The History of Fresh Produce

The Produce Industry Network
  • 5.0 (20)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Join John Paap and Patrick Kelly in this podcast series that explores the fascinating and often overlooked history of fresh fruits and vegetables. Each episode offers listeners a unique perspective on how produce has shaped our world, featuring in-depth interviews with top experts and historians, engaging storytelling, and a blend of historical and contemporary perspectives. Whether exploring the journey of grapes through time or the influence of produce in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, this series leaves no stone unturned. Social Channels: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyoffreshproduce/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyoffreshproduce?lang=en Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historyoffreshproduce?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558921896574

  1. Joseph Banks: The End of the Journey, Not the Influence (Part 7)

    2D AGO

    Joseph Banks: The End of the Journey, Not the Influence (Part 7)

    What becomes of a man who spent his life moving plants, people, and power across the globe - when his own body finally begins to fail? How did Joseph Banks face his final years: in pain, in controversy, and yet still at the very center of British science? And why, after four decades at the helm of the Royal Society, did his reputation wither almost as quickly as his health? In this seventh and final episode, John and Patrick follow Banks into his twilight: chairing meetings from a wheelchair, backing Arctic expeditions, sampling three-year-old tinned meat in the name of progress, and making one last pilgrimage to Kew to see a cone bloom after forty years of waiting. As grief, illness, and imperial consequence close in, the question sharpens: was Banks a visionary architect of modern science - or an overbearing relic of an older age? ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    39 min
  2. Joseph Banks: Kew and the Power of Plants (Part 6)

    FEB 10

    Joseph Banks: Kew and the Power of Plants (Part 6)

    What happens when exploration gives way to administration - and adventure turns into power? How did a royal garden become the beating heart of a global botanical empire? And how did Joseph Banks, without leaving London, reshape landscapes, economies, and diets across the world? In this episode, John and Patrick move from the drama of ocean voyages to the quieter - but far more consequential - world of Kew Gardens, where Banks transforms botany into infrastructure, plants into policy, and seeds into instruments of empire. From globe-spanning networks of plant hunters to glasshouses, diplomacy, and even Britain’s first brush with cannabis, this is where Banks stops collecting plants - and starts running the system. ---------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    1h 10m
  3. Joseph Banks: The Birth of Australia (Part 5)

    FEB 3

    Joseph Banks: The Birth of Australia (Part 5)

    How did a gentleman botanist turn a vague imperial idea into a functioning colony on the far side of the world? Why did Joseph Banks’s quiet influence matter as much as any act of Parliament or naval broadside? And how did food, plants, and fragile supply lines decide whether Britain’s most audacious colonial experiment would live or die…? Join John and Patrick as Parliament finally commits to Botany Bay, Arthur Phillip sails with the First Fleet, and a penal colony teeters on the edge of starvation. From floating prisons and travelling greenhouses to shipwrecks, rum empires, and botanical lifelines, this is the moment when Banks’s vision collides with reality - on scorched soil, among hostile factions, and under the brutal pressure of survival. This is not just the founding of Australia. It’s the story of how empire is fed - or fails - one seed at a time. ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    1h 13m
  4. Joseph Banks: Fame, Tantrums, and the Seeds of Empire (Part 4)

    JAN 27

    Joseph Banks: Fame, Tantrums, and the Seeds of Empire (Part 4)

    Fresh from fame and flush with ambition, Joseph Banks sets out to remake the world in his own image. But what happens when celebrity curdles into entitlement, when science collides with the Navy, and when one man’s colossal ego derails an imperial voyage before it even leaves port? Join John and Patrick as Banks plans a second South Seas expedition, throws one of the great tantrums of the eighteenth century, and quietly begins his transformation from globe-trotting naturalist into the most powerful scientific fixer in Britain. ---------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    1h 8m
  5. Joseph Banks: Death and Survival (Part 3)

    JAN 20

    Joseph Banks: Death and Survival (Part 3)

    What happens when discovery turns to disaster — and survival hangs on a sliver of luck? How close did Joseph Banks come to losing everything he had collected, and his life with it? And how did coral, disease, and chance shape one of the most important scientific voyages in history? Join John and Patrick as the Endeavour smashes onto the Great Barrier Reef, limps into Batavia, and is transformed from a ship of discovery into a floating hospital - a brutal reminder that Banks’s botanical triumphs were forged on the very edge of catastrophe. ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    59 min
  6. Joseph Banks: The Endeavour Sets Sail (Part 2)

    JAN 13

    Joseph Banks: The Endeavour Sets Sail (Part 2)

    What happened when Joseph Banks finally put to sea - and discovery left the comfort of gardens behind? How would a voyage meant to advance science collide with storms, suspicion, imperial rivalries, and human tragedy? And what would it cost to catalogue the natural world at the far edges of the globe? Join John and Patrick as they follow Banks aboard HMS Endeavour, from vineyards in Madeira and standoffs in Rio de Janeiro to catastrophe in Tierra del Fuego and the intoxicating promise of Tahiti. This is science under sail: plants collected at gunpoint, lives lost to ice and overconfidence, and the birth of a vision that would bind botany, empire, and exploration together - whether the world was ready for it or not. ---------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    1 hr
  7. Joseph Banks: Weeds Over Greek (Part 1)

    JAN 6

    Joseph Banks: Weeds Over Greek (Part 1)

    Who was Joseph Banks before he became the most powerful botanist in the British Empire? How did a wealthy, restless young man turn a childhood fascination with weeds into a scientific obsession that would reshape global agriculture? And why did one cold, miserable voyage to Newfoundland prove to be the spark that launched a world-changing career? Join John and Patrick as they begin a brand-new multi-part series on Joseph Banks, tracing his early life from privileged English estates to the edge of the North Atlantic - and setting the stage for the voyages that would transform science, empire, and the history of fresh produce. ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    49 min

  8. 12/30/2025

    The Swiss War on Fruit Trees

    Once, Switzerland was a land of pears. When we picture the Swiss countryside today, we imagine tidy fields, precision farming, and alpine order. But not so long ago, vast stretches of eastern Switzerland were covered in towering pear trees - ancient giants that fed communities, sustained wildlife, and produced perry renowned across Europe. So how did a nation famed for care, balance, and cultivation come to destroy eleven million fruit trees in the space of a generation? Join John and Patrick as they unravel one of the strangest and most unsettling episodes in modern agricultural history: the deliberate, state-sponsored destruction of Switzerland’s perry orchards. From temperance panics and alcohol laws to bureaucrats with axes, propaganda films, and the cult of “modern” efficiency, this is a story of progress turned destructive - and of a drink, a landscape, and a culture quietly erased. Was this modernization… or cultural vandalism? And what was lost when the last great pear trees fell? READ MORE about Perry Pears here. ---------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

    58 min
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5
out of 5
20 Ratings

About

Join John Paap and Patrick Kelly in this podcast series that explores the fascinating and often overlooked history of fresh fruits and vegetables. Each episode offers listeners a unique perspective on how produce has shaped our world, featuring in-depth interviews with top experts and historians, engaging storytelling, and a blend of historical and contemporary perspectives. Whether exploring the journey of grapes through time or the influence of produce in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, this series leaves no stone unturned. Social Channels: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyoffreshproduce/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyoffreshproduce?lang=en Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historyoffreshproduce?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558921896574

Information

  • Creator
    The Produce Industry Network
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    130
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 The Produce Industry Network
  • Show Website
    The History of Fresh Produce