IMMOKALEE, FL -- One grandfather was a rancher. Another, as well as two uncles, owned citrus groves. His mother worked for Lykes Bros.

There was little doubt that Doug Miller would wind up in the family business.

"I was always on a tractor with my granddaddies, and I enjoyed it. Those were some of the happiest times of my life. It wasn't that I had to do it -- I liked it," Doug Miller recalled from his office at the Six L's Packing Co.'s potato- shipping facility, here.

"When you get up to 15 inches of rain in a one-week period, you will have water standing in lower places of the pecan groves," said Charles M. (Buddy) Leger, chairman of the Georgia Pecan Commission in Atlanta. "This is a particularly bad scenario when it happens before the trees are budded out, which was the case when the heavy rains hit Georgia in April."

Conditions could not be better for this year's pipfruit crop from New Zealand. Peter Beaven, chief executive of Pipfruit New Zealand, is enthusiastic about this year's prospects.

"The quality of the fruit is the best this decade: clean finish, good pressures and high Brix. The fruit is eating very well and compares very favorably with other Southern Hemisphere quality," he told The Produce News in early May. "This was an excellent growing season in all parts of New Zealand. [There were] no adverse weather events."

GREENWICH, NJ -- New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher sampled New Jersey asparagus from Sheppard Farms in Cedarville, eggs from Fralinger's Egg Farm in Hopewell and baked goods from the residents of Greenwich Township during the 19th annual Greenwich Fire Department Egg & Asparagus Breakfast, held May 17.

Rose Prost-Hiebert was declared National Prize Winner of the Pear Bureau Northwest's second annual "Pear Excellence" Canadian Culinary Student Recipe Competition. Ms. Prost-Hiebert, associated with the Elliott House Restaurant & Chef School, was recognized for her achievement during festivities at The Chefs House restaurant at George Brown College in Toronto. Her winning recipe, pear ginger cheesecake, garnered a $2,500 cash prize.

NationFresh LLC, based in Littleton, CO, has announced the hiring of two longtime industry veterans, Wesley Rust and Larry Narwold, to the sales and marketing staff of the company.

Mr. Rust, who spent the last five years as national marketing manager for Produce Alliance, headquartered in Nashville, TN, joined the company May 4 and will work from his home in Fort Worth, TX.