Despite a crazy growing season due to weather factors, Ohio vegetable shipments started a few weeks ago. If anything, some replantings of crops could mean heavier than normal loadings later in the season.
Green bean shipments will start anytime now. Sweet corn loading get underway in mid-July and like green beans, will run into October. Cabbage kicked off about a week ago and will run into November. Potato diggings will start in August and ship from storage into March.
A number of items got underway between mid-May and mid-June, so you can expect good volumes of radishes, cilantro, variety lettuce, collard, turnip, mustard, kale, green onions and parsley continuing through September.
Coming on soon in July will be beets, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers, lasting through September. August will bring peak volumes of sweet corn, peppers, celery, carrots and fall squash. Also, shipments have started with leafy vegetables, root crops and summer squashes tomatoes and eggplant, following in late July. All of these items should be available into mid-October.
Harvest of soft squash begins in late June, and bell and hot peppers, eggplant and cucumbers will follow in early July, with hard squash in late August. Hard squash and pumpkin shipments, as well as gourds wrap up Ohio fresh vegetable shipments starting in late August.
Some of the major Ohio vegetable shippers include Buurma Farms, Inc.; Wiers Farms Inc.; and Holthouse Farms, all based at Willard, OH. There also is Onion Boy, Shelby, OH (onions that start in late July}, as well as Doug Walcher Farms of Northfield and Micheal Farms of Urbana.
The leading agricultural products in Ohio are soybeans, grain, corn, and greenhouse and nursery, which account for over one-half of Ohio’s total agricultural production. Wheat and hay are also important. But vegetables also play an important role with shipments covering nearly half of the United States and parts of Canada.