I am personally getting excited to see our growing season get started up again, but the question is, when???!!!  Lots of you are waiting for us to return to a Saturday market and are already licking your lips for the fall crops, but  the crops are still languishing in the fields, desperately hanging on for the heat to break--sun burnt and dried out, just sitting there.  Normally I insert a picture here, but I am sure your imagination can fill the void. :)

In case you were all wondering, there is an end to this heat and the first of the fall crops started going in a couple weeks ago, but in the meantime, we lean heavily on our farmer friends in the west to make sure we can still eat great. There's lots of produce at the market stand from CA, a little corn from CO and some hot chiles from Hatch NM. Hopefully, you all have taken advantage of some of the tips for storing produce while they are growing gangbusters and you have freezers and pantries full of awesome AZ Grown goods to tide you over. 

But for many of you that is just not practical. Thus the dilemma.... Some of the vendors cry, "Local!  Eat Local!  Support our farm stands!"  Market managers, say "go home unless you only bring AZ Grown to the markets!" Well in case you haven't heard it all before,  here's our take on local produce at year round markets.

Pinnacle Farms grows everything you can grow in Phoenix, AZ.  And we provide it all at our stand year round, and we try really hard to offer our produce at a price that most people would feel is fair for us and for the customers.  We also offer produce that our state does not grow.  People know the benefits of organic bananas, mangoes, pineapples, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, pluots and avocados and they want them at a good price.  We at Pinnacle Farms know this, and strive to offer it to our customers in a seasonal and price conscious way. It is of  tremendous benefit to us, supporting our farm, our farm families and keeping us all going through tough times in the season in case we get hit with frost or excessive heat or whatever life may bring.  

 One stop shopping and keeping local dollars in the state is an extra huge benefit.  Many of our customers want to support us instead of going to Whole Foods or Safeway and see a great advantage to getting all their goodies at one place.  And often times we offer fresher produce at even better pricing than the big box stores, due to our grass roots approach.

So, long story short, for those of you who wonder why you see so much CA grown fruit at this time of year, it is because we are in the middle of the equivalent of a blizzard in Michigan.  If you happen to be tired of okra, eggplant and basil, and by all means, I hope you aren't, because we have tons of it, you can still find us at the Town and Country Farmer's Market every Wednesday from 9-2 and you can also grab all those sweet tasty goodies I previously mentioned at the same time.  And in the meantime, we at Pinnacle Farms want you to know how much we appreciate your year round support, keeping our families working, investing in our farm, and dollars flowing in the state.  If you see benefit to our business model, feel free to re-post it on Facebook Twitter and to the markets management.  We're keeping our eggs in a few more baskets, and we'll be sticking around to grow for you for a long time to come with a little luck.

Thank you and we'll be sure to look for you soon!

Fondly,

J

Oh and PS, make sure you are following us on Twitter and Facebook to see what we have been investing in during our seasonal break!  I can't wait to tell you!