Hothouse-grown cherries were available from California in commercial volumes for the first time this year, according to Jim Hanson, a salesman at Grower Direct LLC in Stockton, CA, exclusive sales agent for O-G Packing Co.

“We have completed the season now,” Mr. Hanson told The Produce News in late April. “We are currently harvesting [field grown] cherries“ out of districts from Arvin to Fresno. The company expected to continue shipping cherries through June, with production peaking out of the northern districts in California late May and June.

When Sam Ingardia was honorably discharged from the Navy in the early 1970s, he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do, but he knew he wanted to work for himself.

He went to work in the Southern California community of Costa Mesa where soon a vacant store front opened up next to his place of employment. “My father was in the shoe business but my uncles had a fruit stall in a produce market in Sicily and that sounded like something I could do.”

Mark Carroll, director of produce and floral purchasing and merchandising for Southern California-based Gelson’s Markets, believes that organic continues to be a “good avenue of growth” for any retailer willing to make the commitment.

The Grower-Shipper Association of Central California held its Annual Meeting May 23 at Corral de Tierra Country Club in Salinas. Mark Borman, the Association’s new chairman of the board, was inaugurated at this event in front of more than 75 members and dignitaries.

Conditions are ripe for good watermelon movement for the family-owned Jackson Farming Co. “We started the crown cut on seedless watermelons at the Sarasota, FL, farm on Tuesday, May 14. [We] look to have a week of two to three loads a day on seedless and should get into volume around Thursday or Friday, May 23-24,” said Vice President of Operations/Supply Chain Matt Solana.

NASCAR truck series driver Ross Chastain has earned an upgrade after having an excellent rookie campaign driving the National Watermelon Association- and National Watermelon Promotion Board-sponsored “Watermelon Truck” in the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Season.