FRESNO, CA -- The California Table Grape Commission, here, engages in a variety of activities to keep fresh California grapes top-of-mind for chefs and consumers as well as for the food and lifestyle writers and editors who influence culinary trends.

This year, those activities will involve high-profile exposure for California grapes at events ranging from Food Fête to baseball games.

NEW YORK -- The sky's the limit for Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.'s new line of blueberry offerings. Literally.

The Lakeville-Middleboro, MA-based cooperative that is best known for its cranberries recently began offering fresh blueberries, a blueberry juice- infused sweetened dried cranberry as part of its trademarked "Crasins" line, blueberry juice cocktails and sugar-free blueberry juice mixes.

Louis Hymel, director of purchasing and marketing for Orlando, FL-based Spice World Inc., is upbeat about his company's garlic program.

"So far, the California crop looks nice but is a little late because of cooler- than-normal weather," Mr. Hymel told The Produce News June 11. "I believe that the market should remain strong as supplies coming from China will remain tight again this year, especially for big garlic, as they did during 2009 and the first half of 2010."

Central California's summer non-storage onion production total for 2009 was slightly more than 7.3 million fiftyweight bags, down from slightly more than 8.2 million fiftyweight bags in 2008.

The fiftyweight bag tally for 2007 was more than 8.8 million fiftyweight bags, said Wayne Mininger, executive vice president of the National Onion Association.

The sliding production totals correspond with a drop in onion acreage under production. In 2009, Central California had 6,500 acres in production, compared with 7,800 acres in 2008 and 8,800 acres in 2007.

Spice World has introduced a new squeezable garlic product that it said is the next generation of garlic packaging, representing a new level of value-added convenience and usage.

Packed in convenient 9.5- and 20-ounce squeezable bottles, the new product eliminates waste, mess and cross-contamination, and removes the labor-intensive tasks of cleaning, peeling and mincing fresh garlic.

Spice World, which is based in Orlando, FL, has built a new state-of-the-art facility with the latest technology for processing and packaging.

The Indiana Department of Agriculture has made great strides in not only promoting state-produced foods, but in bringing consumers and producers together.

Tony Hahn, deputy director of the department, headquartered in Indianapolis, said that the agency's web-based Indiana Agritourism and Farmers' Market Online Directory is a new program now accessible at www.in.gov/apps/isda_farmersmarket.