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FruitGuy Noir: Ginny Grapefruit
By Chris Mittelstaedt It was the kind of month that gave a grown man a hangnail—the really nasty kind that snags easily on wool sweaters in dry fall air and requires Neosporin and a superhero Band-Aid....
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You Say Hachiya, and I Say Fuyu!
By Chris Mittelstaedt My wife is on the East Coast for FruitGuys business, and I’m flying solo. My teen and preteen zombies, formerly known as my children, start rising at 5:45 every morning and...
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K is for Kiwi!
By Chris Mittelstaedt It’s hard to let go of things that were ingrained in my brain as a kid. I still feel nervous if I take food out of the kitchen to eat somewhere other than the table (“not on the...
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GoodWorks
By Chris Mittelstaedt The college application process was not an easy one for me. I didn’t know where I wanted to go to school, and I had no idea what to say to encapsulate myself in an essay. I...
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Of Bananas
By Chris Mittelstaedt The 1878 edition of A Domestic Cyclopædia of Practical Information, published by Henry Holt & Company, explained to eager readers the uses for the banana: “It is eaten raw,...
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Red Navel Gazing
By Chris Mittelstaedt Citrus season is in full swing now, with all sorts of farm-fresh specialty fruit coming in. We’re seeing everything from Navel Oranges to Satsumas to Clementines to Ruby Red...
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Talking About The Weather
By Chris Mittelstaedt There’s a fast-paced smart device game called “Fingerzilla” that lets you rain Godzilla-like destruction down upon virtual cityscapes and towns using only your finger. While being...
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Blue, Red, or Orange
By Heidi Lewis There’s a scene missing from the outtakes reel of The Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo some vitamins: “You take the blue pill, the story ends—you wake up in your bed and believe whatever...
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Miranda Rights
By Heidi Lewis Pineapples (Ananas comosus) will be making their first appearance of the year in most FruitGuys cases this week—as a way to spice up the mid-winter variety. When you pick up a pineapple,...
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Spotlight on the Understudies
By Heidi Lewis “The show must go on!” is the biggest trope in theater. Some movies about theater, from All About Eve to The Little Rascals to Waiting for Guffman, have great nail-biting third acts. Yet...
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“Beulah, peel me a grape…”
By Gretchen Bay Most FruitGuys cases this week will feature red or green grapes from environs south. Grapes come in many flavors and forms, both with and without seeds. In The FruitGuys’ world, we...
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Help Wanted: Pollinators
By Heidi Lewis It’s spring. Blossoms are abundant. Time to get pollinating in the fruit orchards. But since colony collapse disorder has been decimating the honeybee population, we’ll have to look...
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Fifth-Generation Family Farm: Friend’s Ranch
Tony (third generation) packs Pixies. Friend’s Ranch in Ojai, CA, is a regular supplier of Pixie tangerines for The FruitGuys. The Friend family and its descendants (now into its fifth generation of...
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Take a Bite of a Pixie
By Chris Mittelstaedt A number of years ago, I made the mistake of telling my young daughters that I had brought home Pixies for us to eat. They gasped in horror. It was during their Peter Pan phase,...
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April is the Not-So-Nicest Month
By Heidi Lewis The National Cherry Blossom Festival was recently held in Washington, D.C. This year’s festival commemorated the centennial of Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the U.S. in 1912. The...
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The Care and Feeding of Kiwis
By Heidi Lewis (Throat clearing.) “Excuse me—we have a strict ‘no pet’ policy here.” “I don’t have any pets.” “What do you call that cute, fuzzy brown thing that you are petting?” “A kiwifruit.”...
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Spring Swooning for Summer Fruit
By Heidi Lewis Here they come, rolling into town— They get the hungriest looks from, everyone around— [drum fill…] Hey, hey, they’re the summer fruits! And they’re super duper cute! It may not quite be...
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Hybrids vs. GMOs
Wheat—a natural hybrid of wild grasses. Dear FruitFriends, In the following article, Heidi Lewis writes about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and more specifically what they are (and are not)...
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Hearts of Stone
By Gretchen Bay “The Prunus family is so wantonly profligate, dallying with any sibling, cousin, and even offspring that chances by, it is surprising they aren’t illegal in some states.” —Jack Straub,...
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Bada Bing, Bada Boom
By Heidi Lewis You know what sweet summer cherries like? They like winter. That’s when they catch up on a little shut-eye and wake up refreshed. Many stone fruits and pomes need the chill hours to...
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Berries of Summer
Babies on Board By Heidi Lewis Oh de bitty babies, so cherubic in their little baskets. Heavenly creatures, berries were flowers before they incarnated into sweet gems that dance on our tongues....
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Plum Crazy for Plums!
By Gretchen Bay It’s officially summer. And summer means (among other delicious things)—plums! Unlike their stone-fruit cousins peaches and nectarines (which come with white or yellow flesh and skin...
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I Want Candy…Cots!
CandyCot farmer and co-owner Paul Konynenburg with son Landon in the family orchard. By Gretchen Bay Described as “knock-your-socks-off-good!” by FruitGuys buyer Misi Katoa, CandyCots are a uniquely...
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The Tipping Point
By Heidi Lewis Can you smell it? Can you feel it? Is it the way the light shifts or how the little events in your day change—traffic patterns, morning routines, a heavier jacket? Thoreau wrote in his...
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Small Farm Beauty
By Heidi Lewis I have them. You have them. We all have them. Imperfections. The keen fruit observer will notice that commercially grown fruit is generally quite uniform, and fruit from smaller, local...
View ArticleGMO Labeling Initiative
by Chris Mittelstaedt, Founder & CEO, The FruitGuys The FruitGuys supports California’s Prop 37, the “Right to Know” GMO (genetically modified organism) labeling initiative. This issue is important...
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Giving Thanks for The Three Ps
Pomegranates, persimmons, and pumpkins! By Heidi Lewis You know what’s happening this season? Professor Pumpernickel is coming to the Palladium with his penguins? Nope. They’re showing The Perils of...
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Apple Russeting
By Gretchen Bay Russeting on Pippin apples from Heart of the Valley Orchards in Watsonville, CA. Shakespeare and his contemporaries called these gems “leather-coats.” The Victorians prized them for...
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The Bright Sunshine of Citrus
The Season of the Navel Orange, Grapefruit, and Mandarin By Heidi Lewis The bright sunshine of citrus has begun streaming in! Although ostensibly citrus is available year-round, a series of citrus...
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POW! Right in the Kisser
By Heidi Lewis Grapefruit will not be ignored. If you dig into one, you are just as likely to get a clownish squirt in the eye as to have your other senses treated to a trumpeter’s storm of fragrance...
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Chinese New Year from the Sidelines
By Heidi Lewis Play-by-play announcer, Joe, and his trusty color commentator, Bo, stand on the sidelines of Time. Joe: “Well, Bo, here we are again—another spin of the zodiac. This is exciting!...
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March: The Fickle Season
By Heidi Lewis How’s the old saying go again? “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”? Or is it the other way around? March’s seasonal unpredictability requires farmers to be prepared for...
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How ’bout them apples?
Jonagold Apples By Gretchen Bay As winter draws slowly to a close and we move closer to spring, our East Coast fruit crates will feature some of the season’s last local apples! Look for beauties such...
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Blood Oranges…Ah, Ah, Ah!
By Heidi Lewis [The Green Room – Children’s Television Department] Bunny: “What’s with all the bits of fabric everywhere?” Bob: “Count von Count from Sesame Street and Count Chocula got into a heated...
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B-rrring! It’s Spring
By Heidi Lewis The cuckoo clock at the Greenwich Mean Time offices popped its head out at 11:02 a.m. on March 20, letting all us inside people know that it’s officially spring. For the outside world,...
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Easy Peasey Lemon Squeezy
By Heidi Lewis Do you have a high-pressure task ahead of you? Something you’ve worked toward and prepared for? A critical test, presentation, golf putt, field goal? Cognitive scientist Sian Beilock...
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Pixies and the Full Moon Fairy
By Heidi Lewis Springtime mandarin season makes me think of the Full Moon Fairy. I first heard about her when my daughter came home from kindergarten and announced that a fairy would be visiting...
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Apple Blossom Time-Lapse
Hale Farm – Fuji apple blossoms By Heidi Lewis 1913 was a crazy time. It was the year Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky staged the ballet The Rite of Spring. Nowadays, we are accustomed to the...
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Be The Blueberry
By Heidi Lewis Hello, my name is Violet Beauregarde. You may remember me from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I was the kid who chewed a lot of gum—and I mean A LOT—and while visiting...
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Of Androids and Apricots
By Heidi Lewis Robots are already a part of everyday life—Siri can call your mom for you, and robotic vacuums clean and entertain your cat while you’re away. Artificial intelligence guides many...
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I’m Dreaming of a White Solstice…
By Gretchen Bay As the summer solstice draws nigh, visions of beautiful white orbs are starting to dance in the minds of fruit lovers everywhere. Are these spheres celestial bodies, aligning for the...
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Party Like It’s 99 B.C.
By Heidi Lewis There’s a big fat tick-tock on the Earth’s clock this week. Those of you wearing stone sundials on your wrists will know that the summer solstice is upon us. The ancients knew that when...
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Diary of a Restless Peach
Our baby picture! (just waking up) By Gretchen Bay Dear Diary, I’m growing more and more impatient watching local residents enjoy peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums from out of town. I know my...
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Crunchy Gold Apple Pear
By Melissa Nguyen Love the satisfying crunch of an apple and the sweet juicy flesh of a pear? Then you’re going to fall head over heels for the unique Crunchy Gold apple pear from California’s...
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Yoko’s Granny Smith
By Heidi Lewis Yoko Ono and John Lennon met in 1966 at a preview of Yoko’s art show at London’s Indica Gallery. The famous Beatle was intrigued by her conceptual art, including the display of a green...
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Nature’s Thanksgiving Table
By Heidi Lewis T-day is a red-carpet day for veggies—centerpieces of squash ringed by mums, and soufflés of sweet potatoes. Super veggie duos, like green beans and onions, peas and corn, make grand...
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Fruit Fairy Fa-La-La-La-La
By Heidi Lewis Lots of magic going on out there this time of year. It’s a veritable traffic jam of elves, animated snowmen, flying reindeer, and fairies. The Fruit Fairy has been promoting her “Fruit...
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In the Moment: New Beginnings
By Heidi Lewis 3, 2, 1 – Happy New Year! When the clock strikes 12 a.m. on January 1st every year, it marks a new beginning. Conversations turn to resolutions and remembering to write the new date. Of...
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Berry Battle
The FruitGuys Inaugural Iron Chef Competition By Amanda Pineault Last week, The FruitGuys announced the first-ever FG Iron Chef Competition. Everyone in the office was invited to put on an apron and...
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The Two-Faced Pear!
Fruit can surprise even The FruitGuys By Miriam Wolf We all know that the fruit that comes through the doors of The FruitGuys for delivery to our clients is very special—hand chosen for flavor,...
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