Vegetable growing, the second-largest sector of New Jersey agriculture, will be the focus of a task force geared toward strengthening market opportunities, the state's secretary of agriculture announced Jan. 23.

The Enza Jazz apple is center stage once again in a groovy new web site, launched recently by The Oppenheimer Group.

"With all the buzz surrounding the popular Jazz apple, it was time to provide a web-based information platform for consumers, the trade and the media," David Nelley, pipfruit category director for Vancouver, BC-based Oppenheimer, said in a release. "Our own web site [OppyProduce.com] was overwhelmed with feedback and questions about the variety, so we decided we needed a dedicated on-line resource for Jazz."

LOS ANGELES -- Fire broke out Monday morning Jan. 23 at the Seventh Street Market, which was one of the two major wholesale produce markets here for many decades. A number of produce houses were damaged, and an unspecified amount of produce was lost in the blaze.

In the late 1980s, the city and many of its major produce tenants built the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market adjacent to the old Seventh Street Market. Most of the old- line companies either moved to the new market in 1986 or have since relocated off the market.

FALLBROOK, CA -- Jessica Siemer Hunter, the daughter of Bob Siemer, a partner at Del Rey Avocado Co. Inc., here, works with her father in Del Rey's field department.

But when not working with the fruit that is ubiquitous in the area, she pursues her passion of team paddling outrigger canoes competitively.

Organics Unlimited of San Diego, CA, is seeing increasing consumer interest in the bananas the firm is selling with the new "GROW" label.

"People who are buying organic produce are normally socially and politically concerned," said Michael Rocca, produce buyer for Watsonville Coast Produce, who added that this is one of the reasons the GROW Foundation has been experiencing major success in its first year.

The 2006 Washington State Potato Conference will be trotting out another first: a chance to taste and evaluate a new potato variety developed by the Northwest (Tri-State) Variety Development Program. The unnamed variety will be offered at the potato bar lunch during the Feb. 7-9 conference.