Mike Pirrone Produce offering abundant cucumber supply
Mike Pirrone Produce offering abundant cucumber supply
CAPAC, MI — Hot sunshine fueled vegetable maturity in the vegetable fields scattered around this quaint southeast Michigan farm town in the last week of July. Varied crops, including zucchini, yellow squash and Bell peppers, which had been slow to mature thus far under much damper, cooler conditions, were suddenly moving toward a nice maturity.
Henry DeBlouw V, president of Mike Pirrone Produce, was pleased as he drove from field to field on July 27. DeBlouw expects a particularly abundant cucumber crop, which runs until mid-August.
Pumpkins from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana are a Pirrone specialty, but those supplies are expected to be down 30 percent. Pumpkin shipments usually begin around Labor Day, but the earliest shipping date this year will be around Sept. 15, with pumpkins running until Halloween.
Otherwise on vegetables this summer, “the pipeline is empty. It’s been a struggle,” said DeBlouw. While weather has been the primary problem, vegetable production around Capac is down as growers “retired or went to corn and soybeans so they don’t have to babysit” the large number of farm workers needed for vegetables.
Beyond the aforementioned items, Mike Pirrone is a large-volume grower-packer-shipper of cranberries, ornamental and mini-pumpkins, heirloom pumpkins, gourds, mini-corn, hard squash, cello carrots, eggplant, celery, Romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, other leaf lettuces and green cabbage.
Mike Pirrone produces 1,000 acres of vegetables and packs and/or ships another 6,000 acres for other midwestern growers. Some of these products also come from growers in nearby southern Ontario.
