David J. Elliot & Son Co., located south of Sacramento near Courtland, CA, grows pears in the Sacramento Delta area but not the mountain districts of Mendocino and Lake counties. David Thiessen, sales manager for David J. Elliot & Son Co., told The Produce News June 24 that the company's first pear of the season is a Stark Crimson, which it would start harvesting around July 8. Bartlett pears will follow soon after with a harvest start date around July 15-16. "With Bartletts, the initial pack is generally preconditioned, unless a customer doesn't want it, which adds a couple of days to the

Generations of New Jersey family farmers have been growing peaches dating back to the 1600s, and with more recent support from the Jersey Fresh promotional program for the past quarter-century, the New Jersey peach is proud to be the original locally grown peach. Through experience, newer varieties, progressive marketing, innovative packaging and high standards for food safety and traceability, New Jersey peach growers have always offered the finest peaches available anywhere. Following on that proud heritage for 2010, the weather for the past 12 months has now set up New Jersey with a nearly

SALINAS, CA -- The Relay for Life team at Tanimura & Antle pulled out all the stops this year and reached a longtime goal of hitting the $1 million contribution mark to the American Cancer Society. The produce leader is celebrating its 12th year of participation in this community fundraising event, raising over $55,000 this year for a grand total of $1,037,300 that has been raised to date for the American Cancer Society. Knowing that the company was $40,000 shy of the $1 million mark this year, the Relay for Life team organized several fun and engaging events to capture donations from

WASHINGTON -- The produce industry on July 15 plans to fight back against an often quoted environmental group's "Dirty Dozen" list of the top pesticide- laced produce by releasing its own analysis of the group's handy shopping list. The Alliance for Food & Farming, a non-profit group of farmers headquartered in Watsonville, CA, commissioned Exponent, a consulting firm, to analyze the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list. Some media often quote the environmental group's list, which says that consumers can reduce 80 percent of daily toxins by choosing 12 organic produce over the

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." What? Change the mousetrap? Change is good, but will a better trap catch more mice? Maybe it will and maybe it won't. In fact, the U.S. patent office receives approximately 400 applications for a better mousetrap each year and the inventors are turned away one after the other, which begs the question: Does change always deliver a positive result? I have long been a devout advocate of change and have tried hard to practice it throughout my career. But not all changes result in success. As with

Colorado has a story to tell and product to sell when it comes to fresh produce. Tim Larsen, senior international marketing specialist with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said that the story is both old and impressive. "If you look at historical markers around Camp Hale, that was a spinach- producing area early on," he told The Produce News. Today, Colorado is the nation's fourth-largest spinach producer. Rocky Ford, CO, has gained a national reputation for its quality cantaloupe. First plantings of the melon occurred 120 years ago, and the state is the fifth-largest producer in the