“Our peppers are looking good this year, and the new fields of cucumbers will be producing every week throughout the fall,” Tom Sheppard, president of Eastern Fresh Growers Inc., in Cedarville, NJ, told The Produce News in late August. “We’re not producing zucchini this fall because of the poor past two years we had with the crop. Peppers and cucumbers will run through to October.”

Tom Sheppard, president of Eastern Fresh Growers Inc.Eastern Fresh Growers is in its second year at its newly built 28,125-square-foot packing facility. Mr. Sheppard said it has an 8,375-square-foot mezzanine, a 2,000-square-foot employee break room, 2,000-square feet of office space and a 1,650-square-foot utility area. The packing area is temperature controlled and the product and employee flow is optimized for food safety.

“The building is a larger version of our packing house that we built about six years ago,” said Mr. Sheppard. “We were very satisfied with its design, and so we used the same basic footprint in the new building. It is being used for cucumbers and peppers. It is also equipped with an electronic pepper line. It is fully refrigerated to provide an unbroken cold chain in a sealed and insulated environment.”

He added that the floors in the building are flumed for easy and complete wash-down. The break room is fully equipped and designed for food-safety enhancement. The company is compliant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Harmonized Audit.

Eastern Fresh Growers continues to focus on packaging. It has increased its offerings on bags and boxes.

“We did quite a bit of jumbo sliced peppers, six to a bag, and mediums, 12 to a bag, this year, primarily for the retail trade,” said Mr. Sheppard. “And we are offering more club store-style and euro boxes.”

He said that he cannot complain about the weather in New Jersey this year, as growing conditions have been very good. However, the markets have been poor since about July 20, especially on peppers, because everyone is growing them in their backyards.

Eastern Fresh Growers also produces lettuces, and it does tissue testing on all of its crops.

“We go into the fields every week and take leaf material samples and send them to a lab to be tested for bacteria and pathogens like salmonella and E. coli,” said Mr. Sheppard. “We have certain customers who won’t buy from growers that aren’t fully food-safety certified and include practices such as tissue testing, but we do it for everyone.”

Eastern Fresh Growers’ workers are trained in responsible conduct and safe and sanitary work habits. The training covers a number of food-safety policies such as proper clothing, hand sanitation, use of disposable gloves, hairnets and aprons.”

The company is a wholesale produce sales company for Sheppard Farms, Jersey Legacy Farms, Laning Brothers, Hensel Farms and Sorbello & Wheeler. It provides a number of fresh market vegetables including asparagus, iceberg, romaine, cucumbers, peppers, plum tomatoes and squash. It also offers a number of organic products.