Hudson River Fruit Distributors, a leading apple grower, packer and shipper based in Milton, NY, is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

Western Growers and S2G Ventures are accepting applications for the 2023 AgSharks Competition, a unique event where startup companies pitch their innovations in front of a live audience of the world’s largest specialty crop producers to win a $250,000 minimum investment. Impact-driven entrepreneurs and startups developing technologies that promote a more healthy and sustainable food and agriculture system can apply for the AgSharks Competition by clicking here: https://2023agsharks.splashthat.com.

Yvonne Morales of Little Bear Produce, based in Edinburg, TX, died June 20, at McAllen Medical Center after a brief illness. She was 70.

Bland Farms recently celebrated its 75th anniversary with employees, their families and friends at the cabin where Raymond and Rubye Jean Bland — who established the company in 1948 —  once lived. Festive decorations and balloons adorned the tent, while bounce houses and games entertained partygoers for the Diamond Jubilee.

For most of my mid 20s, I didn’t see a desire to cut alcohol from my diet and assumed that making a mocktail was equivalent to how I would mix my two juice boxes together during elementary school lunch. It wasn’t until about a year ago when I started to lean into the mocktail idea.

Kurt Zuhlke has seen a lot in his nearly 45 years in the produce business. He has been around long enough to see some trends, not always good ones, come back into vogue for various reasons that often deal with money.

His job as president and CEO of Kurt Zuhlke & Associates, a Bangor, Pa.-based company that produces 44 different packaging molds, is to give retailers the options they want and need to keep consumers coming back into their stores for their produce needs.