The History of Fresh Produce

Where does soil come from? How has it shaped the rise (and fall) of human civilizations? And why is it now at the center of some of the most urgent debates about food, farming, and the environment? Join John and special guest Louis De Jaeger - landscape architect, author, and agro-ecology advocate - as they dig into the history of soil. Together, they trace the story of soil from the birth of the...

In this special collaboration with History Daily , we present a double feature exploring two pivotal moments in history. First, you’ll hear the story of Lewis and Clark’s return after successfully completing the first U.S. overland journey to the Pacific Ocean. Then, you’ll learn how French biologist Louis Pasteur developed a method of heating liquids to destroy harmful bacteria - a process that w...

On July 8th, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the administration is determined to reclaim farmland owned by what it calls "foreign adversaries" and to establish a "100% American workforce" in agriculture. But how much U.S. farmland is actually owned by foreign governments? When did this trend begin? Has there ever truly been a 100% American agricultural workforce? And when...

What became of the Lewellings - the visionary brothers who transformed the American West one orchard at a time? In the final episode of our six-part series, John and Patrick return to the verdant hills of Napa and the fertile valleys of Oregon to chart the triumphs and tragedies that defined the twilight of the Lewelling legacy. As phylloxera silently strangles California’s vineyards, John Lewelli...

What happens when your orchards begin to rot, your industry collapses, and California starts beating you at your own game? If you're Seth Lewelling, you plant harder - and you get political with your cherries. In this episode, John and Patrick trace the dramatic unraveling of Oregon’s once-thriving fruit economy and the quiet resilience of Seth Lewelling, whose visionary grafting experiments - inc...

California, 1853. Henderson Lewelling sets off to sell apples and ends up sparking a revolution. In this fourth episode of our multi-part series, John and Patrick trace the astonishing rise of the Lewelling family in California’s fruit frontier. They follow Henderson’s ambitious leap from Oregon to Alameda, where he builds the legendary Fruit Vale estate, and his brother John’s transformation of a...

It’s 1848, and amid the towering firs and scorched stumps of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a revolution in American agriculture quietly takes root. In this third installment of our epic Lewelling saga, John and Patrick trace the extraordinary efforts of Henderson Lewelling as he establishes one of the Pacific Northwest’s first grafted fruit orchards - alongside his ambitious partner William Meek. As...

What kind of person looks at the treacherous Oregon Trail and says,  “You know what would make this even harder? Let’s drag 700 fruit trees with us” ? In this episode, John and Patrick continue the epic tale of the Lewelling family - radical Quakers, abolitionists, and horticultural pioneers - as they pack up their Iowa homestead and begin one of the most improbable journeys in American histo...

How did a quiet Quaker family from North Carolina - devout, disciplined, and disinclined to dance - go on to revolutionize the fruit industry of the American West? Who were the Lewellings, and how did their deep-rooted values, obsession with grafting, and fierce opposition to slavery shape the orchards of Oregon, the nurseries of Iowa, and the future of American agriculture? Join John and Patrick...

In the shadow of revolution, a campaign of quiet devastation unfolded. While Washington’s Continental Army fought British redcoats along the eastern seaboard, a very different war was being waged in the lush valleys of upstate New York. It was not a war for cities or forts but for orchards, granaries, and the very soil beneath Seneca feet. Join John and Patrick as they unearth the harrowing truth...

The rise of the organic movement is often remembered as a peaceful revolution - a return to the earth, to purity, to harmony with nature. But its true origins tell a far darker tale. Born not in the flower-strewn fields of 1960s counterculture, but in the grim laboratories of fascist ideology, the organic movement was shaped by the poisonous ideal of Blut und Boden - blood and soil - Hitler’s visi...

From the sun-soaked pineapple fields of Puerto Rico to the grapevines that shaped Puritan Connecticut, from Madrid’s legendary El Oso y el Madroño to Grenada’s fragrant nutmeg empire, symbols of fresh produce have found their way onto flags, seals, and coats of arms across the world. But behind these charming emblems lie stories of indigenous resilience, colonial ambition, revolutionary struggle,...

The pineapple may have begun as a rare curiosity from the tropics, but by the 18th century, it had become a symbol of imperial power, elite refinement, and national rivalry. In this second and final part of their journey into the history of the world’s most flamboyant fruit, John and Patrick explore the height of pineapple mania in Georgian Britain, where aristocrats competed to grow the perfect s...

The pineapple - today a familiar tropical fruit, boxed in lunch kits and blended in cocktails - was once the most exotic and awe-inspiring delicacy known to Europeans. Its journey from the hands of Indigenous cultivators in the rainforests of South America to the hothouses of Georgian England is a tale of exploration, obsession, imperial rivalry, and horticultural espionage. In this first episode...

Tariffs might seem like dusty matters for economists, but their effects on fresh produce have been anything but dry. In this episode, John and Patrick trace the surprising - and at times surreal - impact of American trade policy on fruits and vegetables. First, they dive into the Mongrel Tariff Act of 1883, where a tomato’s very identity was put on trial to decide whether it was a fruit or vegetab...

A new Pope has been chosen! And that got us thinking: have Popes of the past shaped the history of fruits and vegetables? In this month’s livestream, John and Patrick explore the surprising connections between the Papacy and produce. From Popes with a passion for fresh fruits to the hidden stories of the Vatican gardens, this episode offers a fresh perspective on the role of produce in the lives o...

From the windswept Caucasus Mountains to the decadent tables of Renaissance Europe, few fruits have lived a life as rich (or as risqué) as the cherry. In this episode, John and Patrick trace the cherry’s remarkable journey through time, beginning with its elusive origins in ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia, where birds, not botanists, first sowed the seeds of this future delicacy. As Greek philoso...

The rise of Carthage is one of the most dazzling stories of the ancient world. A tale of cunning queens, glittering harbors, and empires built not just by sword and sail, but by soil. In this episode, John and Patrick trace the astonishing birth of Carthage - from Queen Elyssa’s legendary ox-hide bargain to the booming agricultural empire that threatened Rome itself. Far from a mere city of mercha...

The tulip - elegant, exotic, and ephemeral - has long captivated the human imagination. But in 17th-century The Netherlands, it ignited something far more volatile: a frenzy. This is the story of  Tulip Mania , the extraordinary episode in Dutch history when a single flower became the object of national obsession - and financial ruin. In this episode, John and Patrick trace the tulip’s journe...

How did a drunk church-goer influence the Navy’s go-to-beverage? What does a Persian fruit beverage and sherbet powder have to do with each other? How did an American favorite drink fall from grace? And why does tomato juice taste so much better on a plane? In this month's livestream, John and Patrick each reveal their top three produce-based drinks from history. From orange juice’s vital role in...

Robert Fortune’s journey was far from over. After infiltrating China in disguise, Fortune now sets his sights on the Wuyi Mountains—steeped in legend, veiled in mist, and home to the most coveted tea in the world: black tea. Guided by his newly appointed servant, the enigmatic Sing-Hoo, Fortune pushes deeper into China’s forbidden interior, navigating treacherous paths and even more treacherous po...

The British thirst for tea had become insatiable by the mid-19th century, but there was one problem: nearly all of it came from China. For the East India Company, this dependency was a costly vulnerability. What they needed wasn’t more silver to trade but a way to break China’s monopoly entirely. Enter Robert Fortune: a Scottish botanist with a talent for subterfuge, a taste for adventure, and an...

When Portuguese traders arrived on India’s western shores in the early 1500s, they brought more than religion, colonial ambition, and a lust for spice - they also carried with them a tiny, crimson fruit that would set Asia ablaze. In part two of their deep dive into the scorching history of chili peppers, John and Patrick trace the pepper’s path across India, China, and Korea, where it would come...

For millennia, chili peppers have been at the heart of the Americas - long before Columbus set sail, before the Aztecs built their empire, and before the Incas wove them into myth. Originating in what is now Peru and Bolivia, these fiery pods were among the first crops cultivated by humans, shaping the diets, medicine, and rituals of entire civilizations. From the wild “tolerated weeds” of early f...

On August 23, 1919, a celebratory dinner at the Lakeside Club in Canton, Ohio, was held in honor of Col. Charles C. Weybrecht’s return from France at the end of the First World War. But what began as a joyous occasion soon turned tragic, as guests fell ill - and over the following days, several would die. In this month’s History of Fresh Produce livestream, we delve into the infamous event known a...