Filtered by: Local Spotlight

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Buying Local: From Trend to Battle Cry

“Buying local” is a mantra that’s moving from a trend to a battle cry. As consumers dine out more often, they’re cooking less and using their voting dollars at restaurants. The force of these food preferences is beginning a trend—gastroadvocacy. These sustainably-conscious patrons are filling seats. According to consumer insight firm, Nielsen Global,  75% of...

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Why Local Farmers Need You

When you look at a restaurant menu, one word jumps off the page repeatedly— local. The local movement is supported by every generation from Baby Boomers to Generation Z. Regardless of the size of your company, local is important to consumers and they want to see it on your menu. Nothing Beats the Taste of...

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2019 Culinary Trends: What Our Experts are Talking About

Our experts are pretty passionate about produce. Here’s what they have to say on a few 2019 Culinary Trends they are reading about, eating, and seeing in the industry. Targeting Specific Diets Lisa Pettineo, Digital Marketing Manager The healthy eating trend has been around for years. Like Dan says below, the momentum of whole food,...

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Kalli tours Monterey Mushrooms: can you pick 40 mushrooms a minute?

While in sunny California this past week for the Produce Marketing Association Showcase, we had the pleasure of visiting Monterey Mushrooms for a tour. The Watsonville, CA farm is one of ten for the company, and is the largest mushroom farm in the United States. Monterey Mushrooms is a huge operation, currently have captured almost...

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People, passion, produce, peas: shoots and tendrils

Continuing our blog about English peas, Marvin and I had a nice chat about another avenue of spring peas: shoots and tendrils. Marvin Wilhite of Cahaba Clubs in Odessa, Florida in the Tampa Bay area is a long standing business partner of Sysco | FreshPoints across the country, but here in Florida, we are fortunate...

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Florida-blueberries

Florida blueberries and more anthocyanin

Blueberries have not always been a traditional Florida crop. It was the University of Florida who developed the cultivars, building research on some early experimental work done in the 1990s.  Generally speaking, there is a blurry line of demarcation in the center of the state somewhere between Lake City and Ocala.  North of this line,...

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FreshPoint Oklahoma

FreshPoint Oklahoma Opens Its Doors to Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The FreshPoint Oklahoma team recently hosted Jim Reese, the Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture, and several Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture Department members to establish an open dialogue and explore the possibility of establishing a working relationship with the producers of local products. Representation from other departments included: Communications, Market Development, Agritourism, Farmers...

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The remarkable story of KAOAE Farm Bananas

Farmer Andy Sheaffer lost a lot of trees and banana plants during California’s historic Thomas Fire, but the family’s house was not harmed and his family and farm team are all safe, so he’s feeling grateful. But now comes the rain; it’s too much for recently burned terrain to absorb. Road closures are everywhere around...

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Apprentice Diary: Final Entry—Focusing on Waste Trends

When we talk about sustainability, we don’t just mean the environment—our employees are our greatest asset, and the foundation to our great success.

We work with internships, local schools and colleges for placement, and various in-house leadership programs throughout the year, developing people with a passion for produce. In this final entry of her diary series, Maria Elisa Vollmer shared her experience as an apprentice with FreshPoint Raleigh.

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Maria Elisa Vollmer

Apprentice Diary: Entry One—Integrating a Passion for Sustainability

When we talk about sustainability, we don’t just mean the environment—our employees are our greatest asset and the foundation to our great success. We work with internships, local schools and colleges for placement, and various in-house leadership programs throughout the year, developing people with a passion for produce. In this diary series, Maria Elisa Vollmer...

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The Best Tasting, Sweetest Corn We’ve Found

The corn grown in the Brentwood area of California’s Sacramento River Delta is the best tasting, sweetest corn we’ve found. Known as Brentwood corn, this product has the well-deserved reputation across the country as the benchmark against which all other corn is measured. However, all Brentwood corn is not created equal! Over the past eight...

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Phil talks to us about the perfect piece of stone fruit, Georgia peaches.

Can this be the Perfect Piece of Stone Fruit?

  Today we’re going to talk about Georgia peaches. These peaches are from Pearson Farm in Fort Valley, Georgia. In my opinion, they’re the perfect piece of stone fruit. They have a very thin skin, the mixture of acidity and sweetness is almost perfect—not too sweet, not overly mushy, not too acidic, not too hard… this...

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Taking Melon Growing Seriously…

 

 

At Hirakata Farms in Rocky Ford, Colorado, Michael Hirakata takes melon growing seriously. He, and his team, have completely bought into the idea of growing and selling the world’s best cantaloupes in the safest manner possible.

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