From the Fields - Jonathan Merrill

By Jonathan Merrill, Monterey County vegetable grower 

Everything we could possibly be growing is being planted and harvested right now, so we have everything from transplants of Brussels sprouts going in, direct-seeded iceberg, romaine, mixed leaf lettuces, transplant broccoli, transplant celery, carrots and onions.

Crops were delayed because of the flooding that happened over the winter. We had a lot of crop loss. We had an immense number of fields that were under water. If erosion didn’t destroy the crop, the contaminated floodwaters did. We had to plant back a lot of those fields that we had lost. We had to play a lot of catch-up. We’ve had huge gaps, huge periods of oversupply and missed windows of opportunities. Getting a good, consistent schedule this season has been really challenging. But we are coming into our turn right now, so we have a little bit more control to pick and choose the crops that need to go in for the late-season harvest.

Last week was our very first heat wave of the season, so we haven’t had the typical weed pressures pop up until now. Pest pressure has been very low. Necrotic spot virus was a huge issue in our valley—and it still is—but it seems to be less aggressive now than it was last year. I think the cool weather and the floods to some degree delayed propagation of that particular disease. That’s one silver lining in the chaos of this year.

It’s hard to know what’s going to be the next big trend in fresh produce. One year it’s going to be cauliflower rice. Then LA decides that drinking celery juice is the next best thing for weight loss, and the whole country will want celery for six months. Next year, it’s kale. It’s always changing depending on what’s in the ethos of the health culture. Probably the biggest thing we struggle with is knowing where demand is going to come from.