The FruitGuys has been named a 2022 Best for the World™ B Corp™ in recognition of its exceptional positive impact in the Community category. Best for the World is a distinction granted to Certified B …
Women Growing Change: The Class of 2022 FruitGuys Community Fund Grantees
A diverse group of women farmers dominate the 2022 class of grantees for The FruitGuys Community Fund, the nonprofit’s 10th year of providing grants to small farms and agricultural nonprofits that …
Featured Farm: Fruit World
Fruit World is famous for its extraordinary Sky Ranch Mandarins, a clementine grown on farmer Bianca Kaprielian’s grandfather’s ranch, which sits atop one of the area’s tallest foothills and is named …
Winter Citrus Guide
Winter is the peak of the citrus season. Officially beginning on the winter solstice (December 21), the bright shades of orange, red, pink, yellow and green of citrus add brightness and light to the …
Leitica Velazquez wins Caplan Scholarship
Leticia Velazquez, The FruitGuys Midwest Operations Manager, was one of four people chosen for the prestigious Frieda Rapoport Caplan Family Business Scholarship Program for 2021. The program …
Rebecca North Honored by EcoFarm
Rebecca North, The FruitGuys Senior Buyer and chief Fruit Detective, has been awarded the prestigious 2021 Golden Pliers Award from the Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm). According to …
Doing Good in the Worst Year: Our 2020 Impact Report
2020 was a terrible year and yet the generosity of our community allowed us to bring healthy food to nearly two million people: neighbors in need, frontline healthcare workers, and public school kids …
Bernard Ranches is in a Fight to Save its Business and its Citrus Trees
“I had a terrible dream one night,” says Vince Bernard, founder and farmer of Bernard Ranches, who has watched the COVID crisis cut into his sales so much that he may not be able to afford to water …
The Best Gravenstein Apple Pie Recipe
Each August, Sebastopol holds its annual Gravenstein Apple Fair to celebrate the county's treasured heirloom apple. The 2020 fair has been cancelled due to the Corona-19 crisis, however we can still …
Summer Fruit Guide 2020
Summer for many of us is tied to the memory of a perfect piece of fruit: the cherry eating contest with your sister you won that June; the first bite of the ripest peach you ever tasted in July; the …
Summer Peach Drink: Peaches and Wine
Summer is the perfect time for peaches and wine! Peaches are harvested across the U.S. from late May to early September, with local varieties having their own special windows of availability. No …
Easy Blueberry Chia Seed Pudding
Chia seed pudding topped with blueberries is a powerhouse breakfast packed with fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats. And it couldn't be easier to make overnight so it's ready to enjoy in the …
Easy Carrot Salad Snack
Trying to eat healthier snacks while remote working? Try this quick and easy carrot snack salad that will satisfy your munchie-crunchie-salty cravings with something healthy. Carrots get their color …
Lyme Disease Prevention
Tips to stay safe from ticks this summer Knowing how to protect yourself from ticks and the diseases they carry is more important than ever during the COVID-19 crisis. The urge to get out in …
Potato Frittata
Frittata are a delicious and versatile Italian baked egg dish that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Perfect for when you don’t know what to cook but have some eggs on hand. You can add …
How to Make Soffritto
Soffritto is the Italian version of the French Mirepoix and is the base for many soups, sauces, stews, and braises. Use this as a base for our Easy Lentil Soup or any braised meats. Soffritto …
Lemon-Lavender Soda Bread
What are you baking? I found this old The FruitGuys recipe for Lemon-Lavender Soda Bread and made it for Easter and it was delicious. No yeast needed. You can find lavender buds in …
Easy Lentil Soup
“Comfort food” gets its name for a good reason and I'm a big fan of making easy, comforting soups like this Lentil Soup, that can feed a crowd. Even if you are a crowd of one, it's handy to have the …
Practices to Prevent Coronavirus at Work
As concern over the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) grows, what steps can you and your workplace take to stay healthy? Health officials say the best thing businesses can do is promote good …
Reduce Office Plastic Waste with Fountain Pens
If you’re looking for a way to cut down on your single-use plastic items, why not swear off disposable pens and discover the old-school delights of the fountain pen; fountain pens feel better in the …
Eat the Endangered Gravenstein Apple
“Farming is a complex math problem,” sighs Dave Hale as he looks sadly at piles of wood chips that had been Gravenstein apple trees in the lot next to his thriving Sebastopol, CA, orchard. He tended …
How to Make Stone Fruit Jams & Butters
If you love summer stone fruit—peaches, apricots, nectarines, and plums—then you’ll love preserving some of it as jams and butters to eat when summer is long gone. Early summer is a perfect time to …
Cold-Water Swimming: Are You Ready to Take the Plunge?
Shivering on the beach in the lashing wind and rain, I cringe as the 52°F water of San Francisco Bay kisses my toes. Why do I do this? I ask myself, and on winter days like this. Why don’t I wear a …
RIP to the Remarkable Karen Morss
Karen Morss, aka the Lemon Lady, an author, pilot, and pioneering Silicon Valley–entrepreneur-turned-farmer, died in December 2018. Karen was a passionate producer of the most fabulous Meyer lemons …
Winter Stews for Lunch
The short, cold days of winter often have us craving warm, nourishing meals—the kind we refer to as “comfort food” for good reason. I’m a big fan of large-batch winter cooking: making soups, stews, …
Summer Tick Protection
Everything you need to stay safe from ticks Summer is prime time for hiking, camping, horseback riding, and exploring the beautiful outdoors. But even if you’re only in your backyard or walking …
Dip Your Toes into Outdoor Swimming
Swimming is a great source of relief from the summer heat and excellent exercise to boot. No matter what your fitness level—or even your mobility level—the gravity-free effects of water can allow you …
How to Can Perfect Pears
SANTA ROSA, CA—Marie Seppa knows her way around a canner. A spry 92-year-old with bright blue eyes, Marie has been canning since she was a child growing up on a farm in Eastern Oregon in the 1920s. …
Less Time to Chill
Cherries are finicky trees. They don’t like it when it gets too hot, when there’s not enough rain, and when it doesn’t stay cold enough during the winter. For the last few winters, California’s …
Flu Prevention Tips
We’re all a little on edge about communicable diseases these days. Even if there is no reason for the vast majority of us to fear Ebola, we could all do with a little remedial education on preventing …
Open Water
As I hopped off the dock and into the San Francisco Bay, I knew that swimming in the 56-degree water could trigger a rush of adrenaline and a primitive, almost unbearable fight-or-flight response. But …
California’s Bitter Drought
Image courtesy of NOAA California Governor Jerry Brown declared on January 17, 2014, what farmers and ranchers have known for some time -- the state is in a drought, possibly the worst one in …
Appreciation: Marcella Hazan, 1924-2013
My very dog-eared copy of The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan has the following inscription: “Many happy hours in the kitchen, with love, Mom, Christmas 1986.” I was 21 years old when my …
2012 GoodWorks
The FruitGuys has formed a new non-profit organization to promote sustainable agriculture practices for small farms, an evolution of the company’s Farm Steward Program, which has provided farmers with …
Nonni’s Biscotti
Classic Italian Cookies for the New Year By Pia Hinckle Biscotti are twice-baked biscuits, cookies but not too sweet, that originated in Tuscany, in the town of Prato, to be exact. My Italian …
Nonni’s Minestrone
Adapted by Pia Hinckle for The FruitGuys INGREDIENTS 2 bunches of kale (or other hearty greens) 8 small potatoes (or 5 big), scrubbed and cut into 1-inch cubes (peel if desired) 4 carrots, …
The Big Soup: Minestrone
By Pia Hinckle In Italy, there are as many ways to make minestrone (literally “big soup”) as there are ways to make pasta. Each region has a variation, and each town has a local twist inspired by …
Tomatopalooza
A Canning Primer By Pia Hinckle Harvest time always brings an embarrassment of riches to your table. What to do with 25 pounds of zucchini? Tomatoes finally came in last week? Can’t eat another …
Ode to a Grav Grower
Lee Walker has been farming with his family in their Graton, CA, apple orchard his whole life, except for a tour in the army and a few years playing pro baseball. Lee has kept growing Gravenstein …
The Obesity Era
The Weight of the Nation is a Must See By Pia Hinckle America today (circa 2012): one-third of our adult population is obese; another third is overweight. That’s 75 percent of our more than 311 …
Donate-A-Crate 2011 Fed Thousands
During the 2011 holiday season, generous FruitGuys' customers provided thousands of people fresh fruit at 22 community-based organizations across the country. "The produce donation went over …
FruitGuys Donations are Backbone of Some Food Pantries
In a year when more people continued to struggle with less, The FruitGuys GoodWorks program responded to the realities of the continuing hard economy by making micro-loans to farmers; increasing …
More than A Meal
Photos courtesy of St. Anthony's Dining Room SAN FRANCISCO — Andrew Hudson is holding a pear in his left hand and wearing a big smile. “I love fruit! Oranges, plums, nectarines. Fruit is good for …
Orange Soup Warms Heart
Butternut Squash is Comfort Food By Pia Hinckle When the weather turns damp and chilly, a heart-warming butternut squash soup is one of my favorites. This is one of those soups that will turn …
Thanksgiving Craft You can Eat: Apple Turkeys
Thanksgiving Crafts you Can Eat By Pia Hinckle Thanksgiving, when I was a kid, was always a massive affair. My mother would roast a monstrous turkey that barely fit in the oven; friends and family …
Steamboat Acres Historic Pear Farm
The Sacramento River Delta was at the center of the California Gold Rush. The northern California town that would be the future state’s capital was the gateway to the goldfields in the Sierra Nevada …
Sonoma County Grape Harvest is Family Tradition
The Crush By Pia Hinckle COTATI, CA -- My mother’s family has been making wine since before she was born. My great-grandfather Giocondo Benedetti, who we called “nonno,” brought winemaking from …
Coco Ranch
Coco Ranch in Davis, California is a labor of love for the House Family. Jennifer and Greg House met at the University of California Davis where they were both studying agriculture. Their certified …
Irene Hits Farms
By Pia Hinckle While damage varied from state to state and even within the same county, Tropical Storm Irene hit many farms from North Carolina to Vermont hard. Growers reported everything from …
Pino’s Pasta
By Pia Hinckle My Calabrian friend Pino made this dish during a visit to California in 1999. This is a traditional southern Italian pasta made with fresh tomatoes, olives, capers, and basil. Now I …
Big Apple Goes Green
High Line gets high marks By Pia Hinckle New York has become a leader in urban green renewal. On a visit in June, I found that most of Broadway is now a bicycle path, Times Square is a pedestrian …
Simple Steamed Broccoli
Mother always said to eat your broccoli, one of the most nutrient-packed veggies in the list of Food That is Good For You. But I have heard many sad stories about broccoli from both kids and grown-ups …
Jack LaLanne 1914-2011: Grandfather of the Wellness Movement
Obituary Jack LaLanne was a typical teenager. He ate fast food and candy, loved soda pop, had acne, and didn’t exercise much. But at age 15 his mother took him to hear a lecture by health food …
Fitter than a Fifth-Grader?
Long division? Check. With fractions? Check (ish). Book report? Check. Year of the Boston Tea Party? Check. Maybe you’re smarter than the average fifth grader, but can you pass a fifth-grade fitness …
Obama Signs Food Safety Act into Law: Small Farms Are Exempted from Some Provisions
On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the $1.4 billion Food Safety and Modernization Act, the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s food industry in 70 years. The law will give the …
Chicken in the Pot: Get Three Meals Out of One Bird
There’s nothing better than a great home-cooked meal. Except one that can turn into two or three home-cooked meals. My favorite three-for is roast chicken. For many years I bought wonderful roast …
New Food Safety Bill Passes Senate: Amendments Support Smallest Farms
The U.S. Senate passed the Food Safety and Modernization Act (S. 510) on November 30th, 2010, the most sweeping overhaul of food safety regulations of the century, spurred by food-borne illness …
The Season of Soup: French Country Soup is Family Favorite
I love soup. Fall and winter is the perfect time of year to enjoy healthy soups that can be made for one meal and then eaten again for lunch or frozen for later use. One of my favorites is what we …
Office Potatoes: Standing Can Burn Calories, Improve Health
Do you ever feel like your office chair has become an appendage rather than just a place to sit? What if you found out that appendage could put your health at risk? Recent studies have found that …
Pest Policy Questioned: Panelists say Quarantines Unfair to California Farmers
The Light Brown Apple Moth is an indigenous pest considered harmless to crops in New Zealand, Hawaii, Australia, and the UK, all countries that are free to export fruits and vegetables to U.S. markets …
Mothra Update
In March, California held senate hearings on the status of the state’s eradication program for the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). FruitGuys founder and CEO Chris Mittelstaedt testified in defense of …
Real Bodies
Here are some startling statistics: two out of five women and one out of five men would trade three to five years of their life to achieve their weight goals, according to the Eating Disorder …
