FirstFruits Marketing of Washington, based in Yakima, has added a new apple packer to its supply mix. Columbia Valley Fruit, a premier Yakima Valley packer of conventional and organic apples, will begin marketing its fruit through FirstFruits Marketing this season.

"We are responding to the marketplace," Orlin Knutson, co-owner of Columbia Valley Fruit, said in a Sept. 8 press release. Customers are telling us that they prefer to have direct access to the producer. This new marketing company creates that direct link between our customers and the grower.

Tanimura & Antle hosted its fifth annual 20-year Employee Club celebration Aug. 23 at the private home of Mike and Cass Antle in Corral de Tierra, CA. This annual event honors employees who have served 20 and 25 years. Ten new members were inducted into the 20-Year Club and 12 employees were honored for their 25 years of service.

On Sept. 1, in advance of Hurricane Jimena, unstable weather conditions produced a tornado effect that tore through an Andrew & Williamson Sales Co. Inc. cucumber farm in Baja California, ripping out a 12.5-acre shade house. Farm managers prepared for the worst as the storm headed directly up the center of Baja, with expectations that it would go right over the major tomato-producing area a day-and-a-half later.

Quick industry action in late August resulted in the recall of potentially tainted cantaloupes and green onions with no reports of illnesses by Sept. 1.

In separate incidents, some cantaloupes from a Florida farm and some green onions from a Mexican farm tested positive for Salmonella, which resulted in the removal of the products from supermarket shelves and distribution centers. The shippers and retailers involved acted quickly, which appeared to limit exposure to consumers and isolate the problem lots.

The Beebe Bridge along Highway 97 near Chelan Falls, WA, remained closed on Sept. 1 following a fatal accident that claimed the life of truck driver Kathleen Walker, a 48-year-old resident of Olympia, WA.

Investigators were engaged in an ongoing search to find the body of her co- driver, also from Olympia, who remained unnamed pending notification of his or her next of kin.

VERO BEACH, FL -- Cassie William (Bill) Emanuel Jr., founder of the C.W. Emanuel Co. Inc., died Aug. 26 after a battle with cancer.

Mr. Emanuel, known to friends and family as C-Dub, founded C.W. Emanuel Co. in 1974 as a fresh produce grower and wholesaler.