Planted acreage is not the only factor that determines how many boxes of melons a grower may produce over the course of a season. Weather is also a significant factor. And at Westside Produce, a grower, packer and shipper of cantaloupes and honeydews, based in Firebaugh, CA, on the San Joaquin Valley’s famed West Side, that possibility may very well be demonstrated this year.

With the fourth generation now in the business, Turlock Fruit Co. Inc., headquartered in Turlock, CA, has been shipping melons from California’s San Joaquin Valley since 1918. The company grows, packs and ships cantaloupe, honeydew melons and an assortment of mixed specialty melons.

Cool spring weather in Central California has delayed the start of the West Side melon season, but it is not expected to adversely affect total production, which, for Pappas & Co. in Mendota, CA, is projected to be similar to last year.

But Rodney Van Bebber, sales manager at Pappas, is hoping that the weather conditions that have been experienced by melon growers in other parts of the country may mean opportunities on the East Coast this year for West Side growers, in spite of high transportation costs due to the high cost of fuel.

Following the success of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association's 86th annual Convention & Trade Show, held in April at the Palais des Congrès de Montreal in Montreal, the association announced that with more than nine months to go before the 87th annual edition to be held in Calgary, AB, exhibit space has sold out and the association will add exhibit space to meet the continued demand.

Double D Farms in Coalinga, CA, is a vertically integrated, diversified grower-packer-shipper that produces a wide assortment of produce items both conventionally and organically, but focuses mainly on fresh organic produce for retail and wholesale customers.

FRESNO, CA — With about 3,000 acres planted for its West Side melon deal from Perez Packing Inc. in Firebaugh, CA, Crown Jewels Produce Co., here, expects to ship a full crop of about 3 million cartons of cantaloupe and about 500,000 cartons of honeydew melons this year under the “King Crow” label that has been around since about 1948.

The melons are all being grown on the west side of California’s San Joaquin Valley. “We are looking at about 3,000 acres of cantaloupes,” which is “almost identical to last year,” said Atomic Torosian, a managing partner with the company.