The Produce Industry Podcast w/ Patrick Kelly

Why did a Jesuit republic of 140,000 people in the subtropical forests of South America — with its own armed militia, its own printing presses, its own Baroque composers, and the only successful mate plantation in colonial history — get destroyed by a riot about hats? How did the Guaraní and the Society of Jesus together solve a domestication mystery that no one else could crack, and why did that knowledge vanish the moment the priests were expelled?
Join John as he tells the story of Paraguay and yerba mate — the Jesuit utopia, the bandeirante raiders, the angel faces carved in subtropical sandstone, and the leaf that built a kingdom...
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Why does it take between 150,000 and 200,000 flowers — and up to 470 hours of human labour — to produce a single kilogram of saffron, and why has the plateau of La Mancha been the place where that labour happens for over a thousand years? What did the Moors actually bring to Spain, and why does every Spanish cook who reaches for the azafrán, the arroz, or the aceite speak a culinary history that maps directly onto what happened in those Andalusian fields between 711 and 1492? And what is the specific, irreversible tragedy of expelling the people who know how to maintain an irrigation system?
Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of Spain and the Arab Agricultural Revolution — the acequias, the Morisco expulsion, and the red-gold threads still harvested at dawn in La Mancha by the same method the Moors left behind...
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In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh.
The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here!
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How did a shipping clerk in Antwerp discover one of the greatest crimes of the nineteenth century simply by paying attention to which ships were carrying what — and why did it take a decade of missionary photographs, a British consul's report, and Mark Twain's pen to force the world to look? Why did the invention of the pneumatic tyre turn a wild Congo rubber vine into the engine of an atrocity that halved the population of an entire country? And what made Leopold II's Congo Free State different from every other colonial horror?
Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of the Democratic Republic of Congo — King Leopold's rubber state, the severed hands, the missionaries with cameras, and the first international human rights movement that finally forced the world to look...
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In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh.
The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here!
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Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.
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Join the Global Fresh Series as we follow the journey of apples across continents and discover how growers, importers, and retailers work together to ensure European consumers continue to enjoy premium apples long after the local season ends. We discuss the outlook for the overseas apple program, changing trade flows, growing demand for premium varieties such as Pink Lady® and Rosy Glow, and how retailers are navigating a balanced market with stable pricing and consistent quality. The episode also examines the increasing importance of global sourcing, supply chain coordination, and year-round availability in today's fresh produce industry.

#freshappleimports #Europefreshapples #consumersapples #appleexpots

Why does the word "paradise" — as used in every European language, in Arabic, in Urdu — simply mean "walled garden" in Old Persian, and what does that tell us about the civilisation that turned a horticultural achievement into humanity's vision of the afterlife? How did Cyrus the Great build a garden in the middle of one of Earth's most extreme deserts using a 3,000-year-old technology that is still working today? And why does the Taj Mahal, visited by millions who have never heard of the chahar bagh, turn out to be the most famous Persian garden on Earth?
Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of Iran and the paradise garden — the qanats, the four rivers of the Quran, and the walled enclosure that became heaven...
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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.
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