Salvatore Ferrara came to America from Nola, Italy in 1900 and founded Ferrara Pan Candy Company in 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of his immigration from Italy, Mr. Ferrara was skilled in the art of making Italian pastries and sugar coated candy almonds. Sugar coated candy almonds, otherwise known as "confetti", continues to be a tradition at Italian weddings. Salvatore Ferrara had become proficient in the English language. Since he was fluent in both English and Italian the Santa Fe Railroad hired him as an interpreter between crews and their foreman. He worked at the Santa Fe Railroad for four years. In 1908 he came to Chicago and opened a retail pastry and confection shop. From 1908 to 1919 the sugar coated almond business experienced substantial growth and Mr. Ferrara was shipping to an extensive market in the Midwest.

Despite its bucolic trademark of a barefoot country girl leading a milk cow, ice cream maker Blue Bell Creameries means big business. It offers some 50 different ice cream flavors. And although Blue Bell is still considered a regional brand (with distribution in fewer than 20 US states), it is one of the US's most popular ice cream brands. In addition to ice cream, the company sells yogurt, frozen treats (ice cream sandwiches, fruit pops), sherbet, and low-fat and sugar-free ice creams. Blue Bell continues to expand from its strong regional base in Texas and surrounding areas, but no giant-corporation tactics for this company -- it retains total control over production and distribution of its products.

Origin Agritech Limited (NASDAQ:SEED), a leading agricultural biotechnology company and a top player in seed industry, specializes in research and development, production, sale and distribution of agricultural crop seeds. The Company's major seed products are corn, rice, cotton and canola. Origin is headquartered in Beijing and conducts its business operations mainly through Beijing Origin Seed Technology Inc., Changchun Origin Seed Technology Development Ltd., Henan Origin Cotton Technology development Ltd., Zhengcheng Rice Seed Ltd., Changrong seed Ltd., and Beijing Origin State harvest Biotechnology Ltd..

Mooney Farms is owned and operated by the founding Mooney family. Mooney Farms company plants, grows, and harvests tomatoes and then uses them to make Mediterranean food items, including sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. Mooney company's products include jarred tomato halves, julienne-cut tomatoes, herbed olive oil, risotto, marinades, and dried-tomato sauces under the Bella Sun Luci, Summer's Choice, Basque Norte, and Carne Asada labels. Its customers include retail, private-label, foodservice, industrial, gourmet food, and food manufacturing companies.

As far as volume is concerned, the Garden of Eden had nothing on Dovex Fruit Company. The company processes, packages, and ships some 6 million cartons of conventional and organic apples, pears, cherries and other stone fruits every year. Most of the company's fruit comes from sister company Dovex Orchards (3,900 acres, 30% of which is certified organic); it also purchases fruit from other Washington State growers. Additional company operations include Dovex Marketing and Dovex Export. The company was established in 1982 by the DeNadai family and is part of the Dovex group of companies, or Dovex Corp.

Eberly Poultry knows a fair amount about fowl. The Pennsylvania company processes and markets certified organic, free-range, naturally raised chicken, turkey, and Cornish game hen. The birds are raised on area Amish, Mennonite and other family-owned farms. Eberly processes and sells them under the Eberly, Guinta's, Koch's, and John F. Martin brands to mainly eastern US food wholesalers and retailers. The company also offers specialty poultry, including duck, pheasant, and quail. Eberly owns and operates an outlet store adjacent to its Stevens, Pennsylvania, headquarters. The founding Eberly family has been in the poultry business since the 1940s.

The Schwan Food Company was founded in 1952. The Schwan Food Company, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets frozen foods through home delivery, retail grocery, online, and food-service channels. It offers frozen pizzas, egg rolls, and desserts. The Schwan Food company also markets and distributes frozen-food products and meal solutions to schools, hospitals, chain restaurants, convenience stores, and other institutional channels in the United States.

Zetar decided in 2005 that chocolate sounded like a good place to start ... and the company hasn't stopped licking its fingers since. Zetar Plc was founded in 2004 and acquired UK confectionery company Kinnerton Group in 2005. Zetar went public that year, as well, and established two divisions: confectionery and snack foods. Zetar's second, third, and fourth acquisitions came in 2006 when it snapped up dried fruit and nut supplier Readifoods, dried fruit importer Humdinger, and US-based Salamanda, manufacturer of chocolate- and yogurt-coated nuts. Continuing its journey down the buy-up path, the next year it acquired bakery group, Britannia, and Lir Chocolates.

At Kayem, they make 'em -- one of the top-selling hot dogs in New England. Kayem Foods rolls out some one million dogs daily. In addition to hot dogs, the company makes traditional Italian sausages, deli meats, spiral hams, and fresh gourmet chicken sausage under such well known brands as Al Fresco, Bratwrship, Genoa, Kayem, McKenzie, Meisterchef, Schonland's, and Triple M. Kayem's meats are available throughout the US. The company's US retail food customers include Hannaford, Price Chopper, Kroger, and Town & Country. U.S. Foodservice and SYSCO are among its foodservice accounts.

Instant noodles for an instant world. That's how New Dragon Asia Corp. sees it. Formerly a grain and oil processor, the company now provides instant noodles (Long Feng brand) to the growing market of the on-the-go Chinese middle-classes. Although the company produces more than a billion packages of instant noodles each year, the product line accounts for only about one-fourth of New Dragon's sales. The bulk of its sales (55%) comes from wheat flour, with the rest coming from soybean powders. New Dragon Asia operates eight manufacturing plants, which together have the capacity to produce some 110,000 tons of wheat flour, approximately 1.1 billion packets of instant noodles, and 4,500 tons of soybean powder.

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