Posts Tagged “tomatoes”
By Larry Oscar
A great American from Fritch, Texas once said, “You can’t fix stupid.” Perhaps 
that has never been more true than in today’s global political arena. It’s hard to imagine more glaring examples of stupidity than we have witnessed in government leaders over the past few years. It was Forrest Gump’s mother that said “Stupid is as stupid does.”
That too has been duly noted in the actions of such leaders as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. The stupidity of Saddam was astounding. He would still be alive and the leader in Iraq if he had just let the UN inspectors back into his country, thrown them a party, and let them inspect and visit anything in the country 
their heart desired. In fact, he should have invited George Bush and Bill Clinton over for a bunga-bunga party. Instead he had to act tough and thumb his nose at the world. The result was he ended up swinging from a rope Texas style.
Now we have that little runt with a huge nose from Iran threatening to “Wipe Israel off of the face of the Earth.” And at the same time celebrating his country’s march toward nuclear technology that will ultimately end in nuclear weapons. What a complete fool. What would you do if your neighbor down the street threatened to “wipe you off of the face of the Earth,” and then proceeded to build a bomb in his garage. Would you wait until his bomb was complete before taking action? Would you sit idly by like the Jews did in World War II and just let him exterminate you? Or would you learn from history and defend yourself while you still had the power to do so?
It’s hard to imagine what goes through these bozo’s little minds. There are many roads to Rome. And if you want to accomplish things in life you need to study the roads toward your goal with some thought and circumstance. Emotions will be your worst enemy. The emotional route will almost certainly be the most costly for you. For example, the best way for the Muslim countries to deal with Israel is through friendship and trade and not through religious emotionalism. Take a look at Europe for example. Germany fought WWII to conquer Europe and what was the result? Their own destruction. However, by working hard as capitalists and establishing free trade, they now own Europe. They have now accomplished through Capitalism what they were unable to accomplish through the forces of war.
We are now at another crossroads in the world. We still have leaders that do not understand the power of capitalism or how it works. They are still preaching the failed promises of Socialism-Marxism and ignoring the historical failures of this philosophy such as the Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea, Greece, and Cuba. The only conclusion you can come to is that they are blinded by their own stubborn stupidity. No system is perfect. And all systems of government will leave some people behind, but only Capitalism lets the people use their creative talents to the fullest, and that generates the greatest wealth for the greatest numbers.
Without Capitalism we would not have had Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, or Oprah Winfrey. We are now facing a critical election; one that will determine if we are to retain a Socialist-Marxist leaning President who thinks that we should all have equal amounts of “stuff,” and that the government should tell us what to eat and how to live our lives.
Or do we move forward and choose a new President that will remove the burdensome weight of this government from our backs, and let us live free creative lives according to our own abilities as the founding fathers of this country envisioned. There are always risks in life. None of us has a guaranty that we will even be alive tomorrow, but one thing is for sure, if we are not free to develop the talents that are given to us by God, then we will pay a price far greater than life itself.
This nation has the richest poor on the face of the Earth. We have the only poor people with big screen TVs, cell phones, cars, and air conditioned housing. We will always have the poor, and it is Capitalism that will keep them from living in mud huts like they do in other countries! The best way to redistribute wealth is with a paycheck, and not a welfare check. If you want tomatoes you have to grow healthy tomato plants. If you want jobs you must grow healthy corporations, and not a bloated overgrown government that is funded with borrowed money!
Produce shipments from the eastern portions of the United States continue to 
be seasonally light. Florida is still one of the better places for loading produce right now, although it’s biggest volume in spring shipments are still ahead of us. South Florida potato shipments continue to increase, but still are light. Tomatoes are among the volume leaders with about 750 truckloads a week. Plant City strawberry volume is in a seasonal decline. There’s also varying amounts of citrus and vegetables. Blueberries have started in light in volume, but increasing from Central and Northern Florida.
Central and Southern Georgia has light volume with mixed greens…North Carolina sweet potatoes continue steady shipments. The state has 65,000 acres of sweet potatoes and ships about 50 percent the volume in the United States.
Truck availability has been tightening some in North Carolina and Florida, with rates from Florida showing a little strength.
New York state has light to moderate shipments of apples and cabbage from Western and Central areas. Apples addionally are being shipped from the Hudson Valley. The Empire State also is loading about 150 truckloads of storage onions per week, primarily from Orange County. Of course, apples, cabbage and onions are not compatible on the same load and can result in quality issues due to oder absorption, etc., especially on longer hauls.
New York cabbage is grossing – about $200o to Boston.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – about $2750 to Boston.
Florida vegetables – about$3000 to New York City.
It’s still too early for decent loading opportunities out of Florida — while we’re still another two to three weeks away from significant volume, particularly with vegetables. Yet, the Sunshine state is better now than it was only a few weeks ago when it comes to finding a load.
From South Florida, about 250 truckloads of red potatoes are being loaded a week. There is even heavier volume with roma, mature green, cherry and grape tomatoes coming out of the Southern areas of Florida….The Plant City and Dover location near Tampa is shipping some of the most beautiful and tasty strawberries you can image (I just bought this shown in photo today).
Central Florida produce shipments – grossing about $2300 to Chicago.
Despite a freeze on January 3-4, which caused some damage to early spring Florida produce, overall it has been a warmer-than-normal winter and most 
shipments should be one to two weeks earlier. Florida’s peak spring shipments will occur from late March, extending into May until hot weather begins reducing volume.
Florida spring loadings often involve multiple pick ups of items ranging from bell peppers to squash, cabbage, cucumbers and other veggies. Loads with multiple pick ups often mean multiple drops at the other end of the haul, so be sure and negotiate your freight rates with this in mind.
Tomatoes are a big volume item from Florida and expect loads to be available a week earlier than usual from the Immokalee and Palmetto-Ruskin areas — starting in early April.
As for citrus, shipments are expected to wind down up to three weeks earlier on items such as tangerines (late March) and grapefruit (in April). Tangerine loadings normally end in late April.
Florida ships a significant amount of spring red potatoes from the southern part of the state such as from Lake Wales. Heaviest red potato loadings take place during March and April.
Florida watermelon shipments will get underway in early April.
South Florida red potatoes grossing about $2600 to Philadelphia.
Good news on the tomato front in retail supermarket stores. Another source 
is available for greenhouse grown tomatoes, which are the closest thing you’ll find to those tasty homegrown tomatoes we all crave during the summertime.
Grape tomatoes are now arriving in stores that are grown by Delta, British Columbia headquartered Winset Farms. However, look for the clamshell packages under the Green Giant label, with is the company marketing the product for the Canadian-based firm. The tomatoes are actually being grown in greenhouses in Santa Maria, CA.
Even better news is that by spring there will be beefsteak, roma and vine tomaotes made available to consumers.
Not sure how big the production is, so it will be interesting to see what retail chains are carrying the tomatoes.
Avocados should be one of the best buys in your local produce department as produce continues to arrive from Mexico and will continue to do so into May. 
There’s also Chilean avocados which will be on retail shelves into late March. California avocados also are available and will continue well after the imported fruit is no longer available — into September. Even when California has sole possession of the market, prices should remain reasonable. The state expects to produce as much as 415 million pounds of avocados this season, 25 percent more than a year ago.
During the last quarter of 2011 the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables actually declined overall by eight percent, but we may not have necessarily have seen the benefits in our retail stores. Why? A major reason is the cost of fuel keeps rising to get the product delivered.
That means you may not have noticed the savings, for example, with oranges which had an average price of 93 cents per pound in January, compared to 98 cents per pound in December. Another example are tomatoes, which were costing on average $1.54 per pound in January, down a penny from December, but off five cents from the same time a year ago.
With a glut of tomatoes due to over production both from Florida and Mexico,
tomatoes should be reasonably priced in your local supermarket. I emphasize “should be” as retailers too often love to see overproduction “blood baths” allowing them to buy product cheap, but too often these retailers are very reluctant to pass the savings on to the consumer.
Another good buy should be Chilean grapes. I’ve found the red seedless grapes to be of excellent quality, although often lacking in size. The green seedless grapes I’ve tasted have been a little tart, but not bad.
If you are looking for honeydew, expect to pay a premium as supplies from both Mexico and Central America are light. I find honeydew this time of year too often lacking in taste….Asian pears are a favorite of mine. They are a little pricey anytime, but expect this to be even more so now. Supplies are shifting from the U.S. to Chile, where the crop may be off as much as 15 percent.
My experience thus far with strawberries has been kind of erractic. I have had some fruit that didn’t look that good, but had better taste than some of the berries with great color. It’s hard to figure out.
Among the best loading opportunities for those of you that haul produce this time of year is with West Mexican produce crossing the border at Nogales, AZ. Between now and April is a wide variety of everything from watermelons to mangoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, eggplant, tomatoes and beans, among others. Once these items begin to decline in volume, there will be table grapes beginning sometime around the last half of April. But now is when the biggest volume, and loading opportunities are underway….The bad news is you may have to pick up at more than one warehouse to fill out your trailer. The good news is all the warehouses around Nogales are in close proximity.
Nogales mixed veggies grossing about $5000 to Philly.
Thirty years ago you could only get certain produce items at particular times 
of the year. This has gradually changed over time as countries around the world have started growing fruits and vegetables, improving varieties, increasing volumes and exporting to countries such as the United States.
In 2011 the leading suppliers of veggies to America were Mexico, which accounted for 58 percent of imports, Canada 27 percent and Peru three percent. The top countries providing us with fruit was Mexico 34 percent, Chile 20 percent and Costa Rica 11 percent.
In most cases if these countries were not providing us these perishables, these items would not be available at all, or least in much less limited supplies, which would greatly increase the costs we pay for them. Their growing seasons differ from ours.
There are some exceptions, with perhaps the most drastic being the tomatoes available to us from Florida in the winter, which compete against tomatoes coming out of Mexico. Over the years the Florida tomato industry has complained out Mexico undercutting them on price and flooding the market with excess supplies.
There is some truth in these claims. At the same time, you’ll find Florida providing your supermarket with mature green tomatoes, while the Mexicans are supplying us with vine ripe grown tomatoes and in more recent years have greatly increased their greenhouse grown tomato supplies.
Outside of the folks who grow mature green tomatoes in Florida, I find it difficult to find people who like the taste of these tomatoes, especially when compared to vine ripe and greenhouse grown products.
We are still four months away from Florida’s heaviest time of the year with spring produce loadings, but here are your best bets if in the Sunshine State. 
Central Florida tomatoes, whether mature greens, cherry, or grape tomatoes are averaging about 1,000 truck loads a week. Strawberry volume out of the Plant City area are increasing in volume. There’s also citrus ranging from oranges, to grapefruit, tangerines and tangelos. Potatoes from south Florida are still several weeks away from diggings and shipments…..Don’t necessarily be looking for freight to Florida this time of year, because overall loadings are scarace out of Florida. If it helps, South Georgia is shipping a few mixed veggies to help fill your load.
Central Florida Produce – about $1700 to New York City