The Produce Industry Podcast w/ Patrick Kelly

This week on Fresh From the Field Fridays, Dan the Produce Man is joined by Marc Wall and Neil Smith of Sandy Shore Farms in Ontario, Canada.And right now, one of the big crops coming out of Ontario is asparagus. Marc and Neil talk about the Canadian asparagus season, how they work alongside growers in Michigan and New Jersey, and how imports from Mexico are affecting the market.They also share why customers in their area are so receptive to local crops, the differences between asparagus varieties, and how those varieties all trace back to one mother plant.We also get into fresh processing with peppers and onions, food bank donations, reducing plastic, regenerative farming, cover crops, and what it takes to grow quality produce on a community-oriented family farm.It’s all right here on Fresh From the Field Fridays from The Produce Industry Network, powered by AgLife Media.Check out aglifemedia.com today.

Who was Edgar Queeny, the cold-eyed social Darwinist who inherited a chemical company from his father and turned it into one of the most powerful industrial forces in American history? Why did the man who helped trigger the atomic bomb, kept the Arsenal of Democracy running, and photographed brown bears in Alaska with Walt Disney also preside over a factory in West Virginia where workers were quietly being poisoned — and then denied compensation? And how does the story of a chemical explosion in Coal Country, a misfiled letter about dioxin, and thirteen men who couldn't afford to say no open a window onto the darkest chapter in the history of American agriculture; from the Manhattan Project to the jungles of Vietnam?Join John and Patrick for the second episode of their Monsanto series — the PCBs, the explosion at Nitro, the workers whose wives caught chloracne from their husbands' clothes, and the herbicide that was about to go to war — in an age when the company that made the bomb also made the weedkiller on your lawn...----------In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh.The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here!-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

This week on Fresh From The Field Fridays…Dan is joined by Chris Zanobini from the California Pear Advisory Board.We’re digging into what’s really going on with imported pears flooding the market right when California fruit - especially Bartletts - is coming on. What that means for our growers, what you’re seeing at retail, and why it matters more than most people realize.We also get into how the produce industry - and you as a consumer - can actually be part of the solution.Fresh From The Field Fridays is brought to you by The Produce Industry Network and AgLife Media.Check out aglifemedia.com today.

Who was John Francis Queeny, the broke Irish-American salesman who founded one of the most powerful and controversial companies in the history of modern agriculture - without knowing the first thing about chemistry? Why did a secret deal with Coca-Cola, a presidential letter, and a warehouse full of matches save his fledgling empire from collapse? And how does the unlikely story of a fake sweetener made from coal tar in St. Louis open a window onto the birth of the American chemical industry; from patent medicines and caffeine trials to the fossil chemistry that would one day reshape what the entire world eats?Join John and Patrick as they begin their six-part series on Monsanto - the company that started with saccharin and ended up controlling the farm - in an age when there were no labels, no regulations, and absolutely no shortage of things that could kill you...----------In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

This week on Fresh From the Field Fridays with Dan the Produce ManWe’ve got Bei Bei Kabocha squash, baby fava beans, Seascape strawberries, first of the season California Tioga cherries, plus fresh California apricots, peaches, and purple asparagusIt’s all right here - your produce market on the podosphereFresh From the Field Fridays, from the Produce Industry Network, powered by Ag Life MediaCheck out aglifemedia.com today

Who is Bill Gates, the college dropout from Seattle who built the operating system of global capitalism - and then turned his restless, problem-solving mind to the oldest human activity of all: growing food? Why did his six-billion-dollar mission to end hunger in Africa leave more people hungry than before? And how does the story of one man's extraordinary ambition over the world's food supply echo the great estates of Imperial Rome, the English enclosures, and the ruthless monopolies of the Gilded Age?Join John and Patrick as they tell the unsettling story of the world's most powerful philanthropist and his campaign to rewrite the operating system of African agriculture — in an age when the line between benevolence and control has never been harder to draw...----------In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh.The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here!-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

This week on Fresh from the Field Fridays, Dan the Produce Man brings you four outstanding spring items that are sure to get your attention.First, we head into the tropical fruit world with the exotic and delicious longan.Then it’s off to Watsonville, California for beautiful red Little Gem lettuce and fresh new crop sugar snap peas.We also explain the difference between stringless and traditional sugar snap peas.And while we’re talking peas, we dive into pea greens, tendrils, and shoots, and how to use those tender greens in the kitchen.Finally, we wrap it up with the granddaddy of them all, Haden mangoes.It’s all right here on Fresh from the Field Fridays, from the Produce Industry Network, powered by AgLife Media.Check out aglifemedia.com today.

What is huitlacoche, the fungus that Indigenous farmers in Mexico gave thanks for at harvest - and that American agronomists spent a century trying to burn, quarantine, and breed out of existence? Why did two civilizations look at the same diseased corn cob and see, one, a seasonal gift, and the other, an agricultural catastrophe? And how does this strange, blackened organism open a window onto the great collision between Indigenous knowledge and colonial science; from the burning of Aztec codices to the tasting menus of New York?Join John and Patrick as they tell the extraordinary story of corn smut - the Mexican truffle, the genetics laboratory darling, the fungus that fed empires and terrified farmers - in an age when the line between disease and delicacy has never been more hotly contested...----------In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

This week on Fresh From the Field Fridays with Dan the Produce Man, we’re talking spring. Four items that are really shining right now.Savoy or Bloomsdale spinach, fresh harvested English peas, young spring radishes, and new crop California blueberries.Then we take a trip to the farmers market and catch up with Eric Arias of Castellano Farms out of Dinuba, California. He gives us an update on the upcoming stone fruit season, with fruit expected to hit the market mid-May.It’s a crop update, and we’ll tell you what, the fruit is on the horizon, and it’s looking good.Fresh From the Field Fridays is brought to you by the Produce Industry Network and powered by AgLife Media. Head over to aglifemedia.com and check it out.

What is plastic, and how did a shortage of billiard balls accidentally give birth to the material that would feed the modern world? Why did a Belgian chemist rummaging through coal tar waste end up transforming the way humanity eats? And how does the unlikely journey from Victorian ivory substitutes to the clamshell of strawberries on your kitchen counter open a window onto the great forces of industrial history; from total war to the supermarket revolution?Join John and Patrick as they tell the extraordinary story of plastic's conquest of fresh produce, and the civilization it quietly built around us, in an age that made abundance the new normal...----------In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh.The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here!-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

This week, we’re talking Gravenstein apples, a Sonoma County classic that is fading fast.Up in the Yuba City area, peach orchards - gone!At the same time, a whole wave of new fruit and berry varieties is coming your way.And in the bigger picture, restaurants are closing left and right. What is really going on out there?Plus, seasonal specialties like fiddlehead ferns and baby artichokes.And a juicy strawberry romance story from Dan’s younger days.It is all right here on Fresh from the Field Fridays with Dan the Produce Man, from the Produce Industry Network, powered by AgLife Media.Check out aglifemedia.com today.

How did the humble date palm become entangled in the great age of empire? Why did steamships, railways, and the opening of the Suez Canal transform an ancient oasis crop into a global commodity? And how did a handful of date palms - smuggled across deserts, nearly lost to a curious dog, and later replanted in California - come to shape the modern global date industry?Join John and Patrick for the second part of their story on the history of dates, as imperial expansion, desert espionage, and ambitious American plant hunters carry this ancient fruit from the oases of North Africa and the Middle East to the highways of Southern California, and even back from seeds two thousand years old.----------In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com