ATLANTA " Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin announced that the Vidalia Onion Advisory Panel has selected April 28 as the shipping date to begin the 2005 Vidalia onion marketing season. The panel selected the date after examining this year?s crop and determining the best times to harvest and begin shipping. Vidalia onions shipped prior to April 28 must have a federal-state inspection certificate stating that the onions have met the established grade requirements and are under "positive lot identification? as approved by the federal-state inspection service. ?The Georgia Department

Salinas, CA-based Epic Roots LLC, a leading grower and distributor of mache-based salads, announced that its founder, Todd Koons, and mache were featured in the Culinary Renegades article in the April 4 issue of Time magazine. The article begins, "What?s for dinner? Something unexpected. From farming to fast food, these creative thinkers are transforming the way we eat." The piece continues, "Todd Koons had the idea of packaging an organic spring-lettuce mix. Mesclun had never been grown in a large-scale industrial way and mass cultivation proved to be a challenge. But Koons persevered, and by

The produce industry?s top growers and suppliers have joined together once again to organize the Don Strock Diabetes Classic, one of South Florida?s longer-running celebrity/amateur charity golf tournaments, which benefits the Diabetes Research Institute. Although Don Strock, the legendary Miami Dolphins quarterback and current head football coach at Florida International University, is the face of the tournament, it's the produce industry that stands as the backbone and the heart of this event. The 2005 tournament will be held May 18 at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club in Miami. Now in its

Two years ago, Progeny Advanced Genetics of Salinas pledged to keep alive the memory of John (Delta John) Gill, one of the Salinas Valley's more respected agricultural leaders, who died from Lou Gehrig's Disease (also known as ALS) in 2001. On Wednesday, March 30, 2005, that promise was kept for a second year with the presentation of a second $10,000 check to the Community Foundation for Monterey County to be used for the John Gill ALS Patient Support Fund. The donation represents a portion of 2004 sales of Progeny's Delta John lettuce variety. Mr. Gill was a well-known Gonzales, CA-based

If you didn?t notice the macron (the long mark) over the "a? on the new fresh apple product being marketed in chainstores all over America, you would probably pronounce it stressing the "apple? portion of the word. But the new "Grapple? brand apple does have a long mark on the "a? and is pronounced with the emphasis on "grape." In the event that one forgets the proper pronunciation, the aroma of the product quickly corrects the error. The new Grapple product has a very strong scent of the Concord grape flavor, in which it has been dipped. The product is the brainchild of the oldest nursery in

Ron Burkle, who has made a fortune buying and selling supermarket stock as well as supermarkets themselves, has made major stock investments in Pathmark Stores and Wild Oats Markets in the past few months, leading to much speculations about the future of those operations. A Southern Californian, Mr. Burkle came onto the grocery scene more than 20 years ago. In fact, he started earlier than that as a box boy at Stater Bros. Markets, a chain his father once ran. In 1986, he formed the investment group Yucaipa Cos. and has made supermarkets one of the prime targets of the privately owned group