The History of Fresh Produce

As 2025 draws to a close, we also reach the midpoint of the decade. Looking back on an eventful first half of the 2020s, we’re left with a big question: what will history remember about this era in th...

23 Dec 202545min

What do gold, frankincense, and myrrh really tell us about the world into which Jesus was born? Who were the Magi - kings, mystics, scientists, or traders - and why did they travel vast distances carr...

16 Dec 202552min

From incestuous wasps and prehistoric forests to sacred enlightenment, revolutionary resistance, and a certain square-shaped snack aisle icon - what if the fig is the most powerful fruit in human hist...

9 Dec 20251h

"They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially colonized it. So technically, I colonized Mars. In your face , Neil Armstrong!"As Mark Watney's line from the book and film The Martian sug...

2 Dec 202547min

What does a thorny Mediterranean thistle have to do with the American Mafia? How did a humble vegetable — adored by Romans, cultivated by Renaissance queens, and grown lovingly by Italian immigrants —...

25 Nov 202543min

What if the most valuable substance on Earth wasn’t gold, or oil, or diamonds… but bird droppings?In the mid-19th century, guano—yes, seabird excrement—fueled an agricultural and geopolitical revoluti...

18 Nov 20251h

What happens when humanity takes its most basic need - food - beyond Earth’s atmosphere? From John Glenn’s applesauce tubes to the first lettuce grown aboard the International Space Station, the story...

11 Nov 20251h 2min

What is the legacy of Japanese American farmers in shaping California’s agricultural landscape? How did a community once barred from owning land become pioneers in strawberry and vegetable farming? An...

4 Nov 202552min