Date: July 28th 2010

July 28, 2010

Tesch Family Farms – Newsletters

My neighbors are now selling direct to you as well:
Thanks to all who found Spitzer Farms (Top Hat label) Red Flame seedless grapes, as their first ever visit to the farmers market was Saturday, July 24 at the Golden State Mall. These are my helpful neighbors who graciously allow me to rent / borrow space at their Weedpatch facility in order to quickly cool and consolidate my fresh produce for my commercial distribution, and farmers market activities this spring / summer 2010, (as in past seasons as well). If you didn't sample and take home their hours fresh & delicious grapes, picked 6-6:30 AM near Lamont, you will have to pick a few up at your next market visit July 31, but only if you want the crispiest and sweetest.

Immediate gratification thinking:
There seems to be a strong trend which I am discovering amongst mostly new faces at the farmers market, which involves the need for immediate gratification / consumption. I have no problem with this, except that it is all that I am seeing lately, as I encourage sales for beyond today or tomorrow consumption. I would hazard a guess that most of these buyers have not counted as relevant their need for fresh consumption the remaining 5-6 days until the next farmers market, and apparently do not see the need for fresh fruit and vegetable consumption over the remainder of the week leading back to farmers market. I am guessing that those who also say that they will be away for a few days or the weekend, do not trust in their own in home refrigeration, or do not understand a few truths about farmers market produce.

Produce time-line, harvest to consumption in California:
For your enlightenment, for all of those who care to look beyond today and tomorrow, most farmers market produce was harvested 1 to 48 hours prior to the event, and therefore under proper or even improper storage conditions with some producers, if grown well, could have a shelf life of a few days to a few weeks. Most of what I grow has the latter, a few weeks of life, and I am talking about even salad greens (winter production)... Perhaps many are comparing their “store bought” disappointments with farmers market offerings, and are hesitant even at my persistent urging to shop for the week, as we do for our own family, at the farmers market. Perhaps you will be comforted / dis-comforted to understand how produce makes its way from the fields to the market.

It our case, we pick and pack it, haul it either 2 miles or 14 miles depending upon which farm we are harvesting, where it rapidly cools, then usually the next day, assemble it early on pallets, load it onto the trailer, and haul it to the farmers market. The majority of our produce, and I am sure that this is mostly the case with other farmers marketers, takes about 1-2 days, and in reality, with cool conditions, is physiologically just a matter of a few hours from harvest to your possession.

Here's how the process looks for commercial distribution, for certified organic and conventional produce. The produce is harvested, assembled and loaded in the field onto trucks. When these trucks / trailers are full, they are taken to the cold storage. They may be delayed for inspection or further sorting, and then are cooled. Usually from picking to cooled, that process is typically 6-20 hours, and waits in the cooler typically 1 to 3 days. The sales desk must find a customer, and that customers long haul truck must arrive at the cooler, load the product, and depart for the receiving warehouse, usually in a larger city, say Los Angeles, Fresno... Once loaded, and the truck makes all of its other mixed load pickups, it is delivered to the warehouse, and for California, this is usually slightly less than a 24 hour process, where it is slotted and stored until retail store orders make it a consolidation / pick item. The time and conditions in warehouse or the wholesale
environment can commonly be improper temperature management, and delays in sales / distribution. Once the produce is on a delivery truck for a retail store, this process has added typically 24-72 hours to an already days to week old process. The delivery process to the store is typically 2-10 hours, and the produce lands in the back of the store cooler. Since most stores order every 24-48 hours, this is the typical wait in the back of the store until the produce is taken to the retail shelves, where it is placed on the bottom, below the older produce which the retail clerk has rotated to the top of the piles. There it may sit for 30 minutes to typically 6-24 hours until it is headed home with you, which to be fair is where we at the farmers market can compare our time-line and conclude at this point. Once it makes your kitchen, it could be consumed immediately, or could wait for as long as a week.

Comparison of fresh versus mass production:
So let's compare, farmers market produce from field to your kitchen, typically 24-48 hours, organic or conventional store produce field to kitchen, 4-10 days, if California grown. I have seen salad code dates of typically 4-10 days on produce grown in California / Arizona, as this is about as quick and efficient as mass production produce is distributed in California. There should be little wonder about shelf life when you consider that Tesch Farms produce is typically physiologically, and in reality just a few hours old, compared to organic and conventional mass production being day old. We aim to always make you the winner, when you are willing for the right things in your weekly diet.

This weeks forecast for availability:
Thanks for bearing with this again, as those of you who have been Tesch Farms shoppers for years know these benefits, and how they make your fresh reality much more enjoyable. This week we expect our tomato, white peach, and pluot harvest to be big, and definitely downward availability of melons, squashes, cucumbers. Garlic shallots and onions are already picked, but sweet onion season will probably finish by mid August. Herbs keep on so we hope you keep cooking. Peppers and eggplant, always minor offerings look to remain minor this week as well. Most notable are that our variety and colors of peaches and nectarines will vary from week to week as varieties change, ,and we expect a downward availability of yellow peaches and nectarines in August. Our watermelon crop was light, and since the few pickings have been sold at midweek markets, this leaves few to nil for weekend business, but many others are choosing to produce, so they are on the market. Hard shell / winter
squashes are a specialty of ours which few have discovered, so we have good supplies now, and expect that to be the case into fall. Lighter supplies could possibly allow a little break in August, we'll see.

Thanks again, see you at market,

Greg Tesch
www.teschfamilyfarms.com

Golden State Mall, Saturdays 8AM till Noon, year round.
Tehachapi City Hall, Thursdays 4-7PM, the end of May through the end of August.