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Whether talking the desert areas of the Imperial or Coachella Valleys, or 
Southern California to Ventura County, Bakersfield, and on to Santa Maria and Salinas, produce is being shipped. Granted, not all the areas are in full harvest, but shipping areas are abundant. It will only get better for produce haulers in the weeks ahead as demand for refrigerated equipment increases and rates climb accordingly.
In the desert, you’ll find bell peppers, beans and sweet corn in both the Imperial Valley and the Coachella Valley. Cantaloupe loadings begin in a couple of weeks or so. Also, the Coachella Valley ships the first domestic grapes in the U.S. each year. Coachella grape loadings will begin a week to 10 days earlier than normal this year — around the first week of May. Loadings should continue through June, with about 9 million cartons forecast.
California cherry shipments begin from the central and south areas of the San Joaquin Valley the first half of May, but expect shipments to be lighter than normal. Heaviest cherry loading opportunities come with the later bing cherry variety from the Stockton-Linden-Lodi area. Overall, unless Mother Nature does a whack job on these perishable beauties, California should ship 8.5 to 9 million boxes of cherries, the most in a decade!
California desert vegetables – grossing about $7200 to New York City.
If you haul cantaloupes out of the Rocky Ford area of Colorado during the 
summer, better look for something else this year. Thanks to the 2011 outbreak of listeria at Jensen Farms that killed 32 people and sickened others in 28 states, melon shipments from this area will be much less this year. Acreage from this district in southeastern Colorado will amount to only 500 acres, compared to about 2,000 acres of cantaloupe each year before the disasterous outbreak.
The Colorado cantaloupe industry has taken steps to improve their food safety programs, including having safety audits by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Still, it’s too late, the damage has been done. The whole cantaloupe industry in the United States suffered because of the lax safety standards of a company, not to mention lives lost and ruined. As consumers become more confident, cantaloupe shipments will return to Rocky Ford as they had in the past, and other shipping areas around the country will recover as well.
It’s kind of like having one careless driver acting like a an idiot in an 18 wheeler. The whole trucking industry’s image suffers — deserved or not.
Produce shipments from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley, as well 
as loads out of the Salinas Valley have returned to normal following disruptions due to rain. The seasonal transition of the lettuce harvest and loadings out of Huron are quickly shifting from Huron to Salinas. Volume is building from the Salinas Valley, not only with lettuce, but other vegetables, and should become heavy in May.
Here’s an update on San Joaquin Valley stone fruit shipments that get underway soon. Both peaches and nectarines usally start by late April, with plums coming on in May. Expect peach and nectarine loading opportunities this season to be off 20 percent due to hail. There was a 20-mile-long swath of the storm cutting through from Southwest of Kingsburg going east to south of Dinuba and Reedly. Shippers with stone fruit orchards you may load with in this area were adversely affected the most.
Looking ahead to the Bakersfield, Kern County shipping area, potato shipping will get underway the second week of May with red, yellow and russet spuds. This will be followed by watermelon loads becoming available in early June, while table grape shipments get started in early July…..Meanwhile steady shipments of carrots are continuing from this area.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $7000 to New York City.
Supplies of refrigerated a equipment are tightening some as we get further into 
spring. How big a shortage of trucks for hauling produce will be this year will start to reveal itself in the weeks ahead and should be really interesting by late May and onward through the summer.
In Florida, blueberry loadings from Central and North Florida are now in good volume and hauls are available into June….Meanwhile, Georgia “blues” are right behind Florida. Good Georgia blueberry shipments should be available by next week….Back to Florida, rates for hauling watermelons out of the southern part of the state have jumped 20 percent in recent days. Vegetable volume from Florida continues to be heavy.
In South Texas, vegetables continue to be loaded, combined with a lot of veggies and tropical fruit from Mexico crossing the border into Texas. Cantaloupe shipments have started from the Rio Grande Valley. There’s still no overall damage reports on storm-hit watermelons in South Texas. There will be fewer loads, but who knows how much less? Loadings are light, but will be increasing and continue into mid-June.
In California, the Imperial Valley is quieter with the seasonal end of vegetable shipments. However, cantaloupe shipments will start in mid-May….About 300 truckload equivalents of carrots are being shipped weekly from the Bakersfield area.
Southern California continues to ship good volumes of avocados, strawberries and citrus…..The Santa Maria district, along with the Salinas Valley will become more active with produce shipments in the weeks ahead.
In Washington state, there are steady loadings of apples and pears from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys.
Washington state apples and pears – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Southern California produce – grossing about $5000 to Chicago.
South Texas produce – about $4800 to New York City.
South Florida veggies – about $3600 to New York City.
Give road-weary eyes a break with this spiral-bound Large Scale edition 
featuring all the maps and accuracy you’ve come to expect from Rand McNally, only bigger.
Get the 89th edition of the most trusted and best-selling US atlas on the market, featuring the winners from the first Best of the Road® search for America’s best small towns.
The 2013 Large Scale Road Atlas includes coupons for discounts at hotels, restaurants and family attractions so you can save money on your next road trip. Tags keep the offers fresh – scan them with your smartphone to check back for additional deals.
Use the book’s scannable tags to point your smartphone to updated road trip content and tools that enhance your travel planning. To download the Microsoft Tag reader, use the web browser on your phone to navigate to www.randmcnally.com/TAG and click the link provided.
Southern California orange shipments have picked up as late season citrus 
quality has improved. Loading opportunities for navel oranges should continue through most of June…..Looking ahead to cherry shipments, loads will become available later this year than normal – with decent volume not occurring from the Southern San Joaquin Valley until the second or third week of May. Barring bad weather, California could ship 11 to 12 million cartons of cherries this year.
California is shipping about 1,000 truckloads of strawberries a week, with heaviest volume still coming out of Ventura County….Most lettuce loads are coming from of the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley….Salinas has light volume with broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and other items, but is increasing and should really get going as we enter of the month of May.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
One reason I love spring so much is because possibly my favorite vegetable of all (just barely ahead of asparagus), the artichoke, is entering peak volume from Castroville, CA, which I think grows the best “chokes” anywhere. Volume is increasing and hopefully your favorite retail store will be having specials on artichokes no later than early May.
I love ’em any way they are prepared, but since I’m a pretty simple guy, and a lousy cook, I simply cut off the stem, place in it a bowl with perhaps a tablespoon of water, cover it with saran wrap, stick it the microwave and cook it for several minutes (depending on the size). Then I melt some butter to dip the leaves in, before scrapping the flesh off the leaves with my teeth. yum, yum.
There’s also countless other great ways to prepare “chokes.” Just go online and google in artichokes, or Ocean Mist Artichokes, which is the biggest grower of the product, located in Castroville.
Enjoy.
Fresh table grapes from Mexico should start crossing the Mexican-U.S. border
at Nogales, AZ within the next couple of weeks. Initial volume will be light, but will increase quickly. Beginning in early May there should be around 2.5 million cartons of grapes crossing the border weekly for distribution throughout the United States and Canada. This volume should continue until around the middle of June. From there it will start a seasonal decline with crossings ending in early July. In total, there should be around 15.5 to 16 million cartons of Mexican grapes cross the border.
As grape crossings increase, many of the spring vegetables from Mexico are decreasing.
Mexican veggies at Nogales – grossing about $2400 to Chicago.
When it comes to apples in your local supermarket, the best buys should be with red delicious and granny smiths, since more of each variety remain in storages than a year ago…..You may see higher prices on golden delicious and fuji apples since fewer of those are available to complete the current season, which will be ending around July and August.
Delicious and crunchy apples are one of the most popular fruits favored by health conscious, fitness freaks who believe in “health is wealth.” This wonderful fruit packed with rich phyto-nutrients that in the true sense are indispensable for optimal health. The antioxidants in apples have many health promoting and disease prevention properties; thus justifying the adage, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Apples are low in calories; 100 g of fresh fruit slices provide only 50 calories.
Apple fruit contains good quantities of vitamin-Cand beta-carotene.Vitamin C is a powerful natural antioxidant.
California peach, plum and nectarine shipments, which were expected to start 
in a few weeks, will be reduced due to an April 11 hail storm. The affected area ranges from Hannaford to near Oros, with the Traver area hit hardest. Damage assessements and how much shipments will be affected are still being assessed…..Meanwhile, lettuce shipments continue from Huron in the San Joaquin Valley. Light to moderate vegetable loadings are taking place from Salinas.
In Florida, red potato loadings continue increasing from southern and central parts of the state. However, it is various spring vegetables still providing the most volume….The Sunshine state is still shipping citrus. Orange loadings should total 145 million boxes, up from 139 million a year ago. Florida grapefruit volume should hit 18.8 million boxes, up slightly from last year.
Steady shipments of Idaho potatoes continue, averaging about 1700 truckload equivalents per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4000 to Atlanta.
California Huron area lettuce – grossing about $7000 to Boston.
Central Florida vegetables – about $2600 to Philadelphia.
Whether talking the desert areas of the Imperial or Coachella Valleys, or Southern California to Ventura County, Bakersfield, and on to Santa Maria and Salinas, produce is being shipped. Granted, not all the areas are in full harvest, but shipping areas are abundant. It will only get better for produce haulers in the weeks ahead as demand for refrigerated equipment increases and rates climb accordingly.
In the desert, you’ll find bell peppers, beans and sweet corn in both the Imperial Valley and the Coachella Valley. Cantaloupe loadings begin in a couple of weeks or so. Also, the Coachella Valley ships the first domestic grapes in the U.S. each year. Coachella grape loadings will begin a week to 10 days earlier than normal this year — around the first week of May. Loadings should continue through June, with about 9 million cartons forecast.
California cherry shipments begin from the central and south areas of the San Joaquin Valley the first half of May, but expect shipments to be lighter than normal. Heaviest cherry loading opportunities come with the later bing cherry variety from the Stockton-Linden-Lodi area. Overall, unless Mother Nature does a whack job on these perishable beauties, California should ship 8.5 to 9 million boxes of cherries, the most in a decade!
California desert vegetables – grossing about $7200 to New York City.
If you haul cantaloupes out of the Rocky Ford area of Colorado during the summer, better look for something else this year. Thanks to the 2011 outbreak of listeria at Jensen Farms that killed 32 people and sickened others in 28 states, melon shipments from this area will be much less this year. Acreage from this district in southeastern Colorado will amount to only 500 acres, compared to about 2,000 acres of cantaloupe each year before the disasterous outbreak.
The Colorado cantaloupe industry has taken steps to improve their food safety programs, including having safety audits by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Still, it’s too late, the damage has been done. The whole cantaloupe industry in the United States suffered because of the lax safety standards of a company, not to mention lives lost and ruined. As consumers become more confident, cantaloupe shipments will return to Rocky Ford as they had in the past, and other shipping areas around the country will recover as well.
It’s kind of like having one careless driver acting like a an idiot in an 18 wheeler. The whole trucking industry’s image suffers — deserved or not.
Produce shipments from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley, as well as loads out of the Salinas Valley have returned to normal following disruptions due to rain. The seasonal transition of the lettuce harvest and loadings out of Huron are quickly shifting from Huron to Salinas. Volume is building from the Salinas Valley, not only with lettuce, but other vegetables, and should become heavy in May.
Here’s an update on San Joaquin Valley stone fruit shipments that get underway soon. Both peaches and nectarines usally start by late April, with plums coming on in May. Expect peach and nectarine loading opportunities this season to be off 20 percent due to hail. There was a 20-mile-long swath of the storm cutting through from Southwest of Kingsburg going east to south of Dinuba and Reedly. Shippers with stone fruit orchards you may load with in this area were adversely affected the most.
Looking ahead to the Bakersfield, Kern County shipping area, potato shipping will get underway the second week of May with red, yellow and russet spuds. This will be followed by watermelon loads becoming available in early June, while table grape shipments get started in early July…..Meanwhile steady shipments of carrots are continuing from this area.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $7000 to New York City.
Supplies of refrigerated a equipment are tightening some as we get further into spring. How big a shortage of trucks for hauling produce will be this year will start to reveal itself in the weeks ahead and should be really interesting by late May and onward through the summer.
In Florida, blueberry loadings from Central and North Florida are now in good volume and hauls are available into June….Meanwhile, Georgia “blues” are right behind Florida. Good Georgia blueberry shipments should be available by next week….Back to Florida, rates for hauling watermelons out of the southern part of the state have jumped 20 percent in recent days. Vegetable volume from Florida continues to be heavy.
In South Texas, vegetables continue to be loaded, combined with a lot of veggies and tropical fruit from Mexico crossing the border into Texas. Cantaloupe shipments have started from the Rio Grande Valley. There’s still no overall damage reports on storm-hit watermelons in South Texas. There will be fewer loads, but who knows how much less? Loadings are light, but will be increasing and continue into mid-June.
In California, the Imperial Valley is quieter with the seasonal end of vegetable shipments. However, cantaloupe shipments will start in mid-May….About 300 truckload equivalents of carrots are being shipped weekly from the Bakersfield area.
Southern California continues to ship good volumes of avocados, strawberries and citrus…..The Santa Maria district, along with the Salinas Valley will become more active with produce shipments in the weeks ahead.
In Washington state, there are steady loadings of apples and pears from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys.
Washington state apples and pears – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Southern California produce – grossing about $5000 to Chicago.
South Texas produce – about $4800 to New York City.
South Florida veggies – about $3600 to New York City.
Give road-weary eyes a break with this spiral-bound Large Scale edition featuring all the maps and accuracy you’ve come to expect from Rand McNally, only bigger.
Get the 89th edition of the most trusted and best-selling US atlas on the market, featuring the winners from the first Best of the Road® search for America’s best small towns.
The 2013 Large Scale Road Atlas includes coupons for discounts at hotels, restaurants and family attractions so you can save money on your next road trip. Tags keep the offers fresh – scan them with your smartphone to check back for additional deals.
Use the book’s scannable tags to point your smartphone to updated road trip content and tools that enhance your travel planning. To download the Microsoft Tag reader, use the web browser on your phone to navigate to www.randmcnally.com/TAG and click the link provided.
Southern California orange shipments have picked up as late season citrus quality has improved. Loading opportunities for navel oranges should continue through most of June…..Looking ahead to cherry shipments, loads will become available later this year than normal – with decent volume not occurring from the Southern San Joaquin Valley until the second or third week of May. Barring bad weather, California could ship 11 to 12 million cartons of cherries this year.
California is shipping about 1,000 truckloads of strawberries a week, with heaviest volume still coming out of Ventura County….Most lettuce loads are coming from of the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley….Salinas has light volume with broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and other items, but is increasing and should really get going as we enter of the month of May.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
One reason I love spring so much is because possibly my favorite vegetable of all (just barely ahead of asparagus), the artichoke, is entering peak volume from Castroville, CA, which I think grows the best “chokes” anywhere. Volume is increasing and hopefully your favorite retail store will be having specials on artichokes no later than early May.
I love ’em any way they are prepared, but since I’m a pretty simple guy, and a lousy cook, I simply cut off the stem, place in it a bowl with perhaps a tablespoon of water, cover it with saran wrap, stick it the microwave and cook it for several minutes (depending on the size). Then I melt some butter to dip the leaves in, before scrapping the flesh off the leaves with my teeth. yum, yum.
There’s also countless other great ways to prepare “chokes.” Just go online and google in artichokes, or Ocean Mist Artichokes, which is the biggest grower of the product, located in Castroville.
Enjoy.
Fresh table grapes from Mexico should start crossing the Mexican-U.S. border
at Nogales, AZ within the next couple of weeks. Initial volume will be light, but will increase quickly. Beginning in early May there should be around 2.5 million cartons of grapes crossing the border weekly for distribution throughout the United States and Canada. This volume should continue until around the middle of June. From there it will start a seasonal decline with crossings ending in early July. In total, there should be around 15.5 to 16 million cartons of Mexican grapes cross the border.
As grape crossings increase, many of the spring vegetables from Mexico are decreasing.
Mexican veggies at Nogales – grossing about $2400 to Chicago.
When it comes to apples in your local supermarket, the best buys should be with red delicious and granny smiths, since more of each variety remain in storages than a year ago…..You may see higher prices on golden delicious and fuji apples since fewer of those are available to complete the current season, which will be ending around July and August.
Delicious and crunchy apples are one of the most popular fruits favored by health conscious, fitness freaks who believe in “health is wealth.” This wonderful fruit packed with rich phyto-nutrients that in the true sense are indispensable for optimal health. The antioxidants in apples have many health promoting and disease prevention properties; thus justifying the adage, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Apples are low in calories; 100 g of fresh fruit slices provide only 50 calories.
Apple fruit contains good quantities of vitamin-Cand beta-carotene.Vitamin C is a powerful natural antioxidant.
California peach, plum and nectarine shipments, which were expected to start in a few weeks, will be reduced due to an April 11 hail storm. The affected area ranges from Hannaford to near Oros, with the Traver area hit hardest. Damage assessements and how much shipments will be affected are still being assessed…..Meanwhile, lettuce shipments continue from Huron in the San Joaquin Valley. Light to moderate vegetable loadings are taking place from Salinas.
In Florida, red potato loadings continue increasing from southern and central parts of the state. However, it is various spring vegetables still providing the most volume….The Sunshine state is still shipping citrus. Orange loadings should total 145 million boxes, up from 139 million a year ago. Florida grapefruit volume should hit 18.8 million boxes, up slightly from last year.
Steady shipments of Idaho potatoes continue, averaging about 1700 truckload equivalents per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4000 to Atlanta.
California Huron area lettuce – grossing about $7000 to Boston.
Central Florida vegetables – about $2600 to Philadelphia.