MONTE VISTA, CO — RPE’s Colorado facility located near Monte Vista will see the start of its 2014 new crop in early September, according to Manager David Tonso.

Tonso, longtime San Luis Valley potato shipper who came to RPE in 2013, heads up a staff of four sales, two customer service reps and two transportation facilitators. Since his arrival, the staff has expanded to handle growing domestic and export accounts.

MONTE VISTA, CO — Though he’s new to the position of general manager, assuming responsibilities with the retirement of the operation’s longtime GM, Jason Tillman has several years’ experience at Monte Vista Potato Growers under his belt.

Tillman is going into his fourth year MVPG and now sits in the manager’s chair occupied for 22 years by his dad, Steve Tillman.

The 2014 fall produce season is underway and should be highlighted by good quantities of high-quality produce available for wholesale and retail purchase. After four seasons in a row with extraordinary weather that has had a major impact on our fall season, we have enjoyed a late, but average, growing season this year, according to New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson of Rutgers University.

VINELAND, NJ — The Vineland Produce Auction’s Carol DeFoor was looking forward to a good fall season, as the quality of fresh produce items has been consistently high throughout the summer even as supply and demand was affecting pricing during the month of August.

New Jersey’s 2014 spring produce season got off to a late start due to the unusually long and cold winter, but “the beginning part of the season was really good,” DeFoor told The Produce News Aug. 19 at her office here. “We made up for the late start.”

In 2003, as a new teacher of a high school agricultural education program, I was fortunate to connect with the circle of New Jersey agriculture teachers who taught in similar programs. During a conversation with a colleague, I was introduced to the term “gleaning,” which I learned is the act of harvesting surplus produce from farm fields. My colleague invited me to attend a gleaning with his FFA [originally Future Farmers of America] chapter at a local farm through a program called New Jersey Farmers Against Hunger.

Is the European trend of ‘ugly produce’ on its way to the United States?

While the average produce shopper may think that the beauty of their fruits and vegetables is skin deep (rind deep? peel deep?) and many produce purveyors cater to that view, the elements of taste are the true predictors of a repeat customer.

Word is beginning to reach our shores from Europe (France, specifically), through websites like grist.com and ecowatch.com, about a new trend in produce marketing — so-called “inglorious” fruits and vegetables.