Santa Maria 4/27/09

Santa Maria update:
Our temperatures are back to normal with high's in the mid '60s and lows in the mid 40's after the heat last week. The peak production for the ventana was last week and the albion will follow in 2 weeks.

Watsonville / Salinas

Reporting from the Watsonville district, weather temps the last three days have been in the mid to upper 90’s reaching triple digits in some areas. It is forecasted to get in the 70’s today and mid to low 60’s by the weekend with a chance of rain early next week, not the best strawberry weather to say the least. As you can see in picture's 015, 018, 026 we have been hit with a lot of heat damage up to 50%. The QC people are working hard to keep the bad fruit in the ditch. On the brighter side the plants are looking green and healthy as you can see in picture 028. If we don't get hit with any rain next week one round of stripping the bad fruit we should be back to normal.

Santa Maria 4/13/09

Santa Maria Update:
Ventana and Palomar is starting to go into peak production. Albion is steadily increasing and should reach peak production by the beginning of May. Fruit counts range from 16-18 on Ventana and 10-12 on Albion. Our weather has been mild with highs in the mid 60's and lows in the high 30's to low 40's.

Oxnard 2/25/09

Good afternoon from Oxnard,
The fields have dried out nicely, we have had some very favorable weather the last few days, what a difference a few good days make. The cleanup of rain damaged fruit is just about complete, very few "bad" fruit remain on the plants. The plants are beginning to load up with some very nice fruit, we have all stages coming. The size and condition look to be excellent. We are just days away from a substantial increase in our volume, with decent weather, we should in a "normal" harvest pattern, and rolling right into the full swing of the Southern California season.

Steve

California blues 2/23/09

Attached are some photos from Santa Maria. As you can see, the fruit is very large in size. We are packing 12 - 6oz and can get 12 - 4.4 oz if needed. These are the emerald variety. We will be harvesting California blues through April.

Oxnard 2/9/09

Rain damaged fruit picked for juice on it's way to the processor. The furrows remained wet and with the showers today, harvest was curtailed until tomorrow. Will take at least two days to complete a round of clean up, hopefully we can be back into fresh harvest towards the end of the week.

Florida 2/6/09

The photo above was taken in Florida early this morning. Temps got as low as 20 degrees so they had to run water. After today, temps will be much warmer. We should be able to harvest again on Monday the 9th!