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Friends of Farmers™ Local Produce Program

Foster-Caviness believes that a strong local growing community means a higher quality product to our various market partners. That was the idea behind our Friends of Farmers™ program - to establish relationships between our local produce Farmers and the finest Chefs in the area by providing our expertise in vendor screening, food safety, and logistics. The end result is a supply of fresh, seasonal produce that not only helps our customers deliver deliciously fresh food, but also helps our community at large grow into a more prosperous, agricultural region.

Local Produce Listing
In addition to its weekly Market Reports and periodic Inventory Alerts, Foster-Caviness also offers our market partners a Local Produce Listing. Each growing month or season, we provide a guide of locally grown produce that lists all available product and ordering specifics. The Listing also contains our local “Featured Farmer,” where our customers can get to know the farming community that is actually growing the produce they use in their establishments. To see the latest Local Produce Listing in PDF format, simply click on the PDF icon below.

If you would like to receive Local Produce Listings by email, please click here.

Local Availability List Week of May 13th, 2013

Local Availability List Week of May 20th, 2013

Featured Farmer - Deal Apple Orchards - Taylorsville, NC
Lindsay Deal’s father planted the first apple tree on his 100 acre farm back in 1939. This 3rd generation farm still thrives today, just outside of Taylorsville, North Carolina. Joined by his son, wife and daughter, the family helps Mr. Deal to manage the orchard, growing many varieties of Apples, Peaches, Nectarines, and Asian Pears. During the growing season of July through December, one can taste the high quality of their delicious fruit for themselves by visiting their road side market , or one can simply order Deal Apple Orchard’s Peaches, Nectarines, or Gala Apples from Foster-Caviness.

To find out how to order some of these delicious produce, call Foster-Caviness at 1-800-289-8344, or contact us by email here.

Pro*Act Provides Guidance to Ensure Safe Practices for Locally Grown Produce

Demand by foodservice operator for local produce is growing fast, but so are questions about how to ensure its safety. To that end, Pro*Act, America’s leading distributor of fresh produce to the foodservice industry, has published tow new guidance documents to increase understanding and use of proper food-safety standards and procedures in the burgeoning business.

To read more about this click on the PDF below.

Pro*Act Local Produce Safety Standards

The Produce Lady

The Produce Lady program teaches farmers and consumers the wonders of locally grown fruits and vegetables. The program shares information on how to select, store, prepare and preserve fresh produce and other farm products as tasty meals and snacks.

The Produce Lady program works with and supports numerous organizations and efforts that share our common goal of teaching the citizens of North Carolina about the availability of fresh, local foods and the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables.