Meet the Farmers Growing Your Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

I have two little boys at home, one three-year-old and one eight-year-old. Their art projects aren’t exactly museum-worthy (although I hope you won’t tell them I said so). Still, when they run over to me with a finger painting or a crayon scribble, I can’t help but hang it on the fridge. And I bet you know why.

Their art always makes me smile because when I look at it, I see the person and the hard work behind it. And ever since I started working for The FruitGuys, I’ve seen fresh fruits and vegetables the same way.

What Fruit & Finger Paintings Have in Common

Once you know the person who grows your peaches or picks your plums out of the tree, those pieces of fruit start to look different. They go from “just little kids’ artwork” to “something special enough for the fridge.”

I want everybody to have the opportunity to get to know their farmers and feel that connection. So in January, our team started a new series on our blog called Farmer of the Month.

What Is Farmer of the Month?

We’ve always interviewed farmers and shared their stories, but now we’re doing it every single month to help you meet the people behind your fresh fruits and vegetables. We chatted with Vince Bernard about his tiny Kishu mandarins in January (they’re about the size of walnuts), talked cherries with John Warmerdam in May, and asked Abby Schilling about peaches in June. You can find all of their stories here. Some of the blogs even include videos so that you can “meet” the farmers face-to-face.

Our Latest Farmer Feature

We published our July Farmer of the Month feature just a few days ago. To write it, we talked to Amber Balakian of Balakian Farms in Reedley, California. She told us about how her great-grandparents fled the Armenian Genocide before they started farming. And she even shared why going to grad school at Harvard made her want to be a farmer again.

It’s a great story. I hope you’ll check it out and share it with your team, especially if you’re in California! You might start seeing your fresh fruits and vegetables a little less like groceries and a little more like art.