I have to start out by saying that I have been a big fan of Specialty Produce’s online presence for a few years now, and have also heard great things about them from other produce fans. So, needless to say, I was excited to check them out now that we are in the Southern California area. Specialty Produce is located in San Diego, California and they sell a variety of produce (and other) items, including the traditional produce you are used to at your local grocer, as well as produce items that are not as easy to come by. Their main customers are restaurants and hotels, but the best part is that they also have a grocery store portion that every day consumers can experience.
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A Look Inside Specialty Produce
Let me just start out by saying that Specialty Produce understands the world of social media! Upon entering, there are pictures up all over the wall, which leads you to a museum of Fruits and Vegetables. (Yes, you read that right!) This museum is really exciting and includes all sorts of fresh produce items that can be found all over the world. Bob Harrington, the owner of Specialty Produce, has spent many years traveling the world to expand the encyclopedia of fresh produce that Specialty Produce provides to the public, and in doing so, has accumulated all sorts of pictures that decorate the walls of Specialty Produce!
There are specific areas dedicated to different markets around the world, and there is even an entire wall dedicated to all kinds of apples!
In addition to “oooohing” and “aaahing” at the different produce items that most people have never seen or heard of before, there is also an entire grocery store to experience (which also includes screens and displays of pictures and content that is shared using the specialty produce hashtag (#specialtyproduce)). Right there in front of you are some of those fruits and vegetables that you do not normally get to see at your local grocer! I was lucky enough to get to tour the place with Bob and a few team members (Cathy and Joe) and it was really interesting to compare the things that they were getting excited to share with me versus what I was excited to see. Needless to say, I was very excited to shop at the end of the tour!
Specialty Produce App
I would describe my site visit as more of an experience to learn about the inner workings of a produce company, and would describe their online presence as a dream resource for people who want to incorporate more produce into their lives. They have an app for your phone or tablet, The Specialty Produce App, that contains information on a multitude of produce items, how they taste, what they look like, recipe ideas and much more! If you are interested in learning more about produce, download it! (Another alternative is to visit their website, where they have the same information.) Just to give you an idea, they have printed copies of the information contained within their app at the checkout stands in their store and they are huge (this picture does not do it justice!).
How You Can Utilize Information From My Visit
Not only can you use the app to help you with shopping and trying new things, but maybe the most exciting thing that I learned is that Specialty Produce is trying to link smaller farms to consumers. So, on their app, you can tag yourself in the location in which you found a certain produce item so that someone else looking for that same produce item in your area can find them as well. In a world where it is hard to find farms when looking for them, this is a really great resource to have and the more people that utilize this, the better it will be for everyone!
One of the examples we reviewed was Medlar. Have you ever heard of it? Yeah, me either! Well, it turns out that it is this great product that they believe in and is being grown in Bakersfield, California. I have never heard of it and would have no idea that it is being grown in California, but if I were to search for it on the app, I would be able to learn about Medlar and see where it has been spotted in California (by other app users) and around the world (at the time of this posting, it has also been experienced in London and the Netherlands).
What Produce was in my Cart
It is crazy how my mind has changed when shopping with a larger family. Before, I would think of what I would like to eat and what I would be able to convince my husband to eat, but now I think of what makes my mouth water, as well as what would be fun to have my kids try, plus items that they are guaranteed to like. For example, I saw a certain fruit and I thought, ‘hmm those probably taste like this other produce item that I’m not that big of a fan of’, but then I thought about how that is the perfect-sized fruit to get the kids excited to try with minimal cutting (which is what they prefer), so that was for sure included in my cart!
Here is what I went home with:
- Okra (we can normally only find this frozen)
- Persian Cucumbers (a different type of cucumber for us all to try!)
- Gold Beets (Noah loves the red beets, so I thought this would be a fun switch up)
- Red Cabbage (Anabelle is fascinated with red cabbage (which is really purple) in packaged salad bags, and they had smaller heads so I figured we would get one to experiment with to make her hopefully more comfortable eating it)
- Tango and Daisy Mandarins (we all love mandarins!)
- Hidden Rose Apples (there is no way I was going to pass up getting my hands on a pink-fleshed apple!)
- Green Dragon Apples (I have never heard of these and was told they taste better than the Hidden Rose, so I’m going to have to test them out for myself!)
- Tejocote Apples (I’ve never heard of them and they are a great bite-sized option for the kids)
- Strawberry Guavas (the same for these, plus they were super soft and ripe so I figured if I’m ever going to try them, that it should be at peek flavor!)
- Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes (why not try a new type of potato?!)
- Purple Potatoes (because they are honestly just so beautiful to cut into!)
- Bunashimeji Mushrooms (I have never seen anything like these in person and am excited for us all to try them!)
- Broccolini (Andrew loves these and we haven’t seen them in our local stores in a few moves)
- White Asparagus (we have never tried the white version before, and maybe Anabelle will try the white version since she won’t try the green version!)
- Figs (Anabelle LOVES figs! So if everything else fails, we still have the figs!)
I loved reading this post! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us.