Produce Buzzers - A Podcast for Lovers of Fresh Fruits and Veggies

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.

Today we have a very special guest who understands that the people who grow our fruits and vegetables are special people. In fact, they are stars. Our guest has been highlighting these stars for over thirteen years on her beautiful Website FarmStarLiving.com. On that Website you will find stories of these heroes and the challenges they face to bring us the bounty of fruits and veggies you see in your produce department at your local grocery store.

Mary Blackmon, is the creator of Farm Star Living and a digital media entrepreneur. She started Farm Star Living with the idea of a ‘farm to table’ lifestyle that both spotlighted the farmer and farms to the consumer public by making this often misunderstood world of farming more personable, relatable, accessible and even entertaining!

The site is rich with these stories but also rich with delicious recipes and very helpful tips on how to select, store, and prepare them. You will also find a lot of information about how these veggies help you stay healthy and other tips about how to live a healthier life. There is a whole section devoted to which foods can help alleviate particular ailments and conditions. It’s a site that will reward you in many ways if you visit it often.

January is more than just a fresh start to the year—it’s also National Slow Cooking Month! As the winter chill sets in, there’s nothing more comforting than a steaming hearty stew packed full of veggies slowly blended together over hours of slow cooking. These meals can warm you up and satisfy you like no others. And it’s a convenient and easy way to get your five to ten vegetables a day with the minimal amount of prep and no slaving over a hot stove or oven.

So today we are going to launch our celebration of National Slow Cooking Month by suggesting some time-saving and delicious recipes that our Produce Buzzers love to make. So stay tuned and be inspired to get out that crock pot or Dutch Oven and fill it with healthy delicious veggies. You also learn about the history of how important slow methods of cooking were throughout human history. And who invented the “Crock Pot?”

This week, we’re diving into one of the most universally celebrated events: New Year’s! But, as we know, how people ring in the New Year varies widely depending on where you are in the world. From feasting and fireworks to unique superstitions and rituals, the way we say goodbye to one year and hello to another can be incredibly different—and deeply meaningful. We will look at the history of New Year’s celebrations and a few of the varied traditions around the world which are strange and wonderful. Then we will dive into the Produce Buzzers’ New Year’s resolutions they have made to inspire them to eat more fresh fruits and veggies. Tune in to be inspired as well for more fresh veggies in 2025. They have some great tips for you.

So as the new year begins, we thought we would look back on the most tortuous moments in 2024’s Produce Buzzers podcasts. Yes, our infamous “Home Groans.” We tried our best to “PUN-ish” you in every episode, with our fearless leader, Theresa Nolan’s terrible puns. We were going to call it “The Best of Home Groan” but the word “best” just doesn’t work with these awful attempts at humor. So we had to go with “The Worst of Home Groan.”  

Yes, we tried to convince you every time that it was your favorite segment on the podcast. But to no avail. So many of you tuned out just as we introduced it in each episode. We showed no mercy on our guests and forced them to sit through a Home Groan as payment for appearing on the show. Amazingly, many of our guests actually returned for another episode even knowing this torture would be inflicted upon them. We just assumed they forgot this inhumane demand for appearing on the show and they took the “PUN-ishment” graciously. Some even laughed at the puns even though that is strictly forbidden. 

So without further ado, we invite you to share in a little masochism and groan loudly with each of these painful samples of The Produce Buzzers “Home Groan.”

This week we are so delighted to have our favorite guest back on the podcast. The man widely known as the “Produce Expert” is back to tell us about the delightful fruits and veggies his company Melissa’s World Variety Produce sells. Which frankly could be any fruit or vegetable on the planet because Melissa’s sells every fresh produce item that exists and can be sold commercially. They have thousands of items in their catalogue many of which you can only get at Melissa’s.

Today we are thrilled to welcome back Robert Schueller, Director of Public Relations at Melissa’s and author of several books about fresh fruits and vegetables. There is no other person who has as much knowledge as Robert when it comes to the world of fresh produce.

But of course, we can’t talk about every fruit and vegetable that Melissa’s sells, so we are going to focus in on just a few of the items that are popular this time of year. You won’t want to miss this episode because what we are going to feature are truly some of the most delicious and exciting fruits on the market. Including a $400 pineapple! These fruits will put your celebrations over the top!

This week, we’re diving into the colorful world of purple vegetables! From nutrient-packed purple cabbage, to purple beets, to the majestic purple eggplant, we’ll uncover the secrets behind their striking hues, their incredible health benefits, and how they’ve become stars in cuisines around the globe. 

We’ll share tips on cooking with them, stories behind their origins, and even spotlight some surprising facts about why purple veggies are more than just a feast for the eyes. That’s right, we’re diving into the science, flavor, and fun behind one of the most striking colors in the produce aisle. 

You’ve probably already thought about some veggies that when you think of them, you already see them as purple in color. But there are some other veggies that we usually think of as being green that have purple varieties and we will tell you about a few of those.

Today we will talk about some traditional dishes that you can serve at your meal, but we also want to feature some unique fruits and vegetables that are in season during the fall but perhaps you have not thought about including in your menu. Not that we are trying to dissuade you from the usual fruit and veggie dishes like sweet potatoes, green beans, mashed potatoes, and the like, but we thought you might want to experiment with a couple of unusual produce items that can surprise and delight your Tgiving guests.

Our guest this week is leading a renaissance in agriculture that is spreading across the country. With this movement, he believes that hunger can be eliminated. His work is not just in theory. For decades, he has been spearheading grassroots efforts in local communities in Southern California not just to provide food to needy people but to teach them all about how food is grown and the tremendous effort that goes into producing it.

A.G. Kawamura is a third-generation produce grower and shipper from Orange County, California. From 2003 to 2010 he served as the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He is the founding co-chair of Solutions from the Land, a nationally recognized non-profit that is developing innovative and sustainable climate-smart collaborations for 21st-century agriculture.

For over 40 years Mr. Kawamura has pursued a lifelong goal to work towards an end to hunger and malnutrition. He is passionate about using every space that is available and practical to grow food, especially in urban areas where food is needed most. As a progressive farmer, Mr. Kawamura has a lifetime of experience working within the shrinking rural and urban boundaries of Southern California.

He's been called one of the most talented agricultural specialists in the world and I think after you hear what he has to say today, you will probably agree.

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. Once again, they will play a version of the classic TV Game Show “Jeopardy” with all the categories being about fruits and veggies. Since we are at the height of summer, we will feature summer fruits and veggies in the game.

The categories are:

• Berries

• Stone Fruit

• Melons

• Leafy Greens

• Nightshades

• Squash

How will they do? Who will win? Can you match their knowledge and get the right “questions” to the “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.