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My parents are originally from Louisiana, and when they came to visit this past weekend they shared a photograph they’d found among my grandparents’ belongings. The monochrome image captures a moment in time. In it, a pile of harvested sugarcane waits for processing at a mill; behind it stand a lean-to and a dozen Black and white men, women, and
Update (April 7, 2025): The tariff situation has continued to evolve since this blog was published. On April 2, the Trump administration announced a new wave of tariffs on multiple countries. Several of those countries export bananas, which are a key part of our service at The FruitGuys. As of this writing, we don’t plan to raise prices on our
My youngest son isn’t the biggest Orange fan, but that all changes if he can turn them into fresh-squeezed juice. “I want to make juice,” he declares, dragging his stool over to the counter and pulling the juicer toward him. He calls out the ingredients, asking us to lay them out on the cutting board so that he can feed
“Try this one, it’s the best,” micro farmer Byron Nkhoma says, bending down and plucking a few leaves from an arugula plant. He hands them out for our little group to taste. The leaves are peppery—just as I expected—but somehow creamier than other arugula I’ve tried. Byron says it’s because they come from an older plant. Continuing through his farm
I had a plan for what to write in this week’s Chief Banana blog—but the truth is, I haven’t been able to think about much other than the horrific, fast-moving wildfires in Los Angeles since they erupted overnight last week. As I write this, the fires are still mostly uncontained. Whether you have a personal connection to the LA area
I’m happy to report that our 2025 grant cycle is now open! Each year since 2012, The FruitGuys Community Fund (TFGCF) has had the joy and pleasure of issuing farming grants for small farms across the US. To date, we’ve awarded 143 grants across 38 US states and territories. TFGCF’s Farming Grants for Small Farms When our committee picks a new class
I have a confession to make. I’m not a big resolution person. It’s not that I don’t set goals—I just have a habit of “setting and forgetting” resolutions. So on New Year’s, I try to ask myself a question instead: What do I want for the year ahead? My 2025 ‘Wants’ for The FruitGuys As I look forward to 2025,
A few days ago, I was talking to my wife and kids about family holiday traditions when one of our sons piped up. “I think getting stopped by TSA is our holiday tradition,” he said. He actually had a point—we’re not world travelers, but on most holidays we visit family, and both sets of our parents live a plane ride
With just a few days left before the holidays, I’ve been thinking about DIY fruit gifts I can make. I’d like to give my friends and family a little something different this year. If you’re feeling the same way, here are a few of my favorite homemade fruit gift ideas. 1. Dried Orange Slices Jessica, The FruitGuys’ head of data
I’ve never been a fan of Black Friday. Getting up early to get in line and shop just doesn’t seem fun to me. I prefer my post-Thanksgiving breakfast pie, thank you very much. But Giving Tuesday—the first Tuesday of December—is a holiday I can get behind. Giving Tuesday is a day to donate money to the causes you believe in
“Did they leave their house yet? When will they be here? How far away are they?” These were my questions pretty much every Thanksgiving growing up. I asked them with my nose pressed to the front window waiting for my cousins (and aunt and uncle) to arrive. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday because we spend it with our
One moment I’m sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop, fingers hovering over the keys, itching to type up this week’s Chief Banana email. The next, my head snaps up, and I realize that my neck is sore from hanging forward for too long. I’ve just fallen asleep at my computer! As the head of a fruit company, that
“I want to do it myself!” my 4-year-old says, holding my extra-long ballot in his hands. He lines it up with the big machine and the rollers start pulling the paper in. Then, we wait five seconds to hear the satisfying “ding!” of a ballot counted. I love voting. Sometimes it’s daunting (exactly how many ballot measures do I have
If you read last week’s blog post, I’m sure you couldn’t WAIT to see how my Halloween costume turned out. Hopefully, it doesn’t disappoint. I’m proud to say that a group of teens recognized me as a One Piece character while I was out trick-or-treating with my kids (“OMG that’s Zoro!”), so that was a total win. When the teenagers
You know how some adults love Halloween and getting dressed up? Well, I’m not usually one of them. This might surprise you since just last week I was singing the praises of dressing as a banana. But honestly, picking a costume stresses me out. You have to think of something, either make or order it, check if it fits, and
If you were in downtown San Francisco last Tuesday, you might have seen me dancing around the sidewalk in a banana suit. I was hanging out at a busy intersection with Nicole and Fabian (long-time FruitGuys employees) and we were handing out 500 free bananas to morning pedestrians. Banana on a Mission To be honest, I had a lot of
If you’re struggling to build healthy food habits, that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It might just mean that the environment around you is setting you up to fail. I read about this recently in James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. He wrote about a hospital in Massachusetts that wanted to encourage its staff and patients to make better
Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year—National Fruit at Work Day! Every year on the first Tuesday of October, we’re honored to celebrate National Fruit at Work Day at The FruitGuys. It’s a holiday all about honoring the food that fuels our busy workdays. This year, we celebrated not only by bringing fruit to offices like yours
I absolutely love Asian pears. They come in dozens of varieties, like Hosui and Shinseiki to name a few. Some have thin yellow or yellow-green skin, some have thicker golden skin. Some are small and round while others are almost as big as a grapefruit. Like apples, they have differing levels of sweetness but are all crisp, juicy, and delicious.
My youngest son took a bite of an apple the other day and scrunched his face like he had just sucked on a sour candy. Being only three, he opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, and dropped the piece on the table. “Put it back, Mama,” he said, “It’s not ready yet.” He was tasting a Granny Smith apple,
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