#Fiveaday. OK, I’ll admit that I don’t know anything about hashtags.
However, I do enjoy the survey questions that Tom Karst, editor emeritus of The Packer, presents to his vast produce audience. One that caught my eye on Linkedin recently was, “How many servings of fresh fruits and vegetables do you eat a day?”
I had to be honest. I clicked on the box that listed, “Less than five.”
It wasn’t always that way. Working in the stores as a clerk, a produce manager or as a produce supervisor — setting up countless displays at all hours of the day and night — I ate a lot of fresh produce. (I’ll come back to this in a minute.)
An old produce friend once remarked, “Have you ever noticed, you rarely see an overweight or out-of-shape produce person?”
True stuff. When you work in produce, there’s no need to join a gym. All day long, you lift heavy cases. You walk (briskly) while moving produce about the backroom. The same walking pace takes place on the sales floor or when you get a call from checkstand No. 16 to replace a cantaloupe —in a more than 65,000-square-foot store.
As an inspector I walked at least 8 miles every day, checking produce on the receiving dock, checking on reserve or pick slots in the warehouse, sorting product or shuttling paperwork to the receiving office. It was a great daily workout.
But in the stores? Not only were we constantly on the move, but we also frequently snacked on produce. We informally called it “grazing.”
Every time I set up a wet rack, if I was trimming celery or celeriac, I cut off a sliver to eat; it was natural for us to do so. As I put away some new variety of grapes, I tried a few out of habit. It was the same with just about everything. It may have been technically against the rules, but it was commonplace as anything to graze on whatever produce item that piqued our interest.
In fact, as a produce manager I encouraged it.
Related: More insight from Armand Lobato
Whenever a clerk remarked that they had never tried an artichoke or an acorn squash, I’d say, “Take a couple home and give it a go. No charge.”
After all, how else would a clerk really know how to explain to a customer how to select or prepare an item? It was a minimal investment, and most clerks eagerly accepted. Nothing like firsthand experience for training, right?
Beyond the occasional trial sample, we grazed on produce. But it went beyond free snacking.
For example, this time of year (winter) I might pluck a nice, fat navel orange out of a box. I’d bite down into the stem end, just enough to start peeling. Then I’d peel it quickly in just a few motions, split the dripping fruit into sections and wolf it down. Refreshing, sweet. Why that item? Because I knew it was peak season for citrus.
Other peak-season items this time of year might include plump import grapes or crispy apples from Washington, Michigan or New York. Sometimes we’d clip out a small grape cluster or cut a generous sample of an apple while we put our carts together. We did it out of habit, and when customers asked us about a particular variety, we were happy to share a sample together and talk up how one variety is slightly tart, sweet or extra crisp. Because we knew.
The same thing went for the vegetable case. It was common to stock snap peas — and sample a few. (Just a few, mind you. After all, we did have lots of work to do and didn’t want to eat all the profits.) But we did the same with all the trimmed or overwrapped items: broccoli, cauliflower, ginger root, herbs — anything that we knew was especially tasty. We didn’t just eat five servings during an average workday; I’d guess it was quadruple that or more.
You know what’s good and what’s seasonal. Five produce servings a day just doesn’t happen. The information needs to be shared, and the produce item’s stories told, calling out the seasonal peak items you know about, with noteworthy Brix. The flavor. The quality.
The question is, do your customers know?
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.
