rope, baskets, and fabric. In Sanskrit my tree is referred to as kalpa vriksha, which means “tree which gives all that is necessary for living”. I am the bearer of delicate crisp white meat and I have a belly full of liquid, that can be used in sauces, curries, puddings, and desserts or simply to drink on its own. I contain considerable amount of saturated fat, moderate amount of fiber, and scarce amounts of protein, calcium sodium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, iron and copper. You better get used to me because at this moment my oil is probably in products found in several rooms of your household, and at one time or another, has been all over body in a number of soaps and fragrances. My meat is a rich tasting popular accompaniment to shell fish dishes, and a favorite flavor for cookies, pies, cakes and candy. In fact, in my candy form, sometimes you feel like mixing me with other nuts and sometimes you don’t.Answer to last quiz….Mandarin…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