This spring, I have had a love/hate relationship with a certain Mother out there. Mother Nature.
She’s a tough and frustrating character to figure out, and, if you look at the produce industry, I think nearly everyone would agree with me. She holds so much in her control and it affects our business every day. Here are just a few examples.
- Our Vidalia Sweet Carrot™ season was set to start in February. In comes Mother Nature with one of the coldest winters in Georgia’s history. Hence, we didn’t start harvest until April. Needless to say, Mother Nature kept things nice and cool all through March, causing near weekly delays.
- Fresh and delicious blueberries from the Northwest are a given for the 4th of July year in and year out. Not this year thanks to good ‘ol Mother Nature; we’re not quite sure how many NW blueberries we’ll be harvesting for this important holiday period. (Don’t worry though; we have plenty of wonderful California blueberries for you!)
- Sweet Walla Walla onions will harvest in early June as they typically do. Oh, what’s that? Another cold spell? Okay, it’ll be late June before we start hitting our volumes. Darn that Mother Nature.
We are constantly adjusting our plans and projections to accommodate weather changes. We start each new fresh crop season with historical data, weather projections, crop estimates and then we make our best ‘scientific guess’ based on this data. There are certain years, like this one, where we might be better off just tossing a dart at a chart. Especially when you consider the hours we spend debating and recalculating the information.
But, you know what? At the end of the day I think that’s why we’re all in produce. We love the challenge and the thrill of coming up with solutions to our ever changing crops. How much fun would it be to produce a widget, knowing exactly how many you’d have each and every day? Sure, it’d be easier, but where’s the excitement? Where’s the passion?
I also can’t harp on Mother Nature too much. I heed those words from the old Chiffon margarine commercial, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” And I better acknowledge the wonders she accomplishes.
Those Vidalia Sweet Carrots I mentioned earlier…here’s a comment from a consumer, “My taste buds did indeed detect a strong, sweeter flavor in these carrots. The only other carrots I have had that were close to this flavorful and this sweet where either from my own garden or a farmer’s market. They beat the typical carrots I find in the store.“ Thanks Mother Nature!
And our blueberries from California? A buyer just told us this week on one of our deliveries that the blueberries they received were so perfect that the inspector almost didn’t think they were real. Thanks again Mother Nature!
Ahh Mother Nature; I’d love you to be a bit more consistent in your timing and general weather patterns, I’d love to be able to look at a 10-day forecast and know that is what is going to happen. I’d love to call one of our accounts and say that we know each and every day exactly how many blueberries we’re going to harvest. I’d love to take out some of the guesswork. But, I also love the beautiful and delicious fruits and vegetables you do help us grow. I love walking through blueberry farms and seeing the berries grow to a wonderful piece of fruit. I love walking through a field of onions and running my hands along the tall green stalks. So, keep doing what you do Mother Nature, but please try to be a little more predictable!
(I also want to make a quick note acknowledging that the U.S. and the world have experienced numerous disasters at the hand of weather events in 2011. Our thoughts and prayers always go out to those families and their friends and loved ones.)
