Now that the weather has started to change, our minds start thinking about the sweet summertime fruit we love so much. May is usually the month when we make the transition from apples, pears and citrus items to fruit like berries, cherries, peaches, nectarines and plums.

In the beginning of May, we see the best tasting strawberries of the year out of Watsonville, California, beautiful cherries from the Santa Clara Valley, and also those sweet, juicy tree ripe peaches from the San Joaquin Valley.

Most of us love enjoying these fruits all summer long and other fruits throughout the year. We hear on the news about how the weather in other States is affecting the crops but we don’t always think about it too much (i.e. frost in Florida, drought in California, etc.).

California produces 60-70 percent of our fruits, vegetables and nuts every year, making these farmers a key factor in our country’s economy. These farmers have been battling a big issue over the last few years. That issue is WATER. The farmers lucky enough to have a well that is still pumping water are the fortunate ones. And even those farmers still face an uncertain future, watching their water tables drop by feet every year.

Just to put things in perspective of how much water it takes to grow some of our everyday fruits and vegetables, here are a few examples:

• Every pound of lettuce grown requires at least 15 gallons of water,
• Tomatoes need 22 gallons of water per pound,
• Potatoes need 30 gallons of water a pound and
• Peaches and nectarines need over 140 gallons of water to produce a pound of fruit.

The bottom line? Nino’s Produce Buyers taste and select the freshest produce at the produce terminals in Detroit, six days a week. This means they send the freshest & tastiest fruits & vegetables to each Nino’s store six days a week. They buy it in the morning and it’s on the shelves by afternoon.