The North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services is tasked with promoting potatoes grown in the state, throughout the U.S. and Canada, and works to ensure state growers are successful.

As of mid-May, the state was kicking off strawberry season, which is always the kickoff to its general harvesting season, as it readies broccoli, blueberries, peaches, watermelon, followed by summer vegetables like eggplants, squash, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and more.

The North Carolina Potato Association promotes growers and their crops and is active in the research initiatives that are in place to provide the best products for consumers.

For more than a quarter century, Krichmar Produce has prided itself on providing businesses from Florida to Maine with the finest quality fruits and vegetables, thanks in part to a trucking operation it added to the company approximately 15 years ago.

As of mid-May, the company was enjoying one of its finest seasons to date and is looking forward to the Jersey deal, which is starting soon.

North Carolina is very geographically diverse, which makes an ideal place for growing produce. "We have mountains in the western part of the state, rolling hills/Piedmont in the central part of the state and sandy pine woods and coastal plains stretching down the beaches in the eastern part of the state," said Seth Grant part of the sales team at Flavor 1st Growers & Packers based in Mills River, NC.

Sonny Boy Produce is a fourth-generation grower/shipper of fresh produce with roots in the gardens of New Jersey, yet with a global reach.

“Our best foot forward is with blueberries, which accounts for about half of our business,” said Tom Consalo, president of the Vineland, NJ-based company. “We work with berries year-round and will move significant volume. We have growers and sourcing throughout the year, and the Jersey berry deal will account for nearly half of that.”

Vick Family Farms has been busy leading up to early May, preparing for planting.