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It’s almost Halloween, which in my house means last-minute costume preparations and grocery store runs for lots and lots of candy. At the office, it also means it’s time for a Halloween fruit tray. Fruit isn’t usually top of the Halloween shopping list (other than pumpkins), but this is actually a great time to celebrate fruits that, to many of
At first, I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at. It’s 2010, and I’m in Lodi, California, standing on a dirt path. A wire trellis runs along the path with a plant climbing about halfway up. The plant has green, almond-shaped leaves, and small, bulbous red orbs hang off its thin branches. I walk closer, and it hits me: These
As the sun rose this morning, it brought joy and celebration because it’s a very special day: NATIONAL FRUIT AT WORK DAY! (Or NF@WD for short.) There are, according to Google, over 1,500 days on the National Day Calendar. This week includes not only NF@WD but also Fluffernutter Day and Moldy Cheese Day, so why not celebrate fruit at work?
“I came in second place!” My almost six-year-old son yells from the back seat of our Prius. We’re on Bluetooth with my sister, who’s asking how his race went during soccer practice this morning. “I’m so glad you enjoy running; you really like exercising,” my sister replies. She has three kids of her own, so she’s practicing that parent thing
“How do I know if my grapes are fresh?” I get variations on this question a lot when I’m talking with people about fruit. It’s understandable, because it can be hard to tell from the outside if a piece of fruit is ripe and ready, whether it’s a grape or an apple. Our team at The FruitGuys can taste-test things
You might have noticed that there aren’t as many super-sweet Fuji apples as usual in our office fruit mixes right now. If you’ve been scratching your head and thinking, “But it’s apple season!” you’re totally right. But Fujis are still in short supply because we’re experiencing what we in the fruit world call a “seasonal gap.” Why the Fujis Disappeared
I’m packing for a work trip to Chicago and scanning my weather app to check the temperature. As I peruse the list of cities on my app stretching from the East Coast to the West, I notice that the temperature is in the 80s almost everywhere. It’s even that hot in San Francisco, where we reach 80 only a few
It’s 2025, and Stan Devoto is walking me and two of The FruitGuys’ fruit buyers through his orchard. “And over here are the new Gravenstein apple trees,” he says. He shows us a row of young trees about four feet high. They’re baby Gravensteins! He planted them with the extra money we’ve given him over the years from our Gravenstein Apple
It turns out that building employee confidence has a lot in common with sending a kid to kindergarten. Let me set the scene: My wife and I are standing in the school yard with our five-year-old son on his first day of school. “Can I have a hug?” I ask. He pauses. “No,” he says. “Fist bumps?” He smiles and
Summer Magic rests quietly in the shade of his plumcot tree. For over 100 days, he has clung to that tree, sustaining rain, wind, dazzling sun, and storms, and he’s tired. Suddenly, the birds above him go quiet, and he hears voices rolling into the orchard. “We have to find them before it’s too late!” a sweet voice calls. “Don’t
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
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