If you grew up in rural New England like I did, you pretty much only lock your car doors during zucchini season. If you don’t, you risk an unannounced delivery of squash from your neighbor who is too torn to toss or compost their inevitable bumper crop.
Zucchini is about as commodity as vegetables come. Many people grow it. It doesn’t cost very much. And, even if it’s grown and handled with the utmost care it looks (and tastes) a lot like the one right next to it. Zucchini is emblematic of what’s difficult about selling local – our Northeast growers have smaller volumes at higher prices than the commodity growers further south.
This race to the bottom had me crying out two years ago, “if I can sell zucchini to XYZ broad line distributor, we will have changed the food system!”
Enter 2015, in New Jersey, where we buy and sell for Kings Food Markets Just Picked Promise program. For well over a month, it’s rained more often than not in South Jersey where most of the growers are located. Ground crops like cucumbers and zucchini are suffering and at risk for disease. In a normal year, a ½ bushel box of zucchini would cost between $9-10 at this point in the season. This year, at its peak, we’ve heard reports of Jersey squash selling for as much as $38. Regional harvests that should be well into the 1,000s are clocking in the hundreds. There simply isn’t enough squash to go around.
Almost overnight the market for New England grown squash sky-rocketed. And it was still early season. Customers were looking for it anywhere and at any price they could. The Red Tomato team has been working tirelessly to fulfill the orders as they roll in, sourcing from as many as 5 farms from 3 states to meet the demand. We’re paying fair prices to our growers and are still able to be competitive in the marketplace – which, as I mentioned before, was never something we could have predicted on this crop.
Sooner or later, the market will settle. Jersey growers will get into their second and third plantings and regain some of their market share, which will really help them out. The New England growers will have had a strong run at the opening of the local season. And, I may not be selling zucchini to XYZ broad liner but we are shipping in squash by the hundreds to other broad liners, and many other customers. All that to say, this zucchini season, go ahead and leave your car doors unlocked. If you have too many to eat, let us know, we might have a home for your neighbor’s bumper crop.