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I cradle the heavy brown paper bag my wife just handed me and peer into the open top. Inside are four of the largest (and possibly worst-looking) mangoes I’ve ever seen. We’re on the Big Island of Hawaii and friends of mine who’ve lived there for years are sharing mangoes with us. They know a family with a mango farm that’s overproducing,
You probably think of fall as apple season, right? It’s the time when we sip on steaming cider, wrap ourselves in scarves, and bake delicious pies for Thanksgiving. But the truth is that apple season starts way before you’d probably expect it: In August! Even though I work at a fruit company, summer apples still sneak up on me every
I’m on a family vacation when I get the news, and my stomach sinks: John Kolling of Appleseed Farms, one of our farm partners, doesn’t have any Gravenstein apples to sell us this year. “John said they went to pick our order, but weren’t able to get much, and a lot of the apples they were getting were tiny,” Miguel, one
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!” my friend Robin yells, and immediately launches into the TV show’s opening theme song. Her nine-year-old son, who just read the trivia question that triggered this outburst, looks confused and a little annoyed. “You didn’t even let me finish the question!” he exclaims. We’re sitting in beach chairs on a grassy lawn by the lake
It’s Gravenstein apple time! The FruitGuys has celebrated the Sebastopol Gravenstein in our fruit deliveries every year since 2006. During the harvest each August, we source Gravensteins from local farms in Sebastopol and pack them into our limited-time Annual Gravenstein Apple Boxes. We get a lot of questions about our organic Gravensteins, so I thought I’d answer some of them
When I was growing up, my mom used to read me a wonderful children’s book by Leo Lionni called Frederick. The story follows a group of field mice as they prepare for winter. All of the mice are scurrying around gathering food and readying their winter shelter—except for Frederick. He says he’s gathering colors and words. Once winter starts, the
If you’re a little freaked out by the stomach bug news that’s been going around, I don’t blame you. When I first heard about Cyclospora—a parasite that’s making people sick in 34 states—my first response was “ick!” and a sudden urge to double-wash my hands. But then, the part of my brain that works with food safety took over. I
When I close my eyes, I can almost taste it: that first bite of a fresh-picked Gravenstein apple. The thin red-and-green-striped skin crunches under my teeth, and sweet-tart flavor floods my tongue. It’s a taste that only comes around for a few weeks each year—and it’s almost here again. 20 Years of Gravenstein Apples If you’ve never heard of them,
We’re just a week away from the start of July, which means farmers across the country are harvesting local stone fruit. If it’s not quite ready yet, it will be soon—so it’s a great time to play Stone Fruit Bingo! Click the image below to download your free bingo card. Your Free Stone Fruit Bingo Card There are so many
“Is anyone seeing more banana scarring than usual this week?” our California operations manager, Nicole, asks me and The FruitGuys’ fruit buyers. “We’re seeing a lot in California right now.” Everyone shakes their heads. We’re in a weekly meeting where we get together to talk about fruit, including which varieties we’ll have in our mixes region to region, what the
I’m sitting at a small desk in a classroom at Valley Forge Middle School in Wayne, Pennsylvania, watching as the clock ticks toward 3:30 p.m. Every tick brings me closer to the end of the school year and the beginning of summer. I’m practically vibrating with the excitement of being free from classes and homework for a few months. Who
Last time you sat down to eat at a local restaurant, did it have a list of the farms it sources from on its menu? This is pretty commonplace now, but it wasn’t always so. Activists spent decades working to get local produce into the spotlight. And possibly the biggest contributor of all was Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow
I’m standing near the sidelines of the soccer field, trying not to pace. My eldest son, age 9, grimaces in the goal as the ball flies past him and the other team scores—again. Our team is getting cooked, as the kids say. I’ve lost track of how many shots have made it over and around my goalie son, but it’s
It’s Sunday morning, and I’m sitting on the hard cement steps that serve as bleachers for my nine-year-old son’s baseball game. As I pull my coat over my sweatshirt to protect myself from the windy, gray San Francisco weather, a dad on our baseball team turns and holds out a Tupperware container. “Want a cherry?” he asks. He’s offering lovely,
It’s 2016, and I’m sitting in the conference room at The FruitGuys’ office in South San Francisco, California. Chris, our CEO at the time, leans forward and asks, “So, we want to move forward with B Corp?” I don’t have to think about my answer, and neither does Erik, our president. We both respond with a resounding, “Yes!” Becoming a
Spring is a funny season in the fruit world. To me, it feels like the appetizer (or, if we’re being fancy, the amuse-bouche) before a lovely meal. It’s delicious and whets our appetite, but it’s not the main course—that’s summer fruit! Still, I love the warm weather and seeing the flowers and trees bloom. And our farm partners are picking
Last week, I shared a few ideas for greening up your office space for Earth Month. Today, I’m digging deeper into one of those: adding office plants! It turns out indoor plants (and even just photos of plants) can help boost your team’s health. Studies show they may be able to do some amazing things, like lower blood pressure, increase focus, and
I’m visiting a client in Nashville, Tennessee, and my contact is leading me through a maze of hallways in their office building. We turn one last corner and come face-to-face with a door set into a glass wall. Beyond it, I see green plants and blue sky: It’s a rooftop garden! The lovely space is full of bushes, trees, and
Walking through the grocery store or hunting through food delivery options online can feel a bit like swimming in alphabet soup. There’s so much terminology floating around in ads and messages, especially when it comes to buying things like fresh fruit: green, eco-friendly, sustainable, organic, and regenerative, just to name a few! Here at The FruitGuys, customers often ask us
I’m washing dishes in the kitchen when I hear an odd sound from the bathroom: Screeeeeech. The noise pauses, then—BANG! Something heavy hits the floor. I freeze, but I don’t hear any tears or wailing. So I dry my hands and walk calmly across our apartment to the bathroom. When I peek inside, I see our five-year-old son climbing down
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