DlG—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 23,1983
Laurel auction opens its 44th season
LAUREL, Del. Roadside
market operators, owners of small
grocery stores, and others looking
for supplies of fresh-picked local
watermelons, cantaloupes and
assorted produce, will find both
quality and quantity at the Laurel
Auction Market in Laurel,
Delaware. The farmer-owned
“Block” opened its 44th season this
Tuesday.
Though harvest has been
delayed somewhat because of the
cold, wet spring, market manager
Dave Horton says cantaloupes
grown on plastic are starting to
come in. “Last year’s opening date
was the 14th,” he said, during a
recent interview. “We sold over
27,000 cantaloupes the first day.
We also have, or soon will have
pink tomatoes, cucumbers, squash
and crimson sweet watermelons
and sugar babies for sale.”
According to Ed Kee, University
of Delaware extension vegetable
specialist, the Laurel Block offers
a good, dependable supply of
Truckloads of Delmarva-grown p> ice move through
sates line at Farmer’s Auction Market in Laurel, Delaware.
The only one of its kind on east coast, the “Block" is a major
outlet for midseason watermelons and cantaloupes.
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At peak of season, 100,000 watei
Block a major clearing house for Delmarva-grown melons. Bulk of fruit is trucked to
Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and other major eastern cities,
but there’s plenty of roadside markets and small grocery stores in the region, too.
melons and assorted vegetables
for roadside market operators.
“Buyers can bid on any amount,
from a tractor-trailer load of
watermelons to part of a pickup
truckload,” he says.
Kee has been showing local
growers how to use plastic mulch
and drip irrigation in order to
advance harvest as well as im
prove yield and quality of fresh
market crops -especially melons
and the idea appearsto be catching
on. He and extension agent Derby
Walker plan to be on hand at the
Block every Tuesday and Thur
sday this summer to answer
farmers’ questions.
The Laurel Auction Market is
operated by the Southern
Delaware Truck Growers’
Association, a farmer cooperative
organized in 1940 to bring buyers
and sellers together for mutual
benefit. Starting with a modest
membership of 200, the association
has grown to nearly 1,600 mem
bers. Nearly $2.5 million worth of
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John Dickerson, left, president of Southern Delaware Truck Growers' Association, and
Jim Hastings, one of the directors, stand in sales shed of Laurel Auction Market. Both
farmers are longtime supporters of “Block.”
produce primarily watermelons
and cantaloupes is sold there
each summer. Besides roadside
stand operators and owners of
small grocery stores, many large
produce brokerages also buy
regularly.
At the peak of the season, over
100,000 watermelons are auctioned
off each day at the Laurel Block,
which is located within a day’s
drive of most major mid-Atlantic
cities. As a result, produce from
the Block is cheaper to haul and
fresher when it reaches its
destination. Buyers are guaran
teed quality, since a federal in
spector is on the grounds at all
tunes. Horton says small buyers
can usually get what they need and
be on the road by noon.
To reduce waiting time for both
fanners and buyers there is a
sample sale each morning at 8:30
when growers can bring in pickup
samples (25 melons each) for
inspection and grading. These
samples then become the basis for
bidding on entire tractor-trailer
lots to be loaded at growers’ farms.
The Delmarva peninsula is a
major source of midseason
melons. Kee estimates Delaware
alone grows about 2,100 acres of
watermelons. Counting those from
Maryland, the Block draws from
about a 5,000-acre supply. Many of
the watermelons sold are trucked
to wholesale markets in New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
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president of Southern Delaware Truck Growers' Association,
exchange memories of early days of Laurel, Del., Farmer’s
Auction Market. Horton started loading watermelons there
when he was 15; Dickerson’s father was one of eight founding
' members of the market.
Prospective buyers consider load of cantaloupes ready to
be auctioned at Delaware’s Laurel Block.
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