VINELAND, NJ — The extensive blueberry program that M. D’Ottavio Produce Inc. launched last year is right on track, according to company President Michael D’Ottavio. If all goes as planned, he will harvest his first crop of New Jersey blueberries in the summer of 2016, fulfilling a dream that he has had for more than 10 years.

Kingston Fresh announced that it has expanded its strategic sourcing partnerships with established growers of watermelons and cantaloupes within the Georgia and Mississippi region. The move will allow Kingston to extend its available melon volumes with the added summer production. Further, the strategic alliance has allowed the company to better service its key customers on the Eastern Seaboard.

Homegrown Organic Farms is in the thick of its stone fruit season and will have a fairly consistent supply of fruit from early May through mid-August. Located in Porterville, CA, the company is one of the nation’s largest suppliers of organic produce. “We offer a full line of stone fruit including white and yellow peaches, nectarines, plums and pluots,” said Marketing Manager Cherie France.

She said the stone fruit season got off to an early start “after the dry weather and above-average temperatures we’ve experienced here in the valley the past few months.”

The key to success for Anthony Vineyards has been consistency. Family patriarch Anthony Bianco, known for his business acumen at a young age, eventually garnered a national reputation following a proclamation by New Yorker Magazine naming him “Juice Grape King of the United States.”

Following his death in 1967, his four sons took their father’s vision to the next level with the founding of Anthony Vineyards.

“We are looking forward to a good season on melons” for the Westside deal this year, Atomic Torosian, a partner in Crown Jewels Produce LLC in Fresno, CA, said in an interview with The Produce News. He expected to have good volume in cantaloupes all the way through the deal, “with honeydews to match,” which will be good for promotions throughout the season.

“Everything is pretty much the same” as it has been in recent years for the Westside melon program for the 2014 season at Turlock Fruit Co. Inc. in Turlock, CA, according to Steve Smith, an owner and officer in the company. Turlock Fruit has the same mix of products with about the same acreage as in the past, he said.

The company grows cantaloupes and honeydew melons as well as seven varieties of mixed or specialty melons: Casaba, Juan Canary, orange-flesh honeydew, Santa Clause (also called Piel de Sapo), Crenshaw, Hami and Galia.