Farm Fresh Produce is touting its cabbage program this season, especially the company's Napa production, which is in full swing.

M & R Tomato Distributors Inc., located on the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Market in the Bronx, NY, offers a full line of fresh, high-quality produce.

The company specializes in gas green tomatoes, roma tomatoes, cherry and grape tomatoes, and it also handles vine-ripened and greenhouse tomatoes. In addition to tomatoes, it handles potatoes, onions, citrus, lettuce, peppers, squash, eggplant and more.

Denise Goodman is the vice president of M&R Tomato Distributors. She partners with her brother, Michael Tambor, in overseeing the company’s operations.

Matthew D’Arrigo, vice president of D’Arrigo Bros. Co. of New York Inc., located at the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Market, told The Produce News that the company calls itself a full line house of fresh fruits and vegetables, which makes it difficult to find new things to add to its already extensive list of products.

“We like to stick with items that we know and do best with,” said Mr. D’Arrigo. “We’re not interested in specialty or high maintenance items.”

“We have always handled potatoes and onions,” Stefanie Katzman, the fourth generation family member to work for S. Katzman Produce Inc. told The Produce News. “But we have expanded our vendor base and we now have a staff member who is solely dedicated to overseeing purchasing and management of the program. That category really took off when we developed our own ‘Bloom Fresh’ label that we use along with the ‘Grown in Idaho’ potato stamp.”

John Chapman (Sept. 26, 1774 – March 11, 1845), an American legend known widely as Johnny Appleseed because of his work as a pioneer nurseryman, introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and counties in present day West Virginia. He is sighted as having been kind, generous and strong in conservation leadership.

While “Mr. Appleseed” apparently never got his apple seeds in the ground in New York, there is someone at the apple helm there today — Jim Allen — who sounds a lot like him.

Emil Serafino, vice president of the Exp Group LLC, in North Bergen, NJ, told The Produce News that the company is a leading grower, shipper and supplier of tropical products to New York and surrounding areas. The company’s line is very strong on processed bananas.

“Bananas and plantains are our biggest items,” said Mr. Serafino. “We have numerous ripening rooms and we continue to add new rooms over time.”

The Exp Group uses numerous labels on its wide variety of tropical fruits and vegetables.