Consalo Family Farms adds new team members for fall

The Consalo family have been a staple of the New Jersey produce scene for approximately 95 years. Consalo is a trusted name thanks to its dedication to growing healthy, quality fruit and vegetables.

Consalo Family Farms offers both conventional and organic produce, specializing in blueberries, citrus, cooking greens, herbs, salad items and hard squash. Its top items in New Jersey are blueberries, wet vegetables, herbs, cooking greens, salad items, eggplant, peppers and squash.

“Fall is an exciting time for New Jersey produce, just like the spring,” said Chelsea Consalo, executive vice president, produce operations for the Vineland, NJ-based company. “It’s like a refresh, and New Jersey fall produce is important to us because we are harvesting local.”

The 2022 season has looked good, with Consalo noting the company has seen excellent quality so far this Jersey Fresh season. The current fall season is very similar to 2021, though production will be slightly higher due to increased acreage.

“Looking ahead, I am optimistic about good production and good quality for fall,” she said. “Lettuce is one of our most popular fall items. We typically see the most volume on romaine, red leaf and green leaf. We have increased our acreage on all of these items this fall. Our continued growth has been made possible by farming expansions and by the fact that we continue to offer the freshest, highest quality varieties.”

 Consalo Family Farms’ diverse offering of products has allowed the company to continue to be successful.

“In the business since 1927, our family is committed, experienced and quality-driven,” Consalo said. “In addition to that, our vertical integration also allows us to accommodate requests from our retailers with very quick turn-around.”
Working with Consalo Family Farms as growers on sustainable packaging can help stores increase sales at the retail level.

“Consumers are very interested in environmentally friendly options and making those selections at the grocery stores,” Consalo said. “We receive phone calls and emails with questions about our packaging very frequently and feel that this will only continue to become more prevalent. We are currently doing trials with paper board trays for blueberries that are 100 percent recyclable.”

The company is not without its challenges. Weather has recently been a challenge with humidity and heat so product needs to be harvested with more aggressive timing and precision. At the same time, there is an increasing need for more frequent irrigation, which has increased on-the-farm costs.

Still, growth continues and more opportunities exist ahead.

“We are very excited about adding some new members to our team this fall season,” Consalo said. “As our transportation department has continued to grow, we are welcoming Matt Epstein. Farm operations welcomes Nick Bergamo, and accounting is welcoming Maria Diaz. Lastly, Brooke Mathis joins our grower development team. We are looking forward to what they will bring with innovative ideas as the business continues to grow and expand.”