HAMMONTON, NJ — Frank Donio Inc. will have an extensive line of produce items this fall from the state of New Jersey, as it always does, but the company is especially excited about its fall cauliflower deal.

David Arena and Dennis Donio looked at some Symphony variety cauliflower on Aug. 21 that had been planted the first week in August. This will be ‘mostly naked cauliflower in its natural state,’ said Mr. Arena, ‘I think that appeals to consumers.’ (Photo by Gordon M. Hochberg) “We’ve seen a resurgence in local cauliflower, [along with] the general locally grown trend” that many consumers have embraced in recent years, company President David Arena told The Produce News Aug. 22. Cauliflower — and other local items for that matter — can be harvested and delivered to eastern retailers generally in 24-48 hours, a much shorter time period than if the product were coming from areas such as California, he noted.

Frank Donio Inc., a grower, shipper and distributor headquartered here in southern New Jersey, planted cauliflower on a 48-acre plot of land that previously had been used for cucumbers. Mr. Arena anticipated that this fall crop of cauliflower would be harvested in late October or early November, depending on weather.

In contrast to cello-wrapped cauliflower, Donio’s fall cauliflower “will be mostly naked product in its natural state,” said Mr. Arena. “I think that appeals to consumers.”

The previous few months have been “extremely challenging” with regard to the weather, he added. Both spring and much of the summer were very hot, bringing on most crops very early. For example, “Blueberries started two weeks early and ended two weeks early,” he said. “The hot weather has definitely moved our windows up.”

But when Mr. Arena spoke to The Produce News a few days later, on Aug. 25, he noted that the weather was “starting to feel a little more like fall,” with temperatures slightly cooler than they had been for so long. A cooler end to August and thereafter could bode well for New Jersey’s fall deal.

That’s good, because as Mr. Arena (and others) have noted, New Jersey’s produce season extends well beyond Labor Day, despite some people’s perception to the contrary.

Mr. Arena said that the next few weeks and months should see good volumes of all the leaf lettuces, hard squashes and other items that encompass the fall deal in the Garden State. As he put it, “There’s quite a bit of product harvested in New Jersey in the fall. It doesn’t end on Labor Day.”

But he was especially interested in his company’s fall cauliflower deal. He noted that the product would be harvested “with a little bit of the leaf still on it,” alerting shoppers to its freshness. “This gives us something to stimulate the fall deal,” he concluded. “We will have a promotable volume of cauliflower.”