Excerpt from FloridaTrend.com
By Amy Keller

Toby Basore steers his truck into Belle Glade’s rich, black muck, hops out and plucks a head of iceberg lettuce from the field, slicing it open with his pocketknife. This one’s not ready yet, he says — the leaves aren’t densely packed enough in the center.

After a few more days under south Florida’s winter sun, the heads will firm up. Then, within 24 hours, the crisp leafy vegetables will be picked, washed, cooled, heat-sealed in a bag injected with nitrogen and loaded onto a truck bound for New Jersey. There the lettuce will be repacked, processed and shipped to a fast-food restaurant like Burger King to garnish Whoppers.

TKM-Bengard Farms
Location: Belle Glade
Cultivated area: 5,500 acres
Principals: Tom Basore and sons Brian, Toby, Kevin, Michael and Stephen
Annual sales: $20 million

Lettuce Facts
• Lettuce has been grown in the U.S. since Colonial times.
• It’s the nation’s leading vegetable crop, valued at $2 billion.
• Americans consume 34.5 pounds per capita.
• Lettuce acreage, up 20% in past five years, exceeds 325,000.
• California (73%) and Arizona (26%) grow the most.
Source: Agricultural Marketing Research Center, University of California

Read the Rest: http://www.floridatrend.com/print/article/11149