LOCALLY GROWNDriftless Organics - Soldier’s Grove, WI: Organic green kale, collard greens, red kale, clamshell mini peppers, red beets, gold beets, rutabaga, parsnip

Fall and Ornamental Items: Pumpkins, mini pumpkins, orna-mental gourds, indian corn, mini indian corn, carnival squash, delicata squash, sweet dumpling squash, turbin squash, hubbard squash, pie pumpkins, and We Be Little Pumpkins are in and good supply. Projected finish for these items is the end of October.

Forever Your’s Farm - Hinckley, MN: Organic basil plants

Greene Belle - Nekoosa, WI: Organic cranberries

Green Cabbage: Minnesota and Wisconsin with great quality. Local will finish in the next week.

Greens / Misc. Veg: Collard, mustard and turnip greens are locally grown in Wisconsin. Green kale is being sourced from both Wisconsin and Minnesota. Borzinsky Farms and Costa Farms.

Hard Shell Squash: Wisconsin and Minnesota crop are shipping. Local crop will finish earlier than normal this fall. Projected local finish will be early November.

Hill and Valley - Hillsborough, WI: Organic green kale, red kale,

green chard, collard greens, lacinato kale, red cabbage, shallots, red beets, green top beets, winter squash

Hoch Orchard - LaCrescent, MN: Organic apple cider

Hugh’s Garden - Moorhead, MN: Organic red, yellow, and russet potatoes

Radishes: Cello’s and bulk packs remain product of Minnesota for another week or two - Ed Fields and Sons.

Real Foods - Athens, WI: Organic bagged red, yellow, and sweet onions

RPE - Bancroft, WI: Organic red, yellow, russet, and oddball organic potatoes

Seed to Seed Farm - Balsam Lake, WI: Organic green top rad-ishes, collard greens, green kale, turnips, winter squash, brussel sprouts, kalettes

Shared Ground Farmers Coop - St. Paul, MN: Organic jalapeno, leeks

St. Croix Valley Produce - Woodville, WI: Organic red potatoes, red cabbage, jalapeno peppers, buttercup squash, butternut squash, acorn squash

October 14, 2015

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Some of our other local growers: Pahl Farms - Apple Valley, MN, Rivrside Farms - Elk River, MN, Cherry Lake Farms - Atwater, MN, Jandt Farms - Peshtigo, WI, Stoney Brook Farms - Foley, MN, Joe Zywiec - Cottage Grove, MN

VEGETABLESArtichoke: Artichokes will see a moderate drop in market price for the coming week, but will remain tight in overall supply. A much warmer-than-average month of September, both daytime highs and nighttime lows, created a stressful growing environment that resulted in far less than expected size and volume. Long stems remain unavailable.

Asparagus: Asparagus from Peru continues to be excellent quality and reasonably priced. We are subject to fluctuating air freight rates as demand for airspace increases dramatically this time of year. There is produce flying in from all over the world now. Lots of product is committed to ads this time of year which makes it dif-ficult to determine a real market. Usually the market creeps up as we approach Thanksgiving, and I expect this year to follow suit.

Bicolor Corn: The Georgia fall harvest is well underway. The ears are fully filled out and bigger barrels than they have been. The market is slipping as supply starts to exceed demand for a few weeks. Georgia is projected to finish the first week of November and Florida projected to start at that time. We are hoping to avoid a supply gap.

Broccoli: Broccoli volume from both Santa Maria and Salinas appears steady for the coming week. Mixed reports indicate that some shippers are sitting OK whereas others have light supply, mainly due to quality issues related to warmer than average

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daytime highs and nighttime lows. Both crowns and 14s will be up in price next week.

Brussel Sprouts: Brussels sprouts will edge up in price for next week. Overall, supply shoudl remain steady and close in proximity to demand. Quality has been very nice!

Cauliflower: Cauliflower will hold steady at current market price, which is much higher than “normal.” Warm weather continues to challenge industry yields and quality. A warm September con-tinues to affect overall size in current fields. Product intended to harvest within the 12ct spec is being harvested at a 16ct spec due to the lack of 12ct size product and high demand. Numbers are expected to recover in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, expect temporary shortages in supply, non-standard labels and smaller sizing until conditions improve.

Celery: Celery will continue its upward trend as we move into next week. Overall, supply is tightening up, mainly due to Midwestern growers wrapping up production, thus shifting national demand back to 100% California. Markets will remain high with the potential to go even higher from now through the Thanksgiving holiday. Preliminary reports indicate an indusry shortage of over 200k cases of celery for Thanksgiving. We have been working with our suppliers for the last several weeks in order to get ahead of the curve and minimize the effect at retail as much as possible.

Chile Peppers: Mexican supplies have been very sporadic due to rains. Overall low demand has kept prices moderate.

Cucumbers: Nogales cucumber quality has improved. Mexican growers have been doing a great job. We will load the first No-gales cucumbers the last week of October. With increased freight costs from the west, markets will increase.

Eggplant: Supplies are steady. Market price is decreasing with improved availability from multiple areas. Excellent quality.

Green Beans: Roy Boy supply is adequate. Some fields are yield-ing excellent quality and volume and some fields appear to have damage from early season bad weather. They are skipping over those fields. Overall, the Georgia green bean crop is good size and good quality. Florida will begin bean harvest the first or second week of November. Market will remain steady as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.

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GREENS/MISC. VEGETABLESAnise will remain unchanged in market price and supply.

Beets will see a slight increase in market price, with fair supply overall.

Bok Choy and Napa will both see slight price drops, but remain higher than normal with limited supply.

Bunched Spinach will see a moderate increase in price due to overall supply. Warm nights in growing regions are causing some field quality issues, thus reducing overall yields.

Cilantro will edge up slightly, but remain healthy in supply and lower than average in price.

Daikon will drop in price, with fair supply overall.

Kohlrabi will hold steady in price, but supply remains an issue as product has been hit and miss at loading.

Leeks will remain unchanged in market price and supply.

Parsley Italian parsley will come down in price as more product hits the market, whereas curly parsley will hold steady and high due to overall supply.

Green Onions: Green onions remain tight due to an unseasonably high amount of rainfall in Mexican growing regions. Better volume is forecasted for the coming weeks, which should hopefully bring soem relief to the market.

Green Pepper: Georgia has fair supplies. Florida will start in about 1 week and California is having a bit more production out of Fresno area, but there is a big price discrepancy with the freight costs compared to the east. Coachella is projected to start shipping next week, and we will move to the west for peppers as soon as quality product is consistent.

HYDRO: Cucumbers: Picking fresh daily with normal production.Beefsteak Tomatoes: Quality excellent, but has been tight due to weather in growing regions.

Tomatoes on the Vine: Quality looks great with good sizing.

Peppers: Quality good with low yields on peppers due to weather.

LETTUCE: Green Butter Lettuce will remain low in price with good supply. Both red butter lettuce and red romaine will hold relatively steady, with occasional pro rates at loading due to overall availability.

Green Leaf and Red Leaf will remain unchanged for the coming week. Green still holds a slight premium over red in terms of price.

Iceberg Lettuce is now being sourced out of Huron. As some of the later growers wrap in Salinas, more demand will shift to the Huron region. This shift, along with product loss due to high heat during early growth stage in Huron, will make overall supply light on iceberg. Market price on iceberg is up for next week.

Red Butter and Red Romaine will hold relatively steady, with occasional pro rates at loading due to overall availability.

Romaine 24ct romaine will jump in price again, whereas hearts will drop slightly. Warm weather continues to impact whole head availability of romaine, green leaf and red leaf. Trimmed leaf let-tuces and hearts are seeing less market price impact as a result.

ONIONS: The onion market is stable at this point in time. Harvest is wrap-ping up in the northwest and growers are getting an idea of what needs to be sold throughout winter and into spring. The overall feeling is that this crop is considerably shorter than in years past. Demand in the onion market is moderate adn it isn’t likely to see a change until the Thanksgiving holiday. Demand following the holiday push will determine market pricing for early 2016.

Sweet Onions: We are featuring both California Panoche Onions and NW Heavenly Sweets both with good quality and brix. Peruvi-an Onions are starting to clear, but the crop estimates are down considerably for past years and pricing is 20% higher than last year at this time.

POTATOES: Russets: The market has taken a turn as the russet market is following Idaho in an attempt to boost russet pricing. While the overall demand for russet potatoes has been average across the country, we are still seeing an uptick in market pricing. Most regions have no finished harvesting.

Idaho: Growers in Idaho are trying to push the market up on consumers. We will see if they can hold this position. We have

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seen an uptick on baker russets with all size ranges moving up this week. We are still in Norkota bakers with Burbanks slated to start the end of the month. Overall, quality reports out of Idaho are good - overall crop size is average with yields down slightly compared to last year. Consumers have been pushed up slightly this past week.

Reds: Demand on red potatoes has been moderate over the last week and the market is steady. There was a slight uptick last week in pricing as red growers attempt to capitalize on increase in Idaho. Growers in the valley are facing weather issues. It has been too dry to harvest and growers are in need of rain before temps turn and they experience a hard freeze.

Golds: Pricing on yellow potatoes has strengthened as all grow-ing regions have completed harvest. Growers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota are reporting a really great crop while growers in Colorado, Idaho, and Washington have reported average numbers.

Varietals: The white potato market remains steady with supply and demand centralized around the east and west coasts. Beau-tiful fingerling potatoes have been harvested in all growing areas. At this time, purple fingerlings remain short in demand. We carry both Tasteful Selections (always new crop California) potatoes - fingerlings and 2 bites. We also have Little Potato Company value added potatoes with seasoning (both roaster/grillers and micro-wave).

Red / Yellow Peppers: Red and yellow have become extremely tight and will be until Coachella can get some good volume going next month. Fresno, Oxnard, and Mexico will have to help fill the gaps until November. Market price will continue to rise.

Snow Peas / Sugar Snap Peas: Peruvian supplies are becoming tighter. They don’t have enough supply in Peru to send boats anymore so everything is being air shipped. The quality is good, but supply is tight and prices continue to climb. Guatemalan peas have started shipping. Supplies should increase in about 2 weeks. Until then, snow peas and sugar snap peas will remain high priced.

Sweet Potatoes: We are now in new crop Mississippi / Louisiana Beauregard variety for US#1 and Jumbos within the next week. New Crop California Jersey Sweets and Red Garnets are available

now.

TOMATOES: The market contues to be active, with very good demand for roma, rounds, grapes, and cherry.Cherry continue to be extremely tight as growers start to transi-tion.

Grape are finally loosening up some as more growers are being able to harvest.

Zucchini / Yellow Squash: Good volume from Georgia. Nogales is picking up steam and has good supplies on zucchini and yellow squash also. Next week is anticipated to be even better supply. We will be transitioning to the 25# Mexican carton the first week of November.

VALUE ADDEDCabbage: Green supplies are better but still tight industry wide. We are working with many sources east and west to secure as much cabbage as possible. Red supplies are better in the east. Quality is OK.

Carrots: Carrots are sourced in California and Canada. Canada has good supplies. Quality is good.

Dried Cranberries: Now available.

Dried Mangoes: Now available.

Dried Plums: Now available. Flame Raisins: Available late November.

Iceberg Lettuce: We are in good shape with iceberg supply as we head into the upcoming transition to Huron. We will begin Fresh Pack VA production out of Huron this week. We will be overlapping for approximately 1 week between Huron and Salinas acreage. We are seeing traces of tip burn and mildew that we will be keeping

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an eye on.

Leaf Lettuce: The warmer weather over recent weeks has pushed crop growth rates and our acreage is maturing a few days ahead of schedule as a result. We should expect larger head sizes for the harvest week on green, red and butter. We are also keeping an eye out for potential seeders on green and red leaf of approximately 1-2” across various plantings. Fringe burn shouldn’t be an issue as overall quality is good on both green and red. On the butter lettuce, we are starting to see traces of internal burn on the more compact heads. We will have to be more selective at harvest to mitigate the over maturity issues on butter. Overall, quality on butter is good as well. We still have 3-4 weeks remaining of full supply with Salinas Valley leaf lettuce for the season. We are currently targeting 11/10 - 11/15 for the Yuma area start up.

Organic Earthbound Farm: Overall supply is looking good this week, however product availability next week for spinach and chopped romaine are expected to be limited. At this point, we continue to ask for full pallet (of each item) orders only in order to get everyone in and out without causing a backlog at the shipping dock. We are working on some major changes on the operational side to help facilitate the entire process. We are looking at other resources in order to get everyone back to the way they normally load.

Radicchio: Radicchio is sourced in California. Supplies are good. Quality is good.

Romaine Lettuce: The warmer than normal Salinas area tem-peratures continue to push on crop growth rates. Romaine plantings are coming in around 5-7 days ahead of scheduled harvest dates. We are also seeing some traces of seeder, twisting and excessive rib along with minor tip burn in various plantings of some of our fall varieties. We have plenty of supply out there to cover orders, however we could see a slight dip in field yields over the next week or so as we work through some of these weather related issues. We still have approximately 4 full weeks remaining for the Salinas season. We are currently scheduled to transition around the 15th of November. We will be assessing the first Yuma area plantings this week in an effort to start penciling out our up-coming romaine transition. VA quality is good overall. With good harvest crew workmanship and field selection we should be able

to mitigate much of the seeder and tip burn concerns mentioned above, hoever we will want to keep an eye out at all facilities. Greener and tender product is showing some bruising in the plant.

Snap Peas: Continue to be a challenge - prorates running 60% of regular volume. Should improve next week when we get into a new growing area.

Snow Peas: Continue to be a challenge - prorates running 75% of regular volume. Should improve next week when we get into a new growing area.

TENDERLEAF:Spring Mix and Spinach are sourced out of Salinas and Arizona. We are currently into transition going into the desert. Supplies will be coming from Salinas and the desert for another three weeks. By the first week of November, we should be 100% in the desert.Spinach: Conventional spinach is good. Salinas volume to finish out week. Quality is good - only concern is size being on the bigger end of the spectrum. For next week we will have good volumes coming from Salinas and the desert.

Spring Mix: Conventional spring mix has good field volumes from Salinas to finish out the week. Quality is good. For next week there will be good field volumes from Salinas and Yuma.

FRUITAVOCADOS: The avocado market is finally lessening up on smaller fruit and promotional pricing will be seen over the next few weeks.

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Florida Green Skin Avocados: Supplies extremely limited and very hit or miss made worse by quarantine. Blueberries: Prices will continue to be strong. Peru has very limited product being flown. Argentina is still trying to recover from the rains and hail in some of the growing regions 2 weeks ago and into last week. Arrivals have been very sporadic especial-ly on 6oz. Argentina is projecting volumes to be down up to 40% compared to previous seasons. Mexico is starting to cross product this week, hoever rains have delayed the picking and has pushed the harvest out to next week. Product overall is very limited with record high prices.

Blackberries: California supplies are consistent with light volume for the next few weeks. Guatemalan supplies have stopped due to quality issues from previous rains. Mexican production has start-ed to ramp up. Crossings have been steady and should increase the end of this week and into next. Prices are starting to come down with the increase in supplies.

Cantaloupe: Quality has been good out of Arizona. Market has stalled out, and price has stayed steady. Imports will start around the middle of November.

Carton Coconuts: Up and down slightly in production, but shouldn’t be enough to affect our needs.

Cranberries: We are now in full swing on cranberries.

Dragon Fruit: There will be nothing until 2 weeks when they have one more picking and then probably will be done for the season.

Grapefruit: Starting 10/24, we will be into new crop Texas grapefruit. We will see a smaller sizing profile for most of this season due to the high temps they had in the growing region this summer.

GRAPES: Normal weather is forcasted for the Central Valley this week, with highs in the low 90’s and nights cooling down to mid- 60’s. There was a lot of precipitation last week, which has left standing water

in the fields. The extra moisture could cause some problems with late season crimsons still on the vines. This is somethign we will keep a close eye on as we enter the month of November.

Red Seedless Columbine Vineyards will be done shipping Scarlet Royals in the next couple of weeks, as they work through remain-ing inventory put away in cold storage. Columbine continues to pick heavy volumes of crimson this week. This variety continues to build momentum and should carry us well into November. Columbine Holidays are also building momentum this week as we continue to pick grapes out of the more mature ranches. Current inventory on Holiday Seedless is nearly 85% Columbine Label and 15% MC Label. This will be the situation for the remainder of the season which should last into the first week of December. Our Welch’s growers are shipping mostly Scarlet Royals this week, with a few transitioning into crimsons within the next few days. Color, size, and condition continue to impress on this year’s Scarlet Royal crop.

Green Seedless Green seedless availability remains plentiful this week, though we will be still be shipping a number of different varieties. We have been shipping the Kelly variety for a couple of weeks now with Columbine Yineyards. This variety has a size profile that is mostly 13/16 - 14/16ths with some stretch. Col-umbine Vineyards will continue to pack Autumn Kings this week and started shipping this variety last week. Our Welch’s growers continue to pack a mix of Pristine Green and Autumn King variet-ies this week. Both of these grapes have been strong this season, averaging mostly 13/16ths - 14/16th on the Pristine and 14/16ths and larger on the Autumn Kings.

Black Seedless Columbine Vineyards has continued harvest on their Autumn Royals heading into this week. We will contin-ue harvesting these Autumn Royals for another few weeks. So far, the Autumn Royals have been heavy on the MC label and somewhat tight on the Columbine label. We expect this to be the situation through the remainder of the season. Availability has been stressed slightly thanks to a very strong export demand. The Welch’s autumn royals have been excellent - averaging 14/16ths with full color.

Red and Black Globe Columbine Vineyards has continued harvest on the California Globes which continue to have a great season. Supplies remain plentiful as we are hitting peak volumes on globes during this time of the season. Red globes at Columbine will be finishing up in the next few weeks, but black globes will remain available through at least Thanksgiving. Red globes con-

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tinue to gain momentum with other growers in the Central Valley as well, but only a few growers have planted black globes for the domestic market. Peruvian red globes will be available in the next couple of weeks of the East Coast.

Honeydew: 8ct honeydew is about nonexistent right now. There are a lot of 4ct and 5ct for processing with an OK supply for 6ct in the market. Look for prices to stay stable over the next coupld of weeks.

Lemons: We are finally into new crop lemons, and we will see the market start to loosen over the next few weeks.

Limes: Currently the limes are loading out of Vera Cruz and Jalisco, Mexico. We will be loading out of these regions of Mexico for the next 3 months. All sizes are available and we should see a steady market on limes.

Mangoes: Brazilian mangos will be in excellent supply for the next two weeks. This is the peak of their shipments. Their season will continue until the end of October. The fruit fly quarantine keep expanding geography which is bring a faster close to some items than initially thought.

Navels and Clementines: We are now into the peak of the season fruit on import clementines and navels. We will see bumper sup-plies for the next 3 weeks on the clementines. California navel or-anges have started, however, we will not get into them until closer to November. The first fruit out of California is typically gassed for 72 hours and is rock hard and very tough to peel. We will remain in import navels due to quality and flavor until 11/17 then we will be into new crop navels. We will see our first halos in our ware-house 10/30 and available to stores starting 10/31 delivery.

PAPAYAS: Solo Papayas: Supplies are decent enough to cover demand at this time.

Caribbean Red Papayas / Maradol Guatemalan weather is being blamed for extremely short conditions. Belize has slightly better volume but not enough to fill demand. Mexico has been able to fill

the gaps so far.

Persimmons: Domestic persimmons are now available. We have a 22/24ct single layer available.

Pineapple: Pineapple still remains extremely tight with no ad volumes available until after the first of the year.

Pomegranates: Wonderful variety poms are now in! The crop outlook for the Wonderful variety season is favorable, with most shippers projecting to have quality fruit available through early to mid-January.

Raspberries: Overall quality is adequate with low seasonal supplies. This short market is projected to last until the Mexican supplies increase. The rain events they have had the last couple of weeks have finally subsided. This should allow them to start picking more regularly within the next week or so. Oxnard / Santa Maria production is very light. California has experienced very warm days and nights which is causing quality issues. Prices will be stable for the next 2-3 weeks.

Starfruit: Supplies will be shortening and prices are increasing.

Strawberries: California fruit volume is down dramatically. Many of the shippers are again sending fruit to the processers. The northern regions have finished their season. Santa Maria growers are picking new crop fruit with better size and quality, but with very limited quantities. Rains from last week have again limited quantities. Oxnard has started with some new crop fruit, but demanding high prices for very little fruit. Mexican shippers are hoping to start picking and crossing fruit this week. Hang on, we are in for a couple bumpy weeks.

WATERMELON: Quality watermelon are from Mexico. What is left of domestic wa-termelon has been inconsistent quality. Market price will remain steady or slightly increase until Nogales produces better volume.

Mini Watermelon We are shipping Mexican product. The market

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will remain strong out of Mexico until the offshore melons arrive. We do not expect offshore melons to start arriving until late November.

ORGANICNEW ITEMS

49040 - Organic Cranberry

50364 - Organic Hachiya Persimmon - Hachiya persimmons are the best tasting of the two persimmon varieties, but you must wait until fully soft and ripe to eat

49872 - Organic 16/1.5# French Fingerling Potato

Organic Bagged Avocados: Will be gapping for two weeks.

Organic Berries: All organic berries continue to be tight. No one is letting onto when we will see relief in this market.

Organic Cranberries: We will get a delivery of organic cranberries on Tuesday of next week. These will be certified organic and cer-tified biodynamic! I still will have the dry harvested cranberries from Reusch coming the first week of November.

Organic Grapefruit: Grapefruit will be tight for a bit while the California harvest gets going full swing.

Organic Green Peppers: Getting out last shot of local this week and then going to be getting product from Georgia along with the cucumbers.

Organic Kiwi: New Zealand is done for the season. There will be a little Chilean fruit filling in until California starts in two weeks.

Organic Mangoes: We are out for maybe a month when Ecuador-ian tommy atkins are ready.

Organic Melons: Honeydew and mini watermelon are done for the season. Thre is only a little bit of cantaloupe left.

Organic Parsnips: Local organic parsnips will be here later this week, and we will be packing the Crazy Fresh organic parsnips again!

Organic Pineapple: Very tight. Containers are being loaded with very few organic pineapples.

Organic Oddball Potatoes: Russets are available. We will have some red and yellows from Colorado coming later this week.

Organic Turmeric: Done for the season. There may be more avail-able in January from Hawaii.

MISCELLANEOUS

New Items: Natural Delight Coconut Rolls and Almond Rolls

Bolthouse Holiday Nog: Is now available.

Nuts: In shell holiday nuts will be available the end of October.

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