In this week’s episode, we’re diving into the world of apples with someone who lives and breathes them every single day. Our guest is Austin Fowler of Fowler Farms in upstate New York — a farm that’s been in continuous operation since 1858. That’s six generations of the Fowler family devoted to one crop, one passion, and one mission: growing apples of the highest quality.

Think about that for a moment — six generations! The Civil War was still on the horizon when the Fowler family planted their first trees. Since then, they’ve weathered depressions, recessions, blights, storms, and the constant shifting demands of consumers — and through it all, they’ve not only survived, but thrived.

Fowler Farms is known not only for honoring tradition but also for pushing innovation in apple growing. They’ve helped introduce new varieties that consumers now love, adopted cutting-edge growing practices, and built a legacy that has shaped the apple industry in New York and far beyond.

In this episode, Austin will take us into the orchard to talk about what it’s really like to grow apples in the modern era — the science, the challenges, the weather, and of course, the joy of bringing in a harvest that might end up on your kitchen table. We’ll also talk about how tastes in apples are changing, why some varieties explode in popularity while others quietly fade away, and what it means to carry a family legacy into the next generation.

So whether you’re a fan of Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, Empire, or one of the many newer apples like Snapdragon that are making waves in the produce aisle, you’ll want to stay tuned. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a new appreciation for the people, the history, and the hard work behind every single apple you bite into.

This week’s guest grows—quite literally—on tradition, innovation, and a healthy dose of southern Appalachian grit. Kirby Johnson, co-owner of Flavor 1st Growers & Packers, is based in a fertile mountain valley in Western North Carolina. What’s wild? His family’s farming roots stretch all the way back to 1798—that’s eight generations of dirt beneath their nails and produce behind their name! 

Today, Flavor 1st isn’t just your neighborhood tomato grower—they handle over 30 different varieties of produce, track everything from field to fork with cutting-edge tech, and distribute across the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Florida to Boston. Kirby’s family history is rich and deep, with the best and most sustainable farming practices. You will hear his almost scientific methods for producing the best-tasting veggies in the most efficient way.

So keep listening as we uncover how a centuries-old family legacy meets 21st-century hustle, and how that helps get fresh fruits and veggies to tables across the country and beyond. Get ready for a deep dive into resilience, tech, and why Kirby’s produce mission is anything but fruitless.

On this week's show, we’re joined by Kevin and Alicia Stump, the passionate husband-and-wife duo behind Stump Farms, a family-owned urban and hydroponic farm nestled in the mountains of Hendersonville, North Carolina. Kevin and Alicia have built something extraordinary—a full-spectrum farm offering everything from microgreens, mushrooms, and produce to herbal skincare, soaps, teas, and pantry staples like jams, salsas, and all kinds of pickles. They are showing that with the smallest plot of land, you can produce just about anything you need. Get ready for a conversation about innovation, resilience, community, and sustainable farming with two people who epitomize what it means to grow big on any scale of land.

Makoto Dressings isn’t just salad dressing—it’s a flavor revolution. From their cult-classic Original Ginger to bold favorites like Honey Ginger, Wasabi Ginger, and Boom Boom Sauce, this family-owned brand has been waking up taste buds since 1985. What makes Makoto stand out isn’t just the flavor—it’s the story. Back in 1985, at a Japanese steakhouse in Melbourne, Florida, diners loved the dressing so much they begged to take bottles home. 

Today, we chat with Christian Greene—third generation of the family that started Makoto Dressings—about how their dressings grew into a Top 10 national brand, why fresh veggies and ginger made in small batches is the key, and how they have delighted salad lovers for over forty years.

If you love fresh veggies, bold flavors, and stories of family entrepreneurship, this episode will leave you hungry for more.

What makes Hatch chili peppers so delicious and sought after? It’s the unique microclimate where they grow. They are named for the tiny town of Hatch, New Mexico, which sits at a towering elevation. It’s no wonder they’ve risen to such great heights in the culinary world. This week, we’re joined once again by “The Produce Expert,” Robert Schueller, who will tell us all about these peppers with a cult following.

Robert is the Director of Public Relations at Melissa’s Produce, the largest distributor of specialty produce in the United States. Robert has been featured everywhere from national TV segments to major newspapers, bringing insight, passion, and a deep understanding of the produce industry to audiences across the country. He’s also the author of several books about fresh fruits and vegetables, making him not just a spokesperson for Melissa’s but a true educator and advocate for eating seasonally and adventurously.

In this episode, Robert will also tell us about the delicious new varieties of grapes and melons that are in season right now. Tune in to hear about the hottest and sweetest fruits and veggies of the season!

The Produce Buzzers Podcast is the “gathering place for lovers of fresh fruits and veggies!” However, we realize that many of you struggle to find the love that we have. So today we are on a stealth mission. This week’s episode is a special treat. We’re joined by Heidi Herman, author of The Hidden Vegetables Cookbook: 90 Tasty Recipes for Veggie-Averse Adults. That’s right—not just kids, but full-grown veggie-dodgers!

In this episode, we’ll chat with Heidi about how growing up in an Icelandic-American household shaped her fearless approach to food, why our childhood vegetable trauma still haunts us in adulthood, and how she manages to turn everything from brownies to mac and cheese into Trojan horses of nutrition.

We’ll also get the lowdown on her top tricks for fooling even the most suspicious eaters (spoiler: grated carrots are sneakier than you think), and how to turn a dinner party into a stealth health intervention—without anyone ever realizing what hit their palate.

If You’ve Ever Pushed Brussels Sprouts or Cauliflower to The Edge of Your Plate, Heidi’s Got Your Number—And Your Solution.

This week’s guest may be our hottest guest ever. Nick Masotti is a chef, farmer, and founder of Up All Night Bottling Company, where he crafts all-natural, small-batch sauces with no preservatives. Nick grew up in Winter Park, Florida, where food was the heartbeat of family life, and his love of cooking took root early. He got his start in a Mexican restaurant at just 14, where he kept a good eye on the salsas.

After climbing the culinary ladder in Florida, Nick earned a degree in Culinary and Hospitality from Valencia College, Orlando. Shortly after, Nick packed up and moved to Western North Carolina, where he helped start Trails End Farm—a family-run, organic-practicing cattle farm. Somewhere between wrangling cows and wrangling produce, he had a hot idea: why not bottle his passion for fresh, local ingredients into spicy, flavorful condiments?

So, Nick utilized his culinary skills to become a gourmet sauce maker, and in 2020, he launched Up All Night Bottling Company. He grows most of the ingredients for his sauces, but what he doesn’t grow, he sources from the finest local farms. Some of his creations are hot enough for the fieriest palates, but he also makes milder ones for the most sensitive palates. Tune in to hear about his journey establishing a company at such a young age.

This week’s episode is all about two of the most eye-catching and taste-bud-tingling tropical treats out there: mangoes and dragon fruit. Our guest today grows both and knows exactly what it takes to nurture these colorful, juicy gems from blossom to box.

Our guest today is Dr. Eugene Misquith a doctor turned exotic fruit farmer. He has converted 13 of his 39-acre property in Palm City, FL into orchards producing these delicious fruits. We are going to hear about the challenges he faced in doing that and what and how he learned what he needed to know to do it. He will also tell us everything you need to know about mangos and dragon fruit.

So whether you’re a fruit fanatic, backyard grower, or just someone who’s tried to pick a good mango at the grocery store—this one’s for you.”

Can a humble grower of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers transform lives? One such company makes it their mission. They claim is the secret to their success.

Our guest this week is a leader at a fresh produce company that doesn’t see its primary mission as growing delicious veggies, even though that’s exactly what they do and as good or better than anyone else in the industry. But second to that is this company’s vision to transform lives. Does that sound like an audacious goal? Listen in hear their story and you will become a believer.

Lori Castillo is Vice President of External Relations and Public Relations at NatureSweet, a grower and supplier of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. There she leads the company’s external voice and ESG partnerships (environmental, social, and governance partnerships) which as the terms imply, are efforts to create sustainability on a wide range of fronts.

Tune in to hear how they believe strongly in the old adage “You reap what you sow.” And they are reaping more than delicious veggies!

This week we are going to have some more game show fun on the podcast and test our Produce Buzzers knowledge of different fruits and veggies. Stick around and play along. I am sure you will find it informative and entertaining.

This week’s trivia game is in the form of a series of multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth 5 points. The Produce Buzzer who answers the question correctly will get five points BUT if they answer it incorrectly, they will lose 5 points. Then at the end we will. have a bonus round where the questions are worth 10 points. Once again 10 points added for correct answers and 10 points deducted for wrong answers.

How will they do? Who will win? Can you match their knowledge and get the right answers. Listen and play along. You are certain to find it entertaining. And you will learn some very interesting facts about fresh fruits and veggies.

Have you ever been disappointed with the fruits and vegetables you have bought in the grocery store? Of course you have! There is nothing more frustrating in the grocery shopping experience than finding some beautiful fresh produce on the shelf only to get it home and find that it is flavorless or the texture is just not right.

Well never fear! There are some very smart people in the field of horticulture working hard to solve that problem. And today we have one of those people with us today on the podcast. Our guest today has been called the “Willy Wonka of Veggies!” This Cornell professor and plant expert creates new breeds of vegetables that offer exciting new flavors, and other adaptations valuable to farmers and eager eaters alike. And all through natural breeding processes.

Joining us today is Michael Mazourek, the Calvin Knoyes Keeney Associate Professor of Vegetable Breeding at Cornell University. He is going to tell us about that work and also share with us some his remarkable achievements. One of which was a new variety of squash that has taken the vegetable world by storm.

This week we are going to hear about some very important work being done by organizations helping to alleviate hunger. When we think of places that are experiencing a lack of food and malnutrition, we often first think of places in third-world countries or far-off nations. But hunger is a big problem right here in the United States and has been for many years. But fortunately, there are people and organizations dedicating great energy and time to ease that struggle for the hungry among us.

One such organization is the Southeast Regional Cooperative based in Atlanta, GA. (SERC). SERC provides fresh produce to food banks in seven Southeastern states. As part of the national organization, Feeding America, they aggregate surplus produce from around the southeast region and across the country to match the demand from their member food banks.

We are delighted to welcome to the show this week Chris Flint who is the executive director of SERC to tell us about the crucial work they are doing to fight food insecurity. Chris says there is enough food in America to make sure no one goes hungry. Yet the problem is ongoing. Tune in to learn about the challenges they face and the inspiring story about the progress they are making in feeding the hungry among us.

It’s peak season for all kinds of berries right now. So today we have a very special guest to tell us about some of the exciting new varieties of berries you can find in your local produce aisle. Laudan Chauffin is Marketing Director for the Berry Fresh company joins us today to enlighten us about blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries.

Founded in 2005, Berry Fresh, is dedicated to providing flavor-forward, high-quality berries to the US and Canadian markets. Headquartered in Los Angeles and with distribution centers in Oregon, Texas and New Jersey they service grocery stores and markets from coast to coast. Committed to providing an unforgettable eating experience, they are constantly searching for better and better berry varieties through genetic research. They grow these berries year-round beginning in Peru and Chile, then coming north with the change of seasons to Mexico and then into the U.S.

Laudan has spent most of her career marketing and promoting berries so there is no one more knowledgeable and passionate about these delicious fruits. Tune in to hear how they are grown, how they get these fragile delicacies from field to the produce aisle, and how to store them to keep them fresh longer.

Spring has arrived and spring vegetables have been showing up in your local produce aisles and markets for a few weeks. now. But this week is the sweetest week of the spring vegetable season. That is because this is the week that the sweetest onions in the world will be first shipped for the 2025 season. Yes, it’s time for a fresh crop of Vidalia Onions.

Today we are going to celebrate Vidalia Onions and we have a very special guest joining us to tell us all about them. John Shuman and his family-owned Shuman Farms has been in the sweet onion industry for three generations. He joins us today to tell us all about Vidalia Onions and the history of Shuman Farms. And about sweet onions from other regions like Peru. And he will also tell us about how they are giving back to the communities they serve all over the country with some very impactful charity work.

On this week’s podcast, we have two very special guests who are redefining snack foods. But this is more than a story of a successful start-up and exciting new food product. This husband-and-wife team turned a deeply personal tragedy into a mission to help others eat healthier. In doing so, they created a company that is disrupting the snack food and fresh produce aisles to offer delicious products that are also good for you.

When Megan and Scott Reamer’s son, Jackson, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, they began researching anti-inflammatory diets to help ease Jackson’s struggle with the disease. That labor of love inspired them to create a new company to offer to consumers some of the delicious snacks they created for Jackson to enjoy. Thus Jackson’s Chips was born offering sweet potato and regular potato chips cooked in a way that made them much healthier.

But Megan and Scott wanted the company to be much more than a potato chip maker. They wanted it to help keep Jackson’s legacy alive and help others facing similar diseases. Tune in to hear this heart-rending but also heart-warming story of this brave young man.

This week we welcome back to the show a very special guest. He is a longtime friend and colleague who used to work with the four of us Produce Buzzers many years ago. Since that time he has been a rising star in the produce business and has worked for some of the biggest names in the produce industry. With over 36 years’ experience in the business, he’s a true veteran of the produce world who could enlighten us on just about any item that you buy in the produce department.

 But his current gig is with Ocean Mist Farms, a grower, packer, and shipper of all types of vegetables, from a wide variety of lettuces, cabbages, and brassicas to cilantro, beets, and radishes. They are a big player in all those veggies but their signature product is artichokes. They are the largest supplier of this favorite in the produce aisle. But Mark has some new products to tell us about today that you must stick around to hear about. These new offerings are exceedingly delicious and guaranteed to make your meal planning so much easier. They recreate that indulgent experience you have had with veggies in your favorite restaurant. So you won’t want to miss hearing about them.

Our guest this week is a fellow podcaster who also promotes the eating of more fresh fruits and veggies, so we are especially delighted to welcome her to the show. Amanda Keefer handles brand partnerships and marketing communications for the Healthy Family Project in addition to producing and hosting their podcast.

The Healthy Family Project is making a huge impact in getting people to eat healthier. They are dedicated to creating a healthier generation through easy, fun, and inspiring content. All their content is crafted with families in mind, showing them delicious, fun, and easy to make recipes. Their Website highlights nutritional information and provides tips to get the most out of their meal planning. Their website and social media are filled with informative and entertaining videos, blog posts, and of course great podcast episodes.

The Healthy Family Project is not just about providing entertaining content. Since they began a little over a decade ago, they have helped to raise more than $8 million dollars for charities devoted to feeding needy families, including Feeding America among others. And through their “Produce for Kids” promotions they are training the next generation to be lovers of fresh fruits and veggies. Tune in to get some expert tips to make your meal table healthier.

On this week’s episode, we are telling our listeners to Beet It!

But that’s not spelled b-e-A-t but instead b-e-E-t. Yes, today we are rootin’ for our favorite root! That’s right! We’re digging deep into the world of beets. The veggie that stains your fingers, confuses your taste buds, and somehow ended up in both salads and desserts. From the history of beets to beet recipes, beet myths to beets' symbolism in culture—if it’s about beets, we’re talking about it.

Beets may not be the flashiest vegetable in the produce aisle, but they’re certainly one of the most nutritious, flavorful, and versatile. Whether roasted, pickled, juiced, or blended into a smoothie, this deep-red root packs a powerful punch of flavor and health benefits.

The Produce Buzzers will share their favorite beet recipes to delight you with delicious dishes and to boost your health. So whether you’re a beet freak or just beet-curious, grab a snack, sit back, and let’s turnip the fun!

Love is in the air, and… on your plate! Welcome to this week’s special Valentine’s Day episode of The Produce Buzzers Podcast, where we’re diving into the most romantic fruits and vegetables to set the mood for love. From the aptly named passion fruit to mythical artichokes to heart-healthy beets and the silky sweetness of strawberries, we’ll explore the aphrodisiac powers, symbolism, and delicious ways to incorporate these love-boosting foods into your Valentine’s Day celebrations. And we will give you the seductive history of the festival which originated in Ancient Rome and the story of Romulus & Remus, the twins who founded the city.

Whether you’re planning a romantic dinner, a cozy night in, or just looking to add a little extra love to your meals, we’ve got you covered. So, grab a glass of wine, set the ambiance, and let’s talk about the most seductive foods nature has to offer!

Super Bowl LIX is here! The week of Super Bowl is the biggest week for sales of avocados in the U.S. There are a lot of choices for snacks and meals for America’s biggest annual TV event, but fans know that avocados and guacamole have to be on the table. And that’s good for them because avocados are one of the healthiest foods you can eat, unlike perhaps a lot of the other dishes on the party menu.

We’ve featured avocados on the podcast several times and shared our recipes and tips for how to select, store, and prepare them. But this week we have one of the world’s foremost experts on the program to take that info up several notches and tell you all about them, give you great advice on how to select, store, and prepare them, and point you to some exciting promotions coming in the next week that you can take advantage of.

Stephanie Bazan leads the shopper and trade marketing for Avocados From Mexico. Under her leadership and strategic vision, the demand and popularity for Mexican avocados has reached record levels.

Mexico is by far the leading producer of avocados in the world. They grow almost 2 ½ times as many as the second and third largest producers, Columbia and Peru. They grow over 15 times more avocados than the U.S. And, most importantly, the quality of Mexican avocados is superior too.