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Damaged crops trickle down to hurt an entire chain of people, including farmers, pickers, brokers, truckers and, ultimately, consumers who pay more for a smaller selection at the markets.
Customers — bundled up in scarves and jackets that rarely see the light of day — welcomed the sunshine in the midst of sporadic showers Wednesday as they selected their fresh oranges, avocados and kumquats at the open-air marketplace.
Garner debated Wednesday morning whether to raise his prices, but decided to hold off until next week.
The “guaranteed” price hike in the coming days could be as much as 60 or 70 percent, Garner said. This past weekend, a 40-pound bag of oranges already jumped from about $20 to $40.
Armando Garcia, who runs Garcia Organic Farm in the Fallbrook area of San Diego County, scraped through the weekend without too much harm to his citrus crops and avoided a price boost.
“I’m lucky compared to everybody else. Everybody in the valleys lost 70 to 80 percent of their crops because it gets colder,”Garcia said.
Once the thermometer passed 35 degrees on its way to a low of 27, Garcia started watering to ward off the frost.
“We’ve been able to water all night to keep the fruit from freezing,” Garcia said. “It’s like putting an ice cube under running water. It can’t freeze.”
Thanks to the relatively warm water, only 20 to 30 avocado trees and 50 to 60 young citrus trees — out of a total of 1,000 to 1,500 trees — succumbed to the frost. Garcia lost all his guavas and tropical fruit.
Garcia hoped the trees were not 100 percent dead so he could prune them back in the spring. But Garcia said the wind concerned him more than the cold.
“I lost a lot of avocados with the wind,”he said. “The stem’s so fragile, so with the wind they drop off.”
Mark McNeely, a Marina del Rey resident and regular at Garcia’s stand, lingered for several minutes to speak with Garcia after picking out his dose of avocados. McNeely said he was concerned for growers like Garcia, both as a friend and customer.
“How is the cold on the avocados?” McNeely asked Garner. “They’re the best. They’re just yummy.”
Garcia decided to keep his prices constant for the sake of loyal customers like McNeely, who make up more than 80 percent of his business and shop despite the chill.
“A regular customer shouldn’t pay the price when Mother Nature gets a little pissed,” Garcia said. “If I lose a lot of my crops then, yeah, but I can’t see myself taking advantage of a bad situation.”
Garcia said he hadn’t noticed any change in purchasing trends since the temperatures fell.
McNeely assured Garcia that the crisp weather wouldn’t stop him from making his regular rounds, which usually begin around 8:30 a.m.
“They’re open all but maybe two weeks of the year, rain or shine. I appreciate them. They appreciate me,” McNeely said.
Still, customer Devy Reinstein didn’t appreciate finding his favorite oranges upped in price from $8 to $12.50 when he returned after a month working in Chile and Argentina.
“They’re capitalizing on whatever they have left,” Reinstein said.
Money,however,wasn’t Reinstein’s chief concern as he heaved 25 pounds of navels over his shoulder; he was glad to see any oranges at all.
“I would imagine that this week’s crop is safe, but the next batch is the issue,” Reinstein said. “That’s why I came. I don’t know if I can find oranges next week.”
Reinstein saw the bad news dampen spirits all around the market.
“You can see the sad faces,”Reinstein said. “I just talked to this orange guy, and he seemed preoccupied. What can you do? The world is what it is.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 18, 2007. Read the original PDF.