L&M Cos., headquartered in Raleigh, NC, handles a full line of Eastern and Mexican vegetables, including broccoli, potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes. It also handles a wide variety of stone fruits, such as apples, pears, cherries and more. And the company has a strong melon program.

Carrie Smith, marketing manager for L&M, said the company’s melon program includes honeydews and cantaloupes.

“These aren’t exactly ‘new’ for L&M because we have handled melons in the past,” said Ms. Smith. “However we have not grown them in the past few seasons.

L&M Cos.’ Moultrie, GA, pepper field.“We also have sweet corn this year in all three colors: bi-colored, yellow and white,” she continued. “This is a new program for us, and we look forward to offering it to our customers.”

Adam Lytch, operations manager for the company, said this season’s growing conditions were somewhat off from normal in Georgia.

“The season in Georgia started off unseasonably cool,” he said. “The first couple of plantings went through some really cool weather in March. But that was followed by unseasonably warm weather during the first two weeks of April. This did help things to catch up but a little, but we are still expecting to be between seven and 10 days behind in Georgia for the start of the spring production.”

Mr. Lytch added that some sweet peppers will start setting fruit during the last week of April, but that L&M would still be planting squash and sweet corn at the same time.

“We are also just starting to transplant sweet potato sets this week,” he added.

The unusual weather pattern and swings in temperature this spring have combined to result in basically a slow start. Mr. Lytch said that yields in Georgia will likely not normalize until the second week of June.

L&M Cos. continually make updates and improvements to its facilities. Mr. Lytch said that the company has added a climate-controlled loading dock at its melon shed in Moultrie, GA, which will enable the company to maintain an unbroken cold chain.

L&M Cos. has a long and highly respected history in the produce industry. Its founder, Joe McGee, partnered with his friend Bob Logan to form the company in 1964. Today L&M represents the company’s values: respect, passion, leadership and excellence. It is only natural that the company would always remain loyal to local farmers.

“L&M is very involved in locally grown programs and we support our customers in whatever ways helps to best educate consumers about where their produce comes from,” said Ms. Smith. “Our L&M farms and growers have rich histories that we share proudly at in-store promotions.”