July 16, 2021
CALIFORNIA GROWN PRODUCTS: Green and red grapes are starting to be harvested from California. They’re nicely sized and bursting with flavor! Padrone and shishito peppers are also in great abundance this time of year. Great quick fried or even raw, these peppers have a beautifully mild bite, but some can finish with hot heat! Luck of the draw… We are well into summer squash season and the squash is top notch! The 20# cases include great mixed varieties, something fun and different week to week. Watermelons are in house from Durst Farms, and the sweetness levels are off the charts. Cutting with deep red color, their sizing is a little on the small size but as the season continues we will see them harvested a bit larger.
TOP QUALITY HIGHLIGHTS: Heirloom tomatoes are off and running into their second week of harvests from our local supplier. Currently we are using fruit from Terra Firma, Coke and Luna Farms. Straight packs options this week are Cherokee and Brandywine. We also have beautiful mixed variety cases 10# per box ready for your use. In addition, some nice saucing tomatoes include early girl and San Marzano. A slight gap in early girl to start the week, but we will have more by this weekend. Be sure to pair some tasty Double 8 Dairy cheese with your heirlooms! More details on cheese below.
NEW IN STOCK: Organically grown strawberries from Sea Breeze Farms in Watsonville are in house. These are seriously some of the most flavorful berries we have sourced this year. This will be our option for organic strawberries this week, so order up!
ITEMS TO WATCH: We had a great California cherry season, and for the past few weeks the Washington crops have been strong too. Unfortunately, last week the Washington growing areas saw temperatures reach as high as 105 degrees for 6 days in a row. This damaged a lot of the fruit on the trees and therefore farmers only have enough fruit to pack for another 2-3 weeks. California avocados are also ending on the early side of their season. Once the fruit is done in the next week or two, we will switch our chain of supply to the growing regions in Mexico. As always, we will be able to control the ripeness of the fruit. We had our first sample of the fruit from Mexico this morning and it cut very nice.
DEAL ALERTS: We are now stocking large 40# blocks of Monterey Jack for your cheesy needs. We are delivering these blocks at $2.69 per pound.
ARTISANAL CHEESE HIGHLIGHTS: We have samples of Double 8 Dairy’s stracciatella cheese in stock! This sensational cheese is the inside of the ever so popular burrata cheese. Stracciatella is shreds of mozzarella cheese that have been soaked in cream. Its name means “rag” in Italian as the cheese acts like a rag when soaked with the cream. Also coming soon are more samples of Double 8 Dairy Jersey Cow and Buffalo mozzarella. If you are using fresh mozzarella or planning to pair our wonderful heirlooms with cheese this summer, make sure you sample these options! We love sharing this cheese with our customers as it is simply the freshest and best tasting cheese available anywhere.
We want to take a second to thank everyone who reads these reports and uses it as a tool to implement the best of the season on your menus. It is why we do what we do, we love seeing (and tasting) these items on your menus, and we hope you are also enjoying the ride.
