Fruit of Passion! October 2, 2006

The definition of “passion” is varied and nuanced. Some dictionary descriptions focus on desire for another person. Others list anger and violence as a form of passion. However, my favorite dictionary definition of passion is: “An outburst of strong emotion or feeling.” Maybe I like this one best because it’s so random. Just the idea that we might be walking down the street, moving through our normal lives, and then, as if we’ve walked through some passion-inducing portal, burst through the other side into song about a cloud that looks like a bunny (well, maybe that’s just me).
This week we are including passion fruit as a special treat in all the conventional boxes. These passion fruits come from John at White Dove Farms in Santa Paula (Ventura County) and he is passionate about this fruit. John personally hand-snips these fruits for us from vines he has cultivated in his old lemon orchard. Of the approximately 400 varieties of the passion fruit plant, only about 30 produce edible fruit. These are mainly categorized as Sweet, Purple, and Giant. Purple Passion fruit is a native of Brazil. The types most commonly available are the Sweet and Purple varieties, which are about the size of an egg. When ripe, it has a fragrant odor and sweet-tart taste. It makes a delicious treat when scooped out of its skin with a spoon. The seeds are edible but it is recommended that you don’t chew them; sometimes the crunch turns people off. You can tell a ripe passion fruit when it begins to wrinkle. We recommend you give these a few days to “wrinkle-up” for best taste. Every year when we receive the first batch of passion fruit, we hold a FruitGuys tasting. This year the staff comments were: “Palette cleansing.” “Fragrant.” “A sweet finish and aftertaste.” “Exotic,” “Tropical.” “Like a cloud-bunny hopping across your tongue.”

Do you want to take part in ShapeUP SF’s walking challenge?

We are working with the city of San Francisco on their ShapeUP Walking Challenge. We will support any customer who organizes a corporate team by providing free FruitGuys pedometers to track your progress (sign up early; we don’t have an infinite supply of pedometers). Track how many miles your team walks between October and December. The goal for each team is to walk the distance of the length of California—that’s 840 miles, but you don’t have to do it all at once. The team that walks the most miles will receive not only grand-master bragging rights but also a FruitGuys Fruit Party hosted by the Banana Man. Even if your office isn’t in San Francisco we still encourage you to participate and we’ll still give you free pedometers to track your miles. Join the group of companies who are motivating employees to stay active! If you want more information please contact me at  chiefbanana@fruitguys.com. The phone is 650-246-1200, ext. 6.
Enjoy and be fruitful!