discoveryorganics.ca blog updates

Weekend update

Randy Hooper — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:21:44 +0000

Here’s the news that’s fit to print. Don’t know if you follow the immigration policies in the U.S., but it is creating havoc in the strawberry patch. Talking to producers this morning, some packers are offering rewards, signing bonuses and pay hikes to anyone who walks in the door! Even though weather has taken its toll this year on strawberry production, the growing labour shortage, and unwillingness on the part of the US government to ease regulations on temporary workers is going to have a much bigger impact as fruit rots in the field! Apple supply is strong, with a deluge of bumper crop from all three southern producing nations expected to keep us in strong supply through the summer once we’ve exhausted Washington’s cache. Check out this week’s avocado pricing – our pricing will stay stable at these levels for at least 3 months, and our Fairtrade producers are still receiving $1.50 a kg. above the listed Fairtrade price! The first of the NZ Kiwi have almost arrived. Expect kiwi prices to be substantially higher this year. The PSA virus has destroyed most of the gold kiwi plantations in NZ, forcing higher demand on the green crop. Producers have been fighting PSA for several years and there isn’t a viable chemical cure for conventional growers. Blueberry sales are brisk – the new California crop is stunning. The “Tangerine Man” a.k.a. Churchill Orchards is pleased as punch at how well their Pixies are selling up here in Canada – this is their main crop, and most go to Japan! Pear and stonefruit categories are fully plump with a broad selection. Larger sized peaches are now shipping. Asparagus market continues tight with high demand in the East – many producers in Ontario and New England states had freak frosts which knocked everything back 10 days from their usual start. (It could be worse – while northern Russia was baking at 30C a couple of days ago, it snowed over much of England!) Many veg markets have not moved in price one bit since last week – cabbage and celery pricing continues to soar. After 3 years of cool, late springs, local veg producers are in their glory after a record warm winter and spring here on the coast. Normally we wouldn’t see lettuce for another 4 weeks, but here it is – local lettuce (in small volumes) available for next week…so expect California will still dominate while production ramps up. Carrot supply is finally easing, with large fields in central California opening up next week. Something Good bunchers continue to be a huge favourite. A broccoli glut has arrived – take advantage, pricing is close to conventional. Potato range is excellent with the addition of more specialty fingerlings. Green onion prices have finally dropped with increased production in more areas. Increased greenhouse production locally sees us with heirloom tomatoes in better supply, more heirloom eggplant, and two brands of local peppers on the list. Mmmmm… local season is on it’s way!

Fresh Picks - The BC grown edition!

Reiko Fujibayashi — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:50:23 +0000

Howdy Y’all!

Check out today’s Fresh Picks!

Today it’s all about beautiful BC…it’s early days yet, but it just gets better and better!

Gorgeous Heirloom Tomatoes from GBE Organic's greenhouse in Chilliwack!

Available in clamshells too!

And their stunning Striped Listada Eggplant!!

Shiitake Mushrooms from All Seasons, in Langley!

Great selection of BC mushrooms!

Wildcrafted Fiddleheads!

Origino Yellow Peppers!

Inspiring colour and crunch!

And their ruby Red Peps!

Beefsteak Tomatoes from Origino!

Long English Cukes, as well!

Our Sales Team went on a tour of Origino in Langley last week, and everyone was so impressed with their operation.

They had a great experience, and got to see this beautiful veg in all stages.

Always great to see lovely produce, from farm to table!

Thanks for checking out Fresh Picks, give us a call to find out what’s fresh and fabulous!

Big Love,

Reiko Fujibayashi

truth. transparency. trust. relationships.

Discovery Organics

604.299.1683

Mid week update

Randy Hooper — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:34:59 +0000

We’re now down to 6 apple varieties, although we’re still seeing good volumes on these with late releases in Washington. Stonefruit sales are starting to ramp up as you all make room for apricots, plums, peaches and cherries. A couple more varieties of California cherries will start harvest this week, so we expect the market will drop a bit, but remember that cherries are not a big crop in California, and prices usually remain high until Washington starts in a month. Thanks for all your support for Fair Trade fortnight – we went all out to provide a great selection from FLO and IMO producers. Banana sales were higher than expected, so, once again, we will gap on BOS fruit over the weekend and into early next week. We have containers at port – just not here and ripening yet. Blueberry quality is excellent and we’re now offering both pack sizes, although the pints are going to have a spendy retail. Some very promotable options in the fruit department, with a wide selection of well priced mangos, melons and pineapple – perfect timing as temperatures start to climb. We’re now only 6 weeks away from the beginning of the B.C. fruit season as well! Watch for Navel orange prices starting to climb fairly quickly as the season slowly winds down. Quality is excellent and super sweet. Strawberry pricing is back down after a combination of a huge Mothers Day pull and cool temperatures last week forced very steep markets last week - quality is excellent. Very few issues in the green veg category, with a few notable exceptions – cabbage is getting cut the minute it’s ready, demanding continuing steep prices. Celery – we aren’t seeing any shortages from multiple shippers, but pricing continues to be totally over the top. Bulk carrots – usually a tight market in the spring, but worse this year than ever before, with continuous pro-rates. However, we’ve been very lucky to have strong supply of Something Good bunch carrots. There’s a couple of highlights from Nature’s Way, with large volumes of cilantro, parsley, stunningly nice radicchio, and those beautiful bunched new onions – we could use some help on these and have priced accordingly. We continue to get drowned in eggplant from Baja Organic Agriculture (BOA), and once again have lowered price well below market to help move some extra volume. Imported peppers are still tight, but we’re seeing a lot of volume move to local OriginO product with increased production. For those of you who had fun last spring with a big selection of specialty fingerling potatoes, start planning those displays, with more colours in on the weekend. The rest of the lineup looks just fine, with a couple more weeks of PEI russets and reds to go.

Hot Shots!

Reiko Fujibayashi — Sun, 12 May 2013 22:42:38 +0000

Howdy Y’all!

Happy Mama’s Day!!!

(You remembered, didn’t you? It’s not too late!)

Time to gather together and celebrate our mothers, and the beautiful beings they are! (And please, don’t give them a weed whacker…my bro-in-law did that, and boy, did he rue the day!)

With the warmer temps, sales in green veg and fruit are beginning to pump up, and the market is positively ravenous.

Time to prepare for the crowds, and make sure your shelves (and cupboards!) are properly stocked!

Let’s take a look at what we’ve discovered…

Something Good Bunched Nantes Carrots!

These carrots are fabulous, a real crowd pleaser!

Arugula from Lakeside.

Peppery and fresh, super palate pleasing!

Origino Orange Peppers!

Half our Sales Crew toured Origino on Friday…and are now full of knowledge about peppers, tomatoes, and long english cukes!

Talk to Valerie, Chloe and Kristy for the deets!

Nature’s Way Mini White Spring Onions!

These are totally gorgeous, delicate little onion bunches!

Siri and Sons Red Radish!

Bright red, fresh and juicy, these radish are a great addition to your Spring salads!

Tommy Atkins Mangoes, from Aztlan!

Great color!

These are from Mexico, but I had the good fortune to go to Peru last week (!!!) and check out all our Fairtrade Banana, Mango, and Avocado producers!

What an incredible experience! I’m still reeling from sensory overload, and need to edit all my photos.

As soon as I do, we will have a special “Hot Shots-Peru Edition!”

And let’s not forget the Ataulfos!

Lovely and yellow, these mangoes from Purity are something special!

Sunny weather means fruit sales, but y’all know that…

Packham’s Triumph Pears from Argentina!

Honeydew Melons from Sunfed!

Apricots?!?!

They are in the house, pretty lil’ cots from California!

And our first batch of Cherries, from Blossom Hill in California!

So exciting, the beginning of many great things to come!

And lastly, Blueberries from Homegrown.

Delish!

Thanks for checking out Hot Shots!

Hope you’re all well, warm in the embrace of your mamas!

Big Love,

Reiko Fujibayashi

truth. transparency. trust. relationships.

Discovery Organics

604.299.1683

Weekend update

Randy Hooper — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:19:23 +0000

Apple supply is slowly dwindling, with most B.C. fruit done, but there is still plenty of crisp CA apples in Washington to last for a few more weeks. Expect imports to be in the same target range as the higher end Washington fruit. We had the pleasure of being on hand for the harvest of our 2nd container of Peru avocado a few days ago at ProPalta in the Chao Valley. The first container will arrive in a nice dovetail with the last of our Mexican fruit in a few weeks. Prices should stay stable at current levels through the end of July when our Peruvian program ends. Remember we’re switching over to mostly American sized avocado lugs – but we’ve put the equivalent sizing in the line items. We have a virtual ballet of containers of bananas on the water so we wouldn’t have any more shorts – but we do have a boat break-down to deal with, so once again you will see Mexican fruit on the list for another short period – then the flood gates will open! Blueberry pricing has come off considerably with more areas north of Bakersfield into production. An incredible grapefruit selection, and we were uber-lucky to load up on Texan Red Riostars at the peak of the season – this will be the last of the year for these. Lemons have bumped up again as supply thins. The citrus range continues to be excellent for this time of year…even more confusing this week with the addition of the stunning but oxymoronic “Pixie Jumbo.” Stone fruit season has officially arrived, with cherries, apricots, apriums and peaches. Let the games begin! Lots of beautiful Costa Rican pineapple in. We’re aiming for perfect timing on this great program, but expect a few more hiccups with direct shipping out of Costa Rica. Strawberry prices have jumped after 4 very cool days in Watsonville – they could use some Vancouver weather right now to speed up volumes. Asparagus volumes have also thinned which has affected the pricing, but we have good strong supply from multiple shippers. A pleasant drop on broccoli pricing this week – good supply across California. Thank you John Givens for sending us mountains of his best bunch carrots – being on the coast just north of L.A. always give his Something Good carrots a head-start – nice big carrots and lush green tops. Onion markets have eased – watch for bunched spring white onions from Nature’s Way – a great salad onion! One market that startled us last year was specialty fingerling potatoes – the new crop babies have just started, so look for a widening selection of these coming up soon. We’re still looking at a strong supply on a wide variety of spuds, with a few new crop American yellows to round out the selection. We’re seeing some stunning spinach from Natures Way and Siri – dark green, big bunches. We are drowning in cherry tomatoes. Despite selling hundreds of cases of all the different mixed packs last week, there’s ½ a truckload due in on the weekend. These are 16 pint clams (normally way more expensive) and a great opportunity for your customers to dive into these perfect salad tomatoes….Enjoy while they last – this will only go for a couple more weeks!

Weekend Update

Randy Hooper — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:34:42 +0000

There’s lots of information jammed in here today. Apple stocks still strong, prices starting to stabilize. Avocado supply is excellent. Our last shipment from Pragor arrives next week. We exceeded our contract so they have run out of the “Canadian” boxes they ordered for the year, and are shipping this last load in “U.S.” sized lugs, so we be listing lugs as we run out of 4 kg boxes, and sub accordingly. Our first Peru container from ProPalta will land here around the long weekend. We’re going to visit them on Monday morning to watch the avocado harvest! Again, a reminder about Fair Trade Fortnight! Build some Fair Trade displays – the selection is pretty darn good right now – check out our specials! Every year, about now we throw out this reminder: Aprium and Pluot are crosses between apricots and plums. Apriums look more like apricots. Pluots look more like plums! That’s pretty easy! Bananas are still tight but if all containers arrive on time, we will be in good shape, and we have commitments for more availability looking forward. Blues are arriving perfect with prices expected to stay firm as California struggles through a hot spell, affecting production. We’ve had a few truck delays in the last couple of days from forest fire smoke closing highways north of L.A. We’re going to wait a week on the California cherries – we weren’t thrilled with the pictures we got this morning from the first harvest from one packer. Our Star Ruby program out of Mexico is done, we’re now waiting for the next flavour of the month – Red Rios should start in a week or two – lots of California listed. Lemons are running thin and prices are bouncing up quite quickly on premium fruit. Mangos are kicking it – great selection, three varieties, full sizing, good pricing, nice fruit – lots of colour on the Tommys. A nice selection of Heaven’s Best product from Mexico. The grower (Grupo Alta) is FLO Fair Trade certified. You can tell by our citrus listings where the action is – seems to be all about Navels as the specialty selection thins down. Pixie tangerines from Churchill (locally known as the Tangerine Man) are impressive. Kazillions of pear arrivals this week – Abate Fetel prices are off a bit and sales are brisk. Late variety Green Bartletts back in town. We keep on running short on the Costa Rican pineapples as sales continue to increase. We’re working on it! Strawberries continue tight, and likely to stay that way until we’re passed Mother’s Day (the biggest strawberry weekend of the year). Asparagus was tight, but we’re loaded up now – excellent quality through all listings. One of the last shipments from our Ejido project due in tomorrow– we’ve battled Bragata beetles, freezes and sand storms for two years, and will limit production next year to beets, which have survived all that has been thrown at this crop quite nicely. Heat is affecting production on sensitive crop in California – Bok Choy especially with sky-high pricing. Cabbage – well, we have an OK price on Asian, and limited on Green. We’re still struggling through a combination of a bad transition from the southern deserts to coastal California, and high demand is keeping prices high on most greens. We need more organic farmers! Most other green veg is stable. The bulk carrot situation is easing, and prices should start to slack off with new production coming on. Bunchers are now tight with Bosko’s Mexican deal over, and we’re selling out John Givens beauties every week. Now we’ll see an interesting situation on the tropical end, with all those great growers down the coast of Mexico about to pack it in. Local water districts start turning the taps off when dam levels drop, and we’re losing water this weekend in several regions, which ends a lot of pepper, eggplant and tomato production. OriginO to the rescue – with beautiful cukes, all three colours of peppers and beautiful vine tomatoes. Potato selection strong with lots of Canadian product. Most of our yellows are sitting on the other side of the border waiting for the “right” paperwork, so may not arrive until Tuesday. Spinach is great – from Luis and Joe – two great spinach growers, 6,000 km. away from each other. Wait, there’s more. The flood of cherry tomatoes continues from our Los Mochis operation (we have another couple of weeks of water left) – time to feature specialty tomatoes – excellent pricing on all 16 count cherry tomato packs. Fair trade tomatoes!

May day! May day! California cherries will be here soon!

Randy Hooper — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:43:12 +0000

It’s the first of May, and what a day it is! Despite a blizzard that shut down the Coquihalla highway out of Vancouver overnight on Monday, and having to scrape frost off our windows in parts of Vancouver, nearly every place we ship to is forecast to be sunny, warm, with no frost for the next week! Maybe this will be the first spring since 2009 that local farmers can actually get crop in the ground on time instead of being delayed by cold and rain. Keeping our fingers crossed. Although a few more apples have disappeared this week, Washington shippers still have strong inventories on Gala, Fuji, Pink Lady, Braeburn – so no rush to Argentina just yet, although we will have some Fairtrade Gala in here in a few days. Excellent avocado supply, with no interruptions expected looking out several months. We’re back to a good stock situation with BOS bananas. Expect the fruit category to heat up shortly. Blues are arriving beautifully, with more California regions expected to kick in over the next few days. The first cherries, cots, plums and peaches are about to ship. We will take it easy initially – usually the first off the block are pricey and small, but give it another week and watch out, as this category is a blockbuster every year in May and June, warming people up to our local July stonefruit program. After eating these in the orchard in Ojai Canyon a few weeks ago at their peak of sweet, it’s no wonder Jodi couldn’t resist bringing in some Churchill Ranch Oro Blanco sweet grapefruits – enjoy! Our mango season has exploded, with multiple varieties and shippers – let’s keep promoting! Melon season is now gaining ground, with several varieties. Watch for mini watermelons to be the big winner this year, with many shippers not bothering with the big guys anymore – high costs have moved pricing over the threshold where consumers may shy away and stay with minis.
Cantaloupe from several shippers just arriving today. Citrus season is still roaring along. Look for a continuing excellent selection of Navels, with most packers stretching the season as far as they can, leaving the biggest fruit on the trees – but prices continue to inch up. We weren’t sure how the new passion fruit program was going to fly – well, we have no doubts anymore – the response has been stupendous! Packham pears and more Red Bartletts are on the way to round out the full range. Strawberries back in stock, with good volumes in before the weekend. The greens market is very stable right now, although some items (cabbage, bulk carrots) continue to be tough markets. We have 300 single layer cases of eggplant arriving today – with eggplant tight, we’re offering these beauties at very attractive pricing! A huge range of cherry tomatoes also arriving from our fields in Los Mochis – every variety, and we’re pricing pears, grapes, rounds and heirlooms at very attractive pricing – ½ of what you would normally see on specialties – but the volumes and selection are overwhelming – take advantage of this program for the next few weeks. Summer red onions are selling through quickly – remember that these are fresh out of the ground and not cured off like storage reds, so expect them to look a bit rough, while they continue to loose their outer layers of skin.

Weekend update

Randy Hooper — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:03:02 +0000

The first California blueberries are now shipping out of Bakersfield – producers have moved directly into 6 oz pints with so much production coming on, and no gaps until October! Mango supply continues to improve, and expected price decreases have kicked in so they’re already at very promotable pricing. We’re also introducing our first Costa Rican Tommys as well this week. Melon season has blown wide open, with multiple varieties. Navel oranges are at the peak of sugar, quality is excellent, but prices are creeping up. Pixie Tangerines from Churchill Ranch are amazing! Excellent response to Passion fruit – we’re hope you’re telling your customers to wait for them to ripen – that will keep them coming back! The pear category is just rocking, with product disappearing faster than boats can sail out of Argentina – you’re going to have to wait for Packhams for a little while longer but there is good stock of several other varieties. We’ve got a hit on our hands with this new pineapple program, and hoping we have pretty well continuous supply. We will likely have no strawberries until mid-week. A perfect storm of too many apple moths being trapped in the vicinity of the growers, and inspectors not showing up on time for our trucks meant we had to leave a lot of fruit behind today. Ahhhh…the joys of importing! Several hot days a few days ago in California not only impacted strawberry quality, it’s also nipped the asparagus patch in the bud, so to speak, with supplies tighter, prices up a bit, but we do have more than enough for you. As expected, we bring in John Givens “Something Good” bunched carrots and they get devoured – more of his beautiful carrots, bunched beets and fennel on the way! Bagged table carrots continue to be a problem, in fact there are a wide array of supply problems right now, all due to lack of supply. We’ve all done such a great job promoting organic that there just isn’t enough being produced! We’ve got an excellent price on Baja organic eggplant from our fields in Los Mochis. This is a slightly ribbed heirloom variety that we will drown in shortly, offered at excellent pricing! Whew – we only had about 4 days of yellow onions in stock, but Sue Heger’s first shipments out of El Centro have arrived just in time. OriginO peppers are beautiful, and they are switching over in the next few days to an industry standard 11# box, so both sizes are listed. We will also be flooded with several packs of beautiful cherry tomatoes from Baja Organic – watch for those on Wednesdays list – along with the first harvests of San Marzano Romas. Potato supply is still excellent, with lots of B.C. and P.E.I. in stock, and new crop yellows from California.

Hot Shots!

Reiko Fujibayashi — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:23:02 +0000

Howdy Y’all!

It’s getting chilly ‘round these parts again….agh!

I got bamboozled by false Spring…again.

It’s going to happen!

Shorts (without long underwear underneath) will become a reality.

They will, they really, really will.

Gotta keep up with the affirmations!

Let’s take a look at what we’ve discovered…

Red Butter Lettuce from Lakeside!

So tender!

Napa Cabbage from Lakeside!

Crisp and juicy!

Whoa!!!

This is the Yokozuna of Beefsteak Tomatoes!

Super impressed by these bad boys from Origino!

Heirloom Medley Cherry Tomatoes from Del Cabo.

Beautiful lil’ bites!

Sweet Petites Pepper Medley from Del Cabo!

Pretty and perfect!

Tomatoes on the Vine from Origino!

Hurray!

Avocado Lugs, 70ct from Sundance.

Great value!

Green D’Anjou from Argentina. Soon we will have some Fair Trades as well.

Pixie Tangerines, 8x3# bags from California.

Sweet lil’ citrus…perfect for the family on the go!

And lastly…our Fairtrade Passionfruit from Peru!

We’re so excited (and passionate?) about these!

They are best eaten when fully ripened (unlike the one pictured here)…when they are yellow and slightly wrinkled.

So fragrant...definitely feeling the love for these beautiful lilikoi!

That’s what we discovered this week….thanks for taking the time!

Rest up for another fun-filled week!

Big Love,

Reiko Fujibayashi

truth. transparency. trust. relationships.

Discovery Organics
604.299.1683

Weekend update

Randy Hooper — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:23:24 +0000

OK, here we go: Great stock of avocado, with thousands more cases arriving Monday. We’ll be featuring these heavily for many weeks, with at least one size on special, and solid pricing on beautiful California lugs as well. BOS bananas are on the price list but supply will be uber-tight until later in the week when a much delayed container arrives.
Lemon supply has tightened considerably – with prices expected to continue to march upwards as supply dwindles. The long awaited Michoacan mango crop is trickling in, but huge volumes are expected in here by Tuesday. Prices will likely stay high until producers start to balance pricing vs. volumes in a few weeks. Citrus range is still very busy, the only change will be on Valencia, where the Sonora crop is about to run dry, just as California starts harvesting. Strawberry supply has tightened right up with fog and drizzle hitting coastal areas, and crops recovering from light frosts growers suffered a few days ago in the valley bottoms around Watsonville, but we have oodles! The passion fruit are starting to turn, by the way, and are heaven on the inside. Now, the bad news first on green veg – desert crops are bolting, and for the most part finished, and a cool spring and continued cool weather this week have tightened supply up to the ridiculous. Of course, on the other hand, more than one producer has told us that they have lost money in all but 4 of the last 24 months, so they are going to shoot for the stars when they have product in the current slim market, and we don’t blame them! Green beans are still pricey, but that should change as southern California starts – those are on today’s list. Lots more beautiful bunch beets in from Nature’s Way and John Givens in Goleta. Broccoli market has also tightened with the same cool weather problem, and we’re scrambling to keep up with demand. Bunched carrots out of Mexico continue to be a great deal, with over-supply punching the price down. We also have the first of our spring crop of those beautiful big Nantes bunchers from Something Good – always a favourite. More of that stunning Something Good fennel just arrived – always great! Of course, lettuce is loving the cool weather down south, and it’s a buyers market this week on all models. Lots of yellow onions, but new crop reds are curing in the Imperial Valley so we don’t expect to see any for a week. We’re cooking on peppers, with our first direct shipment from Juan Viggiano in central Mexico – it’s a lovely story we would love to tell you, but no room today, because we also wanted to tell you that OriginO’s first harvest is in – and after only growing reds for two years, we’re back to a three colour pepper selection this year – but it will be first come, first served until we get some real heat out in Delta to colour these up. The zucchini glut is over, with prices up substantially for next week. Check the prices and selection on cherry tomatoes – these Baja Organic ones are from our fields – heavily planted in specialty varieties, and priced to sell. Have a great week!