Shipments of Michigan vegetables were steady this spring and it appears the heavier volume fruit and vegetable crops coming on in summer should also do well.
Not known for a particularly long growing season anyway, there’s a mindset that if you have a good crop of something, normally the rest of the crops will follow. Heaviest vegetable volume should occur during July and August.
Michigan Vegetable Shipments
Rhubarb got underway in early May, with the radish harvest starting in late May.
Buurma Farms of Willard, OH, grows and ships a full line of vegetables on about 1,000 acres in Gregory, MI. Turnip and mustard greens, cilantro and dill got going the first week of June, and were followed a couple of weeks later by collards, kale and parsley.
In a few days, if not weeks, there will be cucumbers, pumpkins, green peppers, organic kale and ornamentals, as well as acorn squash, sweet corn, carrots and chili peppers. Cabbage and zucchini have just started being shipped, with zucchini finishing in mid September. This is when hard squash takes over, and along with cabbage, which will continue through Thanksgiving., Cucumber loadings will start in early July.
Grape tomatoes should begin around mid-July. Romas and cantaloupes will follow, about July 20, with round tomatoes coming around August 1.
Celery was to start around the end of July, with shipments ending during the first half of October.
Sweet corn loadings begin in late July and continue through September.
Michigan Fruit Shipments
Peach shipments kick off Michigan’s fruit season, starting around the third or fourth week of July.
At Greg Orchards and Produce Inc., of Benton Harbor, MI, a good crop of pie cherries was seen as a sign of positive for blueberry, grape, apple and peach crops to come. Michigan blueberry shipments get underway in late June and run through late September.