Believe it or not, we are only about 10 days away from  the first Mexican grapes that will kick off the 2012 Summer fruit season.  Seems like we just celebrated New Years! This is an exciting time of year as we get to start dealing with items such as peaches, plums, nectarines, grapes, melons, and other seasonal fruits, instead the the usual vegetables and berries.

Long range weather shows rain forecasted for tomorrow, but then clearing for the next 10 days. It may be just enough rain to mess things up for a while.

Trucks available and truckers continuing to push for higher rates. When the summer fruit deals in the next few weeks, watch out. Truckers are REALLY touting the potential for record-high rates this year, due to truckers forced out of business due to high fuel, insurance, repair, and other costs and government restrictions that are strangling them.

LETTUCE–stronger market this week, as Huron winds down, and Salinas is taking it’s time picking up the slack. Still, there is plenty of lettuce in Salinas around the corner, so we should see the market drift downward, starting as early as this weekend. Quality is improving daily, ever so SLOWLY. We’ll see what happens with the rain that is coming in tomorrow.

BROCCOLI–good supplies, quality, and good prices. Nice item to advertise. Some shippers are trying to hold on to higher prices for crowns, but there are deals around, so it worth shopping.

CAULIFLOWER–good deals here, too, on either 12s or 9s. Nice quality in either Salinas or Santa Maria areas.

LEAF ITEMS–markets have been active on red, green, and romaine, but have now appeared to have peaked out. Huron is all but finished, so supplies concentrated now in Salinas and/or Santa Maria areas. Quality, like head lettuce, is slowly improving.

CELERY–not much change. Good deals on the large size 18s and 24s, while the smaller size 36s and 48s are commanding $1-3.00/box more. The reason is that the smaller size usually go into heart production.

STRAWBERRIES–supplies FINALLY coming on, quality improving, and market dropping, just in time for RAIN tomorrow to mess things up again! We are supposed to get upwards of 1/2 inch, so that will set us back again. The good news is after tomorrow, we don’t see any more rain for 10 days.