FLORIDA - The start of a new season is when I do some of my best dinner entertaining, and one of my favorite dishes to serve is a big, bright salad with as many veggies as I can squeeze into the bowl. And with the Florida vegetable season off to a great start, it looks like there will be lots of fresh goodies to choose from this season in the grocery aisle.
I caught up with Adam Lytch, Farms & Warehouse Operations Manager, to find out what we can expect from L&M’s current Florida veg season.
“We are harvesting some really nice products right now—the best we have had all season. We are just getting going in our spring plantings in the Immokalee/LaBelle area and wrapping up the last of our winter plantings on green bell peppers as well as our open-field colored bells, both red and yellow,” Adam shares with me. “We are also transitioning on chili peppers as well as our vine-ripened tomatoes and will continue to pick both zucchini and yellow squash at our farms in South Florida as well.”
Currently, Adam tells me, L&M has a good amount of volume on most of its products, with red and yellow bell peppers leading the pack, and a big increase in organics bolstering the grower’s supply.
While the season is on track now, Adam reveals that Mother Nature had reared her head at the close of last year, leading to some delays L&M has since remedied.
“The South Florida season got off to a rough start in the fall: everything was delayed by Hurricane Irma. In late December and throughout January, we had several cold fronts that pushed in with strong wind systems that did us no favors either. Finally, everything is back to normal and we are harvesting some really nice peppers, in particular,” Adam explains.
And as blue skies continue to make their way to Florida, Adam expects the region’s veggies, especially peppers, to be quite popular with consumers.
“The market has been strengthening over the past week and I think some of that is due to the Easter holiday, but also demand in general seems to be up and supplies from other regions are off a little earlier than normal,” Adam says. “Markets have been ticking up on peppers in particular and a lot of that has to do with demand. I feel once we get into April, we will see demand grow even more as weather improves throughout the country.”
With Florida veg coming in strong, there’s a lot to look forward to in grocery aisles this spring. For more crop updates like this, stick with us at AndNowUKnow.
