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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Re: California peaches
  • Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 11:14:02 -0600

My apologies Roger. You're right. Fresh, locally grown California peaches
are as good as New Jersey or Southern Illinois locally grown, fresh-picked
peaches. It's just that the California wholesale peach is in every grocery
store east of the Rockies in season, and it poorly represents what
California can really do. The problem, as you point out, is the shipping and
distribution system.

Bill Shoemaker
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center


>As a Californian and a grower of peaches (although they are not a major
part of my farm operation), I have to take exception with this as a general
statement. I would reword it as follows:
>
>"Don't believe for a minute that produce shipped cross country (or cross
borders) is "better". It is emphatically NOT better."
>
>Any produce that's picked before it's ripe, stored in warehouses where
there is gas pumped in to prevent etyhlene gas from ripening the produce,
treated with other chemicals to prevent spoilage, and placed in refrigerated
trucks/boats/trains to be shipped 500-5000 miles from where it is grown will
have all of the negative qualities you list.
>
>My California-grown peaches are juicy, fragrant and wonderful. But they
don't ship well. I sell them to local grocery stores and at the farmer's
market, because one short trip is all they can handle.
>
>The same applies to my tomatoes, Gravenstein apples, nectarines,
strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and pretty much ANY fruit. Root
vegetables, and even things like squash and peppers are much more amenable
to shipping and storage.
>
>Roger Weeks
>
>On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:01:40 -0600, you wrote:
>
>
>> And don't believe for a minute that California peaches
>>are "better". They are emphatically NOT better. They are hard as a rock
and
>>will not ripen. They have no flavor. They are horrible. Quality is not a
>>part of the equation because free choice for the consumer is not an option
>>in the supermarket.
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