Melon Acres, Inc. was founded by Abner Horrall and his late wife, Frieda, in 1976 and is presently owned and operated by his son, Mike, and his wife, Vicki, along with their three progenies. Melon Acres is, therefore, a family-owned agribusiness specializing in the growing and packing of produce from approximately 230 acres of Cantaloupes, 475 acres of watermelon, 110 acres of sweet corn, 50 acres of cucumbers, and 230 acres of asparagus.
Continuing this trend of innovations, in 2003, after a research process that took Mike and his daughter Whitney to Australia and New Zealand, Melon Acres installed the first computerized asparagus sorter and size in the eastern United States. This amazing piece of equipment takes 12 pictures per second, photographing each spear to determine its width, and then drops the spear down a chute containing other spears of the same width.
After the correct weight of asparagus spears has collected against a door at the bottom of the chute, the door opens to let the spears drop down for a worker to bundle and box. This apparatus ensures that each bundle is a uniform size for our customers while adding the benefit of a minimum of handling by Melon Acres employees. One more example of Melon Acres "going the extra mile" to provide the highest quality produce to its customers!
As always, Melon Acres' objective is to provide the customers with an attractive, high quality product.
