Holiday Baskets

Sometimes things in the produce business amaze even the ripened professional. The growing demand for our Holiday Baskets has been a very pleasant surprise.

Between Thanksgiving and New Years the Duke, Duchess, Princess, Queen, King, and Sleigh rule the warehouse as they are delicately created and sent forth to brighten the holidays in grocery chains for retail sales, and to food service customers for their clients. And with every basket our customers get a guarantee of the top quality product with the longest possible shelf life.

"We look through a lot of produce to find fruits that meets our very strict criteria for the baskets," says Purchasing Manager Tony Machi. "The product must be blemish free and have the cosmetic appearance of a perfect fruit."

To get that high level of quality Machi says Consumers Produce calls on only the best. "We use the top of the line Sunkist Oranges, we use the Rainier Apples, the Washington Extra Fancy Apples, the top premium grade of all the produce lines. We use Smokehouse Almonds, Planters Nuts and Andes Candies. Everything is done in the very best that is available."

A seasonal staff that cares lovingly puts the baskets together. "Each year we have people calling us who worked on the baskets last year and wanting to know if they could come help again." And among the familiar faces there are also a few new smiles. Each year the Holiday Basket family grows a bit to meet the demand with a virtual around the clock operation.

The produce version of Santa's assembly line gets cranked up just after Thanksgiving so get your orders in early to Consumers Produce at 412-281-0722. The elves are waiting for your call.

Holiday Gift Boxes

In our health conscience society there is an every growing demand for fresh fruit gifts and Consumers Produce is ready to fill the order.

Gift boxes are an attractive holiday gift for the person who has everything. Carefully handselected fruit is packed into specially designed gift boxes for shipping, or hand delivering. And when the gift recipient opens the box the beauty of the fruit will make their mouth water.

Whether it's 20 juicy Red Delicious Apples, the finest pears of the season, of oranges so sweet they make candy makers jealous, The Freshness Professionals can pack the perfect holiday gift.

Holiday Gift Boxes are available from Nov. to Jan.

Wine Grapes

Late each summer, as the temperatures start to cool just a bit the action around Consumers Produce heats up as wine makers descend on our Strip District home.

The home wine tradition has bridged generations and those wishing to give this fine art a try are growing in numbers.

Not only are more people making wine, they are doing it in bigger quantities and The Freshness Professionals make a little extra room each fall to handle the demand.

Ron Casertano, who is "Mr. Wine Grapes" at Consumers Produce, says not only have a lot of new customers come to the strip in search of the perfect grape, the number of phone calls seems to increase each year. "People with a million questions of how to make wine. We try our best to answer their questions and steer them in the right direction."

Inevitably someone will ask if you really have to crush the grapes with your feet. Certainly if you want to do it that way you can give it a try, but we also offer crushers to help do the messy work. ."

Whether by foot, or crusher, the wine must have the freshest grapes. It doesn't take long for juices and grapes to naturally start the fermentation process so getting them fresh is critical to successful wine making. At Consumers Produce we pride ourselves on providing only the freshest and best quality grapes.

From the most traditional to the newest trends The Freshness Professionals offer the most popular common grape varieties to satisfy even the more demanding home wine-maker.

• Alicante
• Petite Sirah
• Cabernet Franc
• Pinot Noir
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Reisling
• Chardonnay
• Ruby Cabernet
• Gamay Beaujolais
• Sangenovese
• Grenache
• White Zinfandel
• Merlot
• Zinfandel
• Muscat

We feature the six-gallon, 100% pure, juice buckets that have become increasingly popular for home winemaking. The buckets are available in most varieties.

For your processing needs, Consumers can supply you with most anything you need to make that fine quality wine. Wooden barrels and glass carboys are some of the items you will find we have on hand.

Because of the ever-increasing interest and demand in winemaking remember to contact us early in September for pricing and availability.

Harvest Time

No sooner is the wine bottled and aging, then its time to roll in the fall harvest decorations.

Whether it is Pumpkins big or small, Indian Corn, or Corn Stalks, our warehouse has everything you'll find on the farm but the hay ride. However we will get you the hay if you need it.

Our Harvest Time stock starts rolling in around late September.

Please direct questions or send e-mail to sales@consumersproduce.com