produce auction 2025-09-13T14:50:55Z
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The scent of rotting tomatoes hung thick in my barn last July – 17 crates of heirlooms sweating under tarps while my phone buzzed with another wholesaler's voicemail. "Market's flooded this week, Frank. Best I can do is half last season's price." My knuckles turned bone-white around the receiver. That smell wasn't just spoiled produce; it was eight months of dawn-to-dusk labor evaporating in Mississippi humidity.