The much-feared devastating freezing temperatures didn’t quite materialize in California’s San Joaquin Valley over the last few nights, and consequently the California citrus crop experienced little damage.

Below-freezing temperatures did prevail for several nights, necessitating the use of frost-protection tools, but the needle didn’t drop low enough or the cold hang around long enough to produce serious damage.

WILSON, NC — Lyndon B. Johnson, the legendary master of the U.S. Senate, used to say that the time to make friends is before you need them. And the time to expand farming operations is before you need more space. That’s the approach Vick Family Farms here took last year, when spring rains foreshortened the 2013 sweet potato harvest. The family corporation invested in a new storage facility for year-round sweet potatoes and a bagging machine to spur consumer demand.

Ted Kreis, marketing director of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, said “movement is going well.” USDA figures show “for the week ending Dec. 6 that 124,000 hundredweight of Red River Valley potatoes had been shipped. “This is up 18 percent this year over the previous year. And it’s more than 2012 and 2011 too,” Kreis added.

As long-time General Manager Ron Norman nears retirement, East Grand Forks, MN-based Ryan Potato Co. has hired Al Giesbrecht as its new general manager.

Ryan Potato specializes in packing certified organic potatoes for the U.S. market.

According to the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, Giesbrecht moved to Grand Forks from Bemidji, MN, where he was employed by Bemidji Chrysler Center/Honda of Bemidji for 10 years, working in sales, service and management.

There are reasons to hope the marketing position of Red River Valley potato shippers will improve this January, said Paul Dolan, manager of Associated Potato Growers Inc., based in Grand Forks, ND.

When Floral Marketing in The Produce News asked me write an outlook for 2015 from a California flower grower’s perspective, I jumped at the opportunity. Kitayama Bros., located in Watsonville, CA, sees huge possibilities this year because we are Northern California farmers with close proximity and ties to the most technologically advanced and wealthy market in the world — the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area. There are so many opportunities locally and nationally. Our challenge is picking the right ones.