Author Archive
Do I ever love asparagus! Absolutely, it’s in my top five
favorites with it come to veggies! Not only does it taste great
but it is one of the most nutritious vegetables around.
Asparagus is the leading supplier of folic acid. It’s also a good
source of potassium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6
and thiamin. Asparagus is low in sodium and contains no fat
or cholesterol. Cooking asparagus takes only minutes. It can be boiled, steamed, microwaved or stir-fried. You absolutely do not want to overcook asparagus. Overcooking will cause the asparagus to lose many of the nutrients.
Trim the stem ends slightly. Boil asparagus in ½ cup of water or steam in the steamer in 1 ½ -2 inches of water. Either method takes about 6-8 minutes. Cook until crisp and tender.
To microwave asparagus, use a microwavable baking dish or
bowl. If cooking whole spears, arrange with the tips in the
center. Add ¼ cup of water, cover and cook for 4-7 minutes
for spears, 3-5 for cuts and tips. To stir-fry, cut spears
diagonally in ½ inch pieces, leaving the tips whole. In a
skillet, add pieces of butter or hot oil and cook at
medium-high heat for only 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly
until tender.
Food Lion stores over the years developed a pretty bad reputation for the way it treated truckers delivering produce and other items to its distribution 
centers. Some say this situation has improved over the past five years or so.
Whatever the case, Food Lion’s parent company Delhaize America is planning to shutter 126 stores and slash 49,000 jobs, plus discontinue its Bloom banner, which some stores operated under, according to the Food Lion website. Delhaize has 1,600 stores operating in 16 states, mostly in the Southeastern part of the country. Among its operations are Bottom Dollar Food, Food Lion, Harveys, Hannaford Supermarkets, Reid’s and Sweetbay.
Closings of the stores should take place within the next month.
Oranges, potatoes and sweet potatoes are among the larger volume produce items shipped during the bleak, cold winter months. In a 
recession (or is it a depression?) that has been going on for at least three years, big crops of potatoes mean good movement (loading opportunities) as cash strapped consumers look for something less expensive to eat.
Idaho easily leads the nation in potato shipments. Rails haul a lot of them, but there are only so many rail cars and tracks, so big rigs are still hauling the marjority of the product. Idaho potato shipments are expected to be up 6%, while the nation as a whole is up 7%…..As for sweet potatoes, eastern North Carolina has the most shipments, with loadings also available from California, Louisiana and Mississippi. Total loads are forecast to be up 13% over a year ago.
As for oranges, Florida expects to ship 147 million boxes compared to 58 million boxes for California. Florida is up some from the previous season, while California is down slightly. Florida’s forecast could eventually be reduced some if a recent freeze damages some of the citrus.
California sweet potatoes – grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – $2200 to Detroit.
Florida citrus – $2000 to Baltimore.
Idaho potatoes – $3400 to Dallas.
When everything we seem to buy anymore is going up in price, two items that should be bucking the trend are pears and kiwifruit. Both are now in abundance.
Wholesale pear prices have actually dropped a little from last season coming of Washington state. The question is whether you’ll see any lower prices at retail. Retailers love to pay less for product, yet pocket the savings for themselves. Much of it depends on how much competition the retailer is facing. I’ve tried 3 varieties of pears so far this season. The Bartlett pears were tasty and juicy; yum, yum. However, the Bosc variety and Red pear was not nearly as good.
I recently wrote about kiwifruit from New Zealand and Italy with NZ winning the taste competition. Now kiwi from California is in abundance and it’s really good in quality and taste. While retail prices on many produce items are climbing, kiwi continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department.
By Bully Dog
In 2011, after establishing a reputation for producing industry-leading tuning products for a myriad of heavy duty applications, Bully Dog introduced the Heavy Duty WatchDog. This product was a revolutionary leap forward from the previous generation: a multifunctional digital gauge pack designed to help truck drivers improve fuel economy, reduce vehicle wear and tear, and improve on road safety. But along with the WatchDog came the promise of more: A device combining the capabilities of the WatchDog with the time-tested tuning platform that Bully Dog has spent years perfecting.
The new Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner (HDGT) is the culmination of those efforts: Bully Dog’s premiere Heavy Duty product. It incorporates Bully Dog’s time-tested and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) approved economy tuning with the complete gauge package, diagnostics and proven Driving Coach software of the Heavy Duty WatchDog. The HDGT was engineered to safely improve the operation of heavy duty trucks by providing a more efficient fuel burn, enhanced real-time feedback and heightened driver awareness. This translates to money in the pockets of fleets and owner-operators in the form of fuel and time savings. The multitude of available features and top-shelf tuning the HDGT offers have been carefully assembled to offer the maximum value to drivers and companies, and is compounded by the fact that Bully Dog offers unique custom tuning for every truck at no additional cost.
Users who previously purchased the Heavy Duty WatchDog also have the option to upgrade their devices with GT Tuning capabilities by visiting the Bully Dog website. Initially being offered for ‘03.5 – ’11 Cummins applications, the Heavy Duty GT will add support for Caterpillar and Detroit applications in the near future. Visit bigrig.bullydog.com for more details.
Union workers at the Hunts Point Terminal Wholsale Market in Bronx, NY have not went on strike in 25 years, but they are threatening to if a labor agreement is not met with market representatives. If you are on your way to the nation’s largest wholesale produce receiving facility just be aware the laborers are saying they’ll strike at 12:01 a.m. on January 17th.
Negotiations are continuing and you can bet Hunts Point wholesalers will do what it takes to stay open even if the strike occurs. How smoothly trucks would move in and out of the market is something to keep an eye on.
Strawberry loading opportunities are now available from three regions, 
Florida, Mexico and California. Currently, the heaviest volume, which isn’t that heavy, is out of the Plant City are of Florida, averaging around 250 truck load equivalents per week. Volume is much less right now with strawberries crossing U.S. borders from Mexico, as well as from the Oxnard district of California. Volume is less than half of Florida’s from these other two areas. Strawberries from California’s Santa Maria District is at a trickle, but will be increasing in coming weeks along with its sister district at Oxnard. California shipments should be in good volume leading up to Easter Sunday (April 8), barring unforseen adverse weather. Strawberry shipments tend to pay better than many other produce items due to their perishablity.
Berry and citrus from Southern California – grossing about $6500 to Boston.
Strawberries are one of the coolest items on God’s green earth. They also are 
one the tastiest. Love ’em straight up, on cereal, ice cream, dipped in chocolate, or just about any other imaginable way. The berries in your local supermarket are probably a little pricey right now, but expect better deals as volume increases from California, which has the largest volume and the best quality on just about any given year.
Strawberries also are very healthy. These berries are supposed to reduce constipation and help prevent colon cancer as they enter the intestines and wash away harmful toxins. There are many other healthful pluses to strawberries ranging to improving memory to aiding better eye sight….You can get whiter teeth brushing with strawberries and baking soda by mashing the berries and mixing it with the baking soda!
A large crop of pears should translate into good loading opportunties in the months ahead, especially since there’s also a big apple crop as well.
Pears (and apples) are coming out of Washington state – Yakima and Wanetchee vallies. The quality of the pears are reported good, but my only concern is shippers have had trouble selling the crop, in part because of the holidays where Christmas favorites such as citrus seem to be preferred. While this may change with the New Year, Washington pear shippers will to start having to move the crop one way or the other. If it gets serious enough some consignment shipments are possible. In other words rolling product on a truck to a destination while still looking for a buyer. 
That’s not good for the shipper, whose likely going to take a price beating. It could be just as bad for a trucker hauling it. Imagine you’re told you’re taking the load to Philly, but on the way you’re asked to devert to another city after a buyer is finally found. This could possibily add hundreds of miles to your haul. Then comes the question of getting paid fairly for those additonal miles. Even worse, what if you’ve committed to picking up another load in the original city to which you were destined?
I’m not saying this will happen, but just be aware. Plus, if you’re combining pears with something such as apples (which are in hot demand), it should reduce these chances of something going wrong.
It got pretty nippy January 3 and 4 in Florida and while there apparently was some freeze damage to winter vegetables, it doesn’t sound too serious. Produce truckers do not have great loading opportunties in Florida this time of year anyway due to the light volume. The full extent of damage will not be known for another week or so. Temperatures in the Immokolee area dipped into the mid to upper 20s, affecting some tomatoes, bell peppers and squash….Light loading opportunties should be unaffected until early February, when damaged product would have started maturing. When loading these items starting next month keep an eye out for quality and scarring and make sure your receiver knows what is being loaded, to help avoid claims at destination. Florida tomatoes are among the heaviest volume items this time of year coming out of Southwest Florida and the Homestead areas. Strawberry volume from the Plant City district apparently escaped any freeze damage.
Do I ever love asparagus! Absolutely, it’s in my top five
favorites with it come to veggies! Not only does it taste great
but it is one of the most nutritious vegetables around.
Asparagus is the leading supplier of folic acid. It’s also a good
source of potassium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6
and thiamin. Asparagus is low in sodium and contains no fat
or cholesterol. Cooking asparagus takes only minutes. It can be boiled, steamed, microwaved or stir-fried. You absolutely do not want to overcook asparagus. Overcooking will cause the asparagus to lose many of the nutrients.
Trim the stem ends slightly. Boil asparagus in ½ cup of water or steam in the steamer in 1 ½ -2 inches of water. Either method takes about 6-8 minutes. Cook until crisp and tender.
To microwave asparagus, use a microwavable baking dish or
bowl. If cooking whole spears, arrange with the tips in the
center. Add ¼ cup of water, cover and cook for 4-7 minutes
for spears, 3-5 for cuts and tips. To stir-fry, cut spears
diagonally in ½ inch pieces, leaving the tips whole. In a
skillet, add pieces of butter or hot oil and cook at
medium-high heat for only 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly
until tender.
Food Lion stores over the years developed a pretty bad reputation for the way it treated truckers delivering produce and other items to its distribution centers. Some say this situation has improved over the past five years or so.
Whatever the case, Food Lion’s parent company Delhaize America is planning to shutter 126 stores and slash 49,000 jobs, plus discontinue its Bloom banner, which some stores operated under, according to the Food Lion website. Delhaize has 1,600 stores operating in 16 states, mostly in the Southeastern part of the country. Among its operations are Bottom Dollar Food, Food Lion, Harveys, Hannaford Supermarkets, Reid’s and Sweetbay.
Closings of the stores should take place within the next month.
Oranges, potatoes and sweet potatoes are among the larger volume produce items shipped during the bleak, cold winter months. In a recession (or is it a depression?) that has been going on for at least three years, big crops of potatoes mean good movement (loading opportunities) as cash strapped consumers look for something less expensive to eat.
Idaho easily leads the nation in potato shipments. Rails haul a lot of them, but there are only so many rail cars and tracks, so big rigs are still hauling the marjority of the product. Idaho potato shipments are expected to be up 6%, while the nation as a whole is up 7%…..As for sweet potatoes, eastern North Carolina has the most shipments, with loadings also available from California, Louisiana and Mississippi. Total loads are forecast to be up 13% over a year ago.
As for oranges, Florida expects to ship 147 million boxes compared to 58 million boxes for California. Florida is up some from the previous season, while California is down slightly. Florida’s forecast could eventually be reduced some if a recent freeze damages some of the citrus.
California sweet potatoes – grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – $2200 to Detroit.
Florida citrus – $2000 to Baltimore.
Idaho potatoes – $3400 to Dallas.
When everything we seem to buy anymore is going up in price, two items that should be bucking the trend are pears and kiwifruit. Both are now in abundance.
Wholesale pear prices have actually dropped a little from last season coming of Washington state. The question is whether you’ll see any lower prices at retail. Retailers love to pay less for product, yet pocket the savings for themselves. Much of it depends on how much competition the retailer is facing. I’ve tried 3 varieties of pears so far this season. The Bartlett pears were tasty and juicy; yum, yum. However, the Bosc variety and Red pear was not nearly as good.
I recently wrote about kiwifruit from New Zealand and Italy with NZ winning the taste competition. Now kiwi from California is in abundance and it’s really good in quality and taste. While retail prices on many produce items are climbing, kiwi continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department.
By Bully Dog
In 2011, after establishing a reputation for producing industry-leading tuning products for a myriad of heavy duty applications, Bully Dog introduced the Heavy Duty WatchDog. This product was a revolutionary leap forward from the previous generation: a multifunctional digital gauge pack designed to help truck drivers improve fuel economy, reduce vehicle wear and tear, and improve on road safety. But along with the WatchDog came the promise of more: A device combining the capabilities of the WatchDog with the time-tested tuning platform that Bully Dog has spent years perfecting.
The new Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner (HDGT) is the culmination of those efforts: Bully Dog’s premiere Heavy Duty product. It incorporates Bully Dog’s time-tested and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) approved economy tuning with the complete gauge package, diagnostics and proven Driving Coach software of the Heavy Duty WatchDog. The HDGT was engineered to safely improve the operation of heavy duty trucks by providing a more efficient fuel burn, enhanced real-time feedback and heightened driver awareness. This translates to money in the pockets of fleets and owner-operators in the form of fuel and time savings. The multitude of available features and top-shelf tuning the HDGT offers have been carefully assembled to offer the maximum value to drivers and companies, and is compounded by the fact that Bully Dog offers unique custom tuning for every truck at no additional cost.
Users who previously purchased the Heavy Duty WatchDog also have the option to upgrade their devices with GT Tuning capabilities by visiting the Bully Dog website. Initially being offered for ‘03.5 – ’11 Cummins applications, the Heavy Duty GT will add support for Caterpillar and Detroit applications in the near future. Visit bigrig.bullydog.com for more details.
Union workers at the Hunts Point Terminal Wholsale Market in Bronx, NY have not went on strike in 25 years, but they are threatening to if a labor agreement is not met with market representatives. If you are on your way to the nation’s largest wholesale produce receiving facility just be aware the laborers are saying they’ll strike at 12:01 a.m. on January 17th.
Negotiations are continuing and you can bet Hunts Point wholesalers will do what it takes to stay open even if the strike occurs. How smoothly trucks would move in and out of the market is something to keep an eye on.
Strawberry loading opportunities are now available from three regions, Florida, Mexico and California. Currently, the heaviest volume, which isn’t that heavy, is out of the Plant City are of Florida, averaging around 250 truck load equivalents per week. Volume is much less right now with strawberries crossing U.S. borders from Mexico, as well as from the Oxnard district of California. Volume is less than half of Florida’s from these other two areas. Strawberries from California’s Santa Maria District is at a trickle, but will be increasing in coming weeks along with its sister district at Oxnard. California shipments should be in good volume leading up to Easter Sunday (April 8), barring unforseen adverse weather. Strawberry shipments tend to pay better than many other produce items due to their perishablity.
Berry and citrus from Southern California – grossing about $6500 to Boston.
Strawberries are one of the coolest items on God’s green earth. They also are one the tastiest. Love ’em straight up, on cereal, ice cream, dipped in chocolate, or just about any other imaginable way. The berries in your local supermarket are probably a little pricey right now, but expect better deals as volume increases from California, which has the largest volume and the best quality on just about any given year.
Strawberries also are very healthy. These berries are supposed to reduce constipation and help prevent colon cancer as they enter the intestines and wash away harmful toxins. There are many other healthful pluses to strawberries ranging to improving memory to aiding better eye sight….You can get whiter teeth brushing with strawberries and baking soda by mashing the berries and mixing it with the baking soda!
A large crop of pears should translate into good loading opportunties in the months ahead, especially since there’s also a big apple crop as well.
Pears (and apples) are coming out of Washington state – Yakima and Wanetchee vallies. The quality of the pears are reported good, but my only concern is shippers have had trouble selling the crop, in part because of the holidays where Christmas favorites such as citrus seem to be preferred. While this may change with the New Year, Washington pear shippers will to start having to move the crop one way or the other. If it gets serious enough some consignment shipments are possible. In other words rolling product on a truck to a destination while still looking for a buyer. That’s not good for the shipper, whose likely going to take a price beating. It could be just as bad for a trucker hauling it. Imagine you’re told you’re taking the load to Philly, but on the way you’re asked to devert to another city after a buyer is finally found. This could possibily add hundreds of miles to your haul. Then comes the question of getting paid fairly for those additonal miles. Even worse, what if you’ve committed to picking up another load in the original city to which you were destined?
I’m not saying this will happen, but just be aware. Plus, if you’re combining pears with something such as apples (which are in hot demand), it should reduce these chances of something going wrong.
It got pretty nippy January 3 and 4 in Florida and while there apparently was some freeze damage to winter vegetables, it doesn’t sound too serious. Produce truckers do not have great loading opportunties in Florida this time of year anyway due to the light volume. The full extent of damage will not be known for another week or so. Temperatures in the Immokolee area dipped into the mid to upper 20s, affecting some tomatoes, bell peppers and squash….Light loading opportunties should be unaffected until early February, when damaged product would have started maturing. When loading these items starting next month keep an eye out for quality and scarring and make sure your receiver knows what is being loaded, to help avoid claims at destination. Florida tomatoes are among the heaviest volume items this time of year coming out of Southwest Florida and the Homestead areas. Strawberry volume from the Plant City district apparently escaped any freeze damage.