Gaylord boxes in Cumberland County, New Jersey

Cumberland is New Jersey's southernmost valley county and its most agricultural. Vineland and Bridgeton anchor the center; Millville has a glassmaking past that continues in glass and plastics plants. Fields of vegetables, melons and squash spread between them, and a cooperative produce auction draws growers from six counties.

The auction is the heartbeat. Growers bring crops in bulk boxes and bins, buyers bid, and the produce leaves again in the buyers' trucks. All that bulk handling makes this the county with the most direct need for harvest-season gaylords, and the best chance to match a seller of Grade B boxes with a grower who will fill them.

The auction's sourced figures, its history and its calendar sit on the Vineland and Bridgeton page. At county scale, the point is that one cooperative sale draws growers from across southern New Jersey, so the whole county plans its box needs around it.

Our research adds produce packing, food processing and glass manufacturing to the county's fillers and emptiers of boxes. We name no grower and no processor.

This page covers 08360, 08361, 08362, 08302, 08332, 08345, 08349, 08311, 08318 and 08343. The industries to expect there, from our market research: vegetable and melon farming, produce auction and packing, glass manufacturing and food processing.

The auction runs April through Thanksgiving. Melons and squash peak mid-summer to fall; pumpkins finish the season. Winter is quiet.

• Buy. Growers and packers wanting harvest bins and octagonal gaylords in season.
• Sell. Packers and processors with clean, sound empties.
• Recycle. Damp or compost-stained board at the end of the season.

Order early: boxes for melons and pumpkins are wanted in the same weeks everywhere in the county.

• Auction. A sale in which growers consign crops and buyers bid, as at Vineland, where produce is sold by the lot.
• Commodity. A raw crop sold by type, such as watermelons or squash, rather than by brand.
• Cull. Produce rejected at sorting for size or flaw, sent to processing or compost.

• The crop, the weeks you need boxes and the quantity.
• The town and ZIP.
• Whether you need liners or lids.
• Whether you can pick up or need delivery.