A love of food and desire to be exploratory lead Noah Robbins to create his new company, Ark Foods, one year ago. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Ark Foods is focusing its energy on growing the shishito pepper, which has garnered a strong reputation in eateries around the country.

“I am always looking for different vegetables and discovered them at a restaurant in New York,” Robbins, the company’s chief executive officer, told The Produce News.

Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development for Southern Specialties, headquartered in Pompano Beach, FL, told The Produce News that the company has become a licensed grower of “Kalettes,” a brand new vegetable, blooming with the best flavors of kale and brussels sprouts.

“This is the most recent kale-related sensation,” said Eagle. “This cross between kale and brussels sprouts results in a vegetable that is loaded with nutrients and has a wonderful nutty flavor.

“With over 600 SKU’s and growing, Babé Farms is one of the busiest specialty vegetable farming operations on the West Coast,” said Ande Manos, marketing and new business development director for the Santa Maria, CA-based grower and shipper. “Our year-round growing season means harvest never ends for us — it’s always fast paced.”

The specialty produce category is difficult to define because its interpretation is based on the product’s uniqueness, difficulty in sourcing, newness to the market, short growing season, limited growing regions and other factors. The category includes the odd, peculiar, particularly interesting in shape, size, color or texture, and of course, uniqueness in the marketplace.

A new chapter is being written in the story of Nyssa, OR-based Fiesta Farms; the company has recently formed an alliance with Eagle Eye Produce for sales and marketing of Spanish Sweet onions from the Treasure Valley.

Marc Bybee, Fiesta’s vice president and third generation of a farming-shipping family, said Sept. 5 that the operation had partnered with Eagle Eye, which will “market the majority of onions from Fiesta Farms.”

NEWPORT, RI — The keynote breakfast Thursday morning, Sept. 11, was just one of the many highlights at the New England Produce Council's 2014 Produce & Floral Expo.

NEPC President Bob McGowan of Northeast Produce Sales welcomed everyone to the breakfast, beginning with a moment of silence in remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the United States back on Sept. 11, 2001.