The People Behind the Produce

Pete Lombardo, to borrow a phrase from James Brown, is on the team of the hardest working men (and women!) in the produce industry! He's on our night crew and helps put together customer orders and gets them ready for our drivers to deliver. He sets the orders for the north Scottsdale and west Phoenix deliveries. Pete is originally from Hurley, Wisconsin. He's married with 3 children and 3 grandchildren. Pete splits his time between Payson, where he lives, and Phoenix where he helps take care of his mother. If that's not enough to keep him busy, he also has a garden with cucumbers, tomatoes and corn that he tends to in Payson.

What is your favorite part of the job? I really enjoy making sure that the orders are put together correctly and that we have the best quality of product. Each customer has different things that they like and I want to make sure they all get what they're looking for. I've learned a lot about specialty produce here too. One day, we had some rambutans in the warehouse. They were the oddest fruit I had ever seen, so I took a picture of them to show my wife and son. When I went home that night and showed them the picture, we talked about where they were from and how they are prepared. The next week, my son went to school and his teacher brought a picture of a rambutan she had just gotten. She asked the class if anyone knew what it was and my son was the only one who knew! He asks me all the time now to take pictures of the specialty products we have here.

What is your favorite movie? I'm a big Sci-Fi fan so I'd say my favorite movie is Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The special effects are amazing.

What is your favorite music/band? Country Western and the oldies are my favorite types of music. I go to the casino and have had the chance to see the tribute band for the Four Tops and really enjoyed that show.

TV Show? Star Trek: The Next Generation, of course!

Food? A good steak, medium rare, can't be beat! Of course working here, I also like fruit too. Cantaloupe and honeydew are probably my favorites.

What was your first job? I worked at a restaurant as a dishwasher and salad maker at the old Joe Hunt's in the Scottsdale Fashion Square before they tore it down.

If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? My father passed away a few years ago, so I'd like to have dinner with him again.

What do you do in your leisure time? I like to work with wood and make cabinets. My friend works at one of the casinos and we bought a poker table. We took it apart and studied it and now we make poker tables to sell.

What is your favorite quote or piece of advice you'd like to share? Do a good job and give positive feedback. People respond so much better when they have someone telling them when the do the right thing.

Well Pete, we think you do a great job and our customers appreciate the care and attention you give them on all of their orders! Thanks for making our start of the day the best it can be.

Fresh Produce Audit Verification Program

Food safety is important to everyone. Our team has made the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) a priority to make sure we're leading the way to conform to the best practices.

Recently, we invited AMS, in partnership with state departments of agriculture, to come in and audit our facilities. This audit verifies the adherence to the recommendations made in the Food and Drug Administration’s Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.

We are very excited that out of a possible 420 points, we received 415 - a 98.9%! Way to go team!

Would you like a tour to see what HACCP is all about and why it's important to you, our customer? Give us a call and we'd love to show you around the warehouse! Just give us a call or ask your sales executive. Or, if you'd like some more information about HACCP and our program, call John Mothershead, HACCP Manager.

Hajimemashite Yoroshiku!

When you find something that is good, you pass it along. We are excited to offer items from Nihon Shokken.

Check out these products from our new partner, Nihon Shokken, to spice up your dishes or create a new twist for your menu:

'Super Crispy Batter' - Stays crunchy for up to 2 hours! Try this batter on fish & chips, braised cubed short ribs tempura, shrimp and lobster tacos. Substitute water with Modelo Negro beer or a stout ale for a deeper color.

Japanese Dressing - Wasabi and Yuzu flavored dressings that can be used on its own or as a base ingredient. Try it on salads or as a sauce for seafood and steaks.

Kabayaki Sauce - This eel sauce is used for food decoration to create a beautiful shine thick and viscous enough to be easily used for food decoration. It includes soy sauce, syrup, eel extract, and mirin. For best results, heat eel sauce in a metal or glass container placed in 3/4 inch boiling water on the stove

Yakiniku Sauce - This is a Japanese barbeque sauce with a blend of garlic, fruits and spices in a soy sauce base. Use this for meat sauces, rice and your favorite vegetable stir fry recipes.

Black Pepper Sauce - A spicy sauce made of a good balance of pepper and garlic and a soy sauce base. Use as a gravy for your favorite steaks or as a base sauce for stir-frying.

Seaweed Mix - This mix contains 6 kinds of seaweed of assorted colors. Dish up rehydrated dried seaweed mix with shrimp and salmon and finish with Japanese dressing. Use it as a colorful garnish.

Let us know what you think or call us with any questions.

Thanks!

Peddler's Son Produce Hits the Christmas City!

Howdy partners! That's right! Peddler's Son Produce is excited to start serving Prescott.

Our newest member to the Peddler's Son Produce team, Christian Minkler, resides in Prescott and will be working in the area. You'll soon be seeing our delivery trucks on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Check back soon with our blog to learn more about Christian.

We'd love to meet you too! We've found some friends on Facebook and Twitter, but let us know if we've missed you. Follow us on Twitter at @PeddlersSon and Facebook at Facebook.com/PeddlersSonProduce and introduce yourself.

It looks like we have a lot to learn and see in Prescott, from the Rodeo, Cowboy Poets Gathering and Prescott Film Festival. What else do we need to experience in the Mile High City? What are your favorite events?

We're looking forward to serving the Prescott area and hope to see you soon!

The People Behind the Produce

Customers in the southeast valley, Chandler and Queen Creek, are some of the lucky folks that get to enjoy Robert's smile each day. Robert met his wife in 9th grade in their hometown of Washington DC and have been married over 18 years. They have 5 children, four girls and one boy. Their oldest daughter will graduate in May and will be attending Arizona State University.

What is your favorite part of the job? I like talking to our customers and making sure they're happy. I respect our customers and feel good communication is important to make sure they're getting what they need from us.

What is your favorite movie? I love The Color Purple and think that Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah did a great job in that movie. It's amazing to see the cultural progress that has taken place since that time.

What is your favorite music/band? I have an old spirit and love the old music. My mom used to have parties and I remember listening to the OJay's a lot. That would probably be my favorite band.

TV Show? I love the soaps! My wife and I record them and watch One Life to Live together.

Food? Chicken and steak are my favorite foods.

What was your first job? When I lived in Washington DC, I worked in construction. I didn't like it much and quit.

If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? It's been 10 years since my mother passed away so I would want to have dinner with her.

What is your favorite quote or piece of advice you'd like to share? Never give up, but keep going and never take life for granted. Things do get tough sometimes and it takes a while for you to work through them.

What do you do in your leisure time? I love cooking, cleaning and taking care of my family. It's been fun working here at Peddler's Son Produce to see all of the different produce and spices. There's a lot of things I have never heard of before so I look them up and learn about them. For example, I wasn't aware of all of the different flavors of basil. We cook with flavored basil now a lot.

Well Robert, we're glad you found us here at Peddler's Son. Now, we need to talk to you about cooking up some food for the pot luck.....

Frost Destroys Produce

Some of the worst winter weather damages some of the growing areas. Joe and Robert show the affects of the weather on some of the produce and what to expect.

Frost Destroys Produce, posted with vodpod

Growing areas in Mexico hit hard by two nights of freezing temperatures

Lettuce growers in the Yuma, Ariz., area have suffered a freeze that turned out to be several degrees cooler than some forecasts predicted.
The Yuma deal had already seen threatening weather, beginning with a New Years Day weekend freeze. Peeling and an airborne sclerotinia fungus dropped some growers’ yields by 10% to 20%. While the extent of the new damage is unclear, the supply shortage is likely to continue if not worsen!
We predict at least another six weeks of problems.
We’re in for a wild ride. It’s going to be difficult to get top grade. A lot will have be going into secondary labels. The industry will have to be careful about quality control as crop moves around the country. You can’t have these temperatures without showing heavy blistering and freeze burns and potentially a decay-and-rot situation in transit.
Freezing temperatures across a wide area of Mexico have a huge effect on supplies of tomatoes, peppers and other winter vegetables.
The freeze reached fields as far south as southern Sinaloa. Crops in the border state of Sonora could be devastated.
It’s still too early to tell, but there’s a lot of damage.
All of the growing regions suffered freezing temperatures. The full line of vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash, was likely affected.
What made this one even worse, is that forecasts were 5 to 10 degrees higher than what temperatures wound up being. Many growers took precautions, but they did not harvest early because they did not expect it to get so cold.
As a result, the damage in some areas will likely be nothing short of devastating.
We’re pretty sure that everything in Sonora is frozen and gone.
Squash and melons are two of the commodities that will be most affected by the Sonora freeze. Tomatoes and peppers won’t ship from the region until March or April.