Speaker 16 0:41

Good morning, Francis. Happy Monday.

Speaker 17 0:43

Happy Monday, Mark.

Speaker 16 0:46

How's it going?

Speaker 17 0:46

It's going pretty well. Yeah. Thank you. We have an amazing week coming up.

Speaker 16 0:50

Things are good. What's going on this week?

Speaker 17 0:51

Well, first of all- Tell us

Speaker 16 0:52

all about it.

Speaker 17 0:53

Uh, you know, my car got broken into last week, and the seats were stolen out of my car in Jersey

Speaker 16 0:56

City. Yes, I indeed did know that.

Speaker 17 0:58

Welcome to Jersey, everybody. So I'm still in- Ah,

Speaker 16 1:01

you live in the crime-ridden Jersey City

Speaker 2 1:03

Oh, you suburban boy.

Speaker 4 1:04

Don't blame us.

Speaker 2 1:06

So, no, Jersey City is great and actually it's a very low crime area. It

Speaker 4 1:09

is actually great.

Speaker 2 1:10

And, uh, there were, there have been very few car thefts, which made the stealing of my seats all the more unusual cop was scratching his head. Um, but I'm on my motorcycle.

Speaker 4 1:18

There are a few car thefts. But do, do the seats count as a car theft or not?

Speaker 2 1:21

Well, yeah, with what they cost or replace the seats to, that's just about, just about, so I'm on my motorcycle and the weather's been very, very cooperative, but I had a, for a, a regulatory moment today. I got on my bike and I, uh, was riding down the turnpike, not the most beautiful scenery, and I have a nice Harley Davidson, and I remembered when I was like 20. Oh,

Speaker 4 1:38

I thought you were talking about the one with the spoke, the card and the spokes and the little bell.

Speaker 2 1:41

No, no, no.

Speaker 4 1:42

Oh, okay. 'cause with the basket and,

Speaker 2 1:43

and I, I was, uh, I was, when I was 24, I remember SA guy when cell phones weren't that common and he was a business guy on a, on a nice Harley Davidson. And he, he pulled over to answer a cell phone call. And I thought, you know, that's just not what motorcycles are all about. And today. As I rode down the turnpike on my Harley Davidson, my 40-year-old self with my cell phone in the glove, in the glove colder, and my laptop in the saddlebags, I thought, how pathetic I'm gonna sell it and get a K car. That's what I'm gonna do. so, but, uh, it,

Speaker 4 2:14

he's a Taurus.

Speaker 2 2:15

That's what you need the stage

2:16

in

Speaker 2 2:16

your life. I know they don't make cake cars anymore. Well, this week, uh, people should, uh, tune in, just for our wonderful banter, but also because we have a pretty amazing setup today. We're gonna be interviewing later on a guy named William Walker, who's with Jersey Fresh. Mm-hmm. Which is a program from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture that's been fabulously successful. I think they've done a great job in, uh, actually representing, Jersey foods in a very favorable way. And that's, that's really fabulous, especially, it's a

Speaker 4 2:41

great change for the, for the state for

Speaker 2 2:42

sure. To see. And that's, uh, outta the Department of Agriculture. Mm-hmm. To see a government program that works. Oh my goodness. Right.

Speaker 4 2:46

It's, it's definitely working. I mean, it's three, four years in the making and it, and you definitely see a difference.

Speaker 2 2:50

but over the weekend, I know that you saw the paper mark.

Speaker 4 2:54

I did. You know, I happened past a, a little article about a couple of guys,

Speaker 2 2:59

the Home News Tribune. For those of you outside the central Jersey area, that's, uh, listening on the web. That's, the local paper, but it's a pretty important central Jersey paper.

Speaker 4 3:06

Nice big.

Speaker 2 3:07

Ran a nice big article on the restaurant, guys. We were so happy about that.

Speaker 4 3:10

It was really good.

Speaker 2 3:11

So hopefully we have some new listeners who, who saw that article.

Speaker 4 3:14

Well counting on that.

Speaker 2 3:14

Welcome to our audience,

Speaker 4 3:15

Francis. You know what I really appreciated about the article? Now, obviously it was a wonderful article that, that was very effusive and, and said some really nice things about both of us.

Speaker 2 3:24

Yep.

Speaker 4 3:25

But she really got it as far as like who the nice one is and who the mean one is.

Speaker 2 3:29

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 3:29

Let me, let me just read you a few, I wonder

Speaker 2 3:30

where this is going.

Speaker 4 3:31

Lemme just read you a few quotes from, from the article. This weekend shot is a fast talker, literal. Pascal is more laconic.

Speaker 2 3:38

Mm, laconic lazy.

Speaker 4 3:39

Okay. Here it says Francis is the mean one. They're actually quoting me when they say that.

Speaker 2 3:45

I was gonna say, you can't quote the paper quoting you and say it's quoting the paper. You said I was the mean one to her. She wrote it. That doesn't count.

Speaker 4 3:52

Uh, quote from Ralph Saviano, mark is the rock. Francis will go on and on and then Mark will, throw a hand grenade into that.

Speaker 2 3:59

Sounds like a terrorist, not a rock.

Speaker 4 4:01

And then towards the end, the last paragraph is that I had a cookout and Francis. Interjects. You didn't invite me shots as the cook cookout. No, I didn't. Pascal laughs. 70 hours with you a week. So much more than enough.

Speaker 2 4:14

A little angry about that.

Speaker 4 4:16

Get over it.

Speaker 2 4:16

You know, I, I did like that. They called me a ruddy baby. Faced blonde.

Speaker 4 4:20

You. Well

Speaker 2 4:21

I sound so attractive.

Speaker 4 4:22

And then they showed a

Speaker 2 4:23

picture and I was gonna say, if they could only airbrush the pictures, you

Speaker 4 4:26

know,

Speaker 2 4:27

a ready babyface, double

Speaker 4 4:29

chin blonde was really nice. Uh, a woman by the name of. Lori Granier,

Speaker 2 4:32

my new favorite reporter,

Speaker 4 4:33

my new favorite reporter, and actually heard about us through her mom. Her mom listens to the show every day. Hello, Mr. Hi, Mrs. Granier. And, uh, turned her on to the show and, and they said some really, really great things about the show.

Speaker 2 4:47

Well, and they also said that a lot of you are listening out there. She did a little bit of research and she's found that a lot of people listening to the show, so we're really grateful about that.

Speaker 4 4:53

Well, you know, you always take a risk when you, when you give an interview like that, you don't have any power over what's gonna be said. You don't know if, if the reporter has some kind of agenda that they're not telling you. And there's always kind of a, a, a little bit of trepidation in giving an interview like that that. Something's gonna go horribly awry that they're gonna see some horrible thing that, your organization does or they're looking for something. So it was really nice and, and I knew probably 20 minutes into the interview that, that Lori was obviously interested in, writing a, real. Peace about us and about what we do and like us or hate us. I think she hit us on the head for sure.

Speaker 2 5:29

And I think some people hate us.

Speaker 4 5:31

I'm, I know some people hate us, but, uh, I really do think she did a good job, So that was terrific. There was another, did you read Bon Appetit this month?

Speaker 2 5:40

Yeah,

Speaker 4 5:41

let, let me show you the little spread from Bon Appetit. You can't see it in radio land. Oh, show Francis year.

Speaker 2 5:46

I saw it. I was horrified

Speaker 4 5:47

that it's a little pop out of apples and walnuts and the like.

Speaker 2 5:52

And it's from,

Speaker 4 5:53

it says, I don't know who loves this salad more, me or my fork?

Speaker 2 5:59

It's from Burger King.

Speaker 4 6:00

No, it's

6:00

McDonald's.

Speaker 2 6:00

No, McDonald's. I'm sorry. It's an advertisement for McDonald's for the new salad. And I have to say, I really, think it's a good thing that, and you know what, it's a result of all this public pressure.

Speaker 4 6:08

That's exactly right. You again, that they're

Speaker 2 6:09

starting to offer vegetables.

Speaker 4 6:10

We talked about this, uh, a couple of weeks ago, that it's the, it's the result of the pressure that we're putting on, you are putting on these fast food chains that they, they have to answer to.

Speaker 2 6:20

I don't actually think it's a result of this show, mark.

Speaker 4 6:22

I mean No, no, but everybody, each person. Yeah. We all do our little piece.

Speaker 2 6:26

I like to think it's a result that, that Ray Croc is listening in his grave. Um, but I think we're gonna talk more a little bit later in the show about fast food and they're sort of move to halfway embrace or fool you into thinking that they're embracing, healthier and fresher foods. What do you think? I stand on this issue.

Speaker 4 6:41

I think we should talk to the jersey fresh guy.

Speaker 15 6:42

you know, in restaurants as well as in homes, things have sort of changed. And the way that fine dining restaurants have changed, um, over the years and the way that Stage Left has changed, the way that all the great restaurants in, in the world have, have, have changed, the truly great ones, is it used to be in the '70s you'd cook out of a box or a can or maybe you'd get some decent ingredients, and it was all about the technique

Speaker 2 7:01

Now, technique is very, very important, but when you go to fine dining restaurants today. You'll hear people say, you know, these strawberries are from in Dyke farms. Mm-hmm. Or the in dyke farm strawberries or the Honesdale farm pork loin, or the, and if you're wondering why that is, it's because two things have come together. The way if you go out in the world and look for the best food to eat. If you look for the best pig to eat, you may well find yourself at Homedale farm or a similar farm in Pennsylvania or a farm in Jersey that makes pig. If you go out and look for the

Speaker 4 7:29

only God can make a pig,

Speaker 2 7:30

right if you look for the best. Um, funny, sustainably produced without hormones, without antibiotics, uh, well produced, pig on a family farm 'cause that's what's right. You're gonna find yourself in the same place, um, because it's about supporting these local farmers 'cause they're making the best as well as the best forest and, um. We have in Jersey a million farms, but it's really hard for these farmers to find a market in Long Island. You have New York City and many Jersey farmers go to New York City, but to get Jersey produce fresh to Jersey people has been something that's vexed us for years. And we've had an ally in it recently in an organization, uh, in a, in a, in a movement called Jersey Fresh, which you may have seen there. Signs in the supermarkets and their branding.

Speaker 4 8:12

They're doing a great job with branding of, of Jersey

Speaker 2 8:14

Fresh and that that actually grew outta the Department of Agriculture, the state of New Jersey. Look at that, a government program that worked. Well, we'll be talking, to, um, William Walker from Jersey Fresh about real food and real fresh food in just a moment. You're listening to the Restaurant Guys, And we have with us on the phone, uh, William Walker from Jersey Fresh to talk to us about this very interesting program. Hello, William.

Speaker 4 8:31

Welcome to the show. William,

Speaker 5 8:33

are you still fine?

Speaker 2 8:34

Great. Still fine. Terrific.

Speaker 5 8:36

Still fine. Thank you.

Speaker 2 8:37

Um, well, we like your program, as you can tell from our intro of you. Um, but we're curious about how you got it start. How did it start? Who started it? Where did it come from and, and how did it, you know, is it long in the making? Is it just recently popular or is it just recently founded?

Speaker 5 8:51

Well, it's been a 20 year program. Actually. We celebrate our 20th anniversary this year, and for the most part, it's actually been a, uh, a promotion working with supermarkets since they move probably 85% of the produce that's grown in the state. And it, uh, started under, uh, Tom Kane's administration and, uh, some ideas out of, uh, Gillespie advertising in Princeton. They've won a lot of national awards for that early on, and, uh, we just continue trying to do it a little bit, uh, you know, different and tweak it each year. But, uh, it's only been the past couple of years when we really started focusing a little bit more on the hospitality industry. And that's, uh, sort of in its infancy for us right now, and we're just trying to do the, the best job we can with it.

Speaker 2 9:29

How do you find that your partnership with the, with the hospitality industry is going? What are the, the good things about it? What are the difficult things about it?

Speaker 5 9:35

I, I think one of the difficult things about it is what we're trying to do is ideally what you guys would like to see, and that's farmer to, to table. And the problem with that is, you know, farmers are farmers. They're not distribution people,

Speaker 2 9:48

right?

Speaker 5 9:48

They grew up on a farm, they went to school for farming and production and technical sorts of things. And it's, you wanna call it left brain, right brain thing. Mm-hmm. They didn't grow up, they don't have experience. They, they didn't write press releases. They didn't mark. That's, that's not their thing. It's not what they like to do. It's not what their background in education is.

Speaker 4 10:05

Yeah. But some of the things I see that you guys are putting together, uh, you, you have these roadside markets. You have these, town markets that, that Sure. You place on, you know, Wednesdays in Westfield. Yeah. Uh, there's a, there's a farmer's market and you bring these farmers together for us. That's, that's a. Big, big advantage, uh, for, for the consumer. I think because we are doing exactly that. We're going from farmer to table.

Speaker 5 10:27

That's worked out really well for us probably in the last five years. Uh, we've gone from 10 or 12 markets to about 60 per,

Speaker 4 10:34

mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 10:35

per week. All around the state. They're just going on everywhere a couple days a week here and, and they're. Especially in North Jersey.

Speaker 4 10:41

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 10:42

And that really enables us to, to go buy from the farmers directly. And, uh, the thing that you don't see, and, and the thing that makes it work for us is that the towns where this is happening, those towns actually invest some time and energy and effort into it. They have somebody who spends maybe a, a third of their time during the season, sort of working with the, the farmers that are there, putting up posters and flyers and making sure all the. Other businesses located in and around there are happy with the way things are going, and it seems to be fair and helping them out,

Speaker 4 11:12

but it, but it really does work. I mean, I, I'll tell you, not only do I go to the ones near, near my hometown Sure. But I was in Ocean City, New Jersey on, on vacation last summer, and lo and behold was there. Little farmer's market, little, you know, one day event that one day a week that they did Sure. On, on the Wednesday I was there and I brought the produce for the week that, that we were gonna be down the shore directly from the farmer. And, and it makes a big difference.

Speaker 5 11:36

It makes a big difference in the quality and, and what it provides to people is that service that they yearned for. Where was it grown? When was it picked, what can I do with it?

Speaker 4 11:45

Right.

Speaker 5 11:45

And it's provide the real service and it's connecting people to, uh. To their rural sort of heritage. Mm-hmm. And that's what makes it work. People are overwhelmingly in favor of supporting this recent bond referendums and things of that nature. 70% of people vote in favor preserving farmland.

Speaker 4 12:01

Sure.

Speaker 5 12:01

Well, we have to preserve the farmer. Yeah. That's, that's sort of our mantra here, the last year or two with our new Secretary of Agriculture is that we're really, you know, it's great to buy somebody's development rights and, and keep this as a farm forever. But you know, people who got their money 10 years ago still struggling to make a living off that farm. Right.

Speaker 2 12:17

Well, and also you, you, what people don't realize is that, you know, we, they see farmers being subsidized a lot from the federal government. Most of the farmers that are subsidized by the federal government are, are very large farmers that you're not gonna see. Most of the subsidies go to farmers. That you are not gonna see in the market. They're, they go to agribusiness farmers, large farmers. Yeah,

Speaker 5 12:34

they do at the Midwest and whatnot. That, that's actually changing a little bit the last year or so, that I think the federal government has sort of come around to a new idea of what else is going on out there. That's

Speaker 2 12:43

great.

Speaker 5 12:44

Mm-hmm. And there's been a lot of campaigning and lobbying on our part in the northeast particularly, and they're starting to look at, uh, vegetables and fruits in small farming and direct marketing as something that. They need to pay more attention to that one.

Speaker 2 12:54

Well, and when you go to the local farmer's market, you're not talking, you, you know, if that farmer is there selling his watermelons at the local market mm-hmm. You're talking about he's there because he need, he's working to, to live and just keep his family on the farm.

Speaker 4 13:05

Right. And then in reality, he's taking away from time he could be working in his farm.

Speaker 5 13:09

No question about it.

Speaker 2 13:11

Do you find that most of the, most of the farmers market, the farmers have are, are there selling or is your staff selling or do farmers co-op to get people there to put their stuff together?

Speaker 5 13:19

A little bit of each. I, I think what, what you see in the farming industry is, is family and every part of your business that the people that you trust emanates from family. So you may have one family member directing three or four other. Of workers, uh, uhhuh that, that you're training young people, you know, a lot of part-time people, uh, new immigrants to the state, to our country, people who have these skills in other places. Uh, but it's definitely take one step back to take two forwards. Mm-hmm. There's no question about it. You, you have to get past just being. A production person and wholesaling everything and take a step back and to direct some of your energies into retailing. It make, instead of making, uh, 35 cents on a dollar, make 95 cents on a dollar. And

Speaker 4 14:01

that's

Speaker 5 14:01

sort of where they're at.

Speaker 4 14:02

Right? Well, it's, it's a process. It's a, it's a, it's a learning process for, for everybody. You know, a lot of the, the wine makers in California 15 years ago had this same problem. They're farmers and now they're getting into the publicity and the, and that part of the business with the wine world.

Speaker 2 14:18

Hey, you're back with the restaurant guys, and we're talking with William Walker from Jersey Fresh, which is the, uh, New Jersey Department of Agriculture program that promotes local farm. And lo and behold, it's a government program that is working very well and doing great things throughout the state.

Speaker 5 14:30

Thank you. We're, we're here from the government and we're trying to help you.

Speaker 4 14:33

It's, and it's actually working,

Speaker 2 14:34

oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 14:35

Here from the government trying to help us and it's working. Hooray.

Speaker 2 14:38

Can you have a, can you have a conversation with the division of motor vehicles, please?

Speaker 5 14:41

Yeah. Well, you know, you can't fix everything at once,

Speaker 4 14:44

actually, you have to admit that's an area that's

Speaker 2 14:47

gotten a lot better, a lot as well. Better, I have to say, I have to say. Alright, now, um, we've been talking about keeping the family of farmers on the farm, which is of course what we wanna do, but do you think that the, the quality of the produce in the produce markets is better? Then the quality of produce that, that, that people can get in a, in a market that's say, you know, apples from Washington state and tomatoes from Florida.

Speaker 5 15:07

Oh, for sure. Mm-hmm. And, and I think, I mean, it just makes sense. Well, most of us have had a garden in our backyard from time to time and you know, you can either pick it before it's tripe when it's, uh, you know, less mature and, and, and harder and easier to transport. Or you could let it vine ripen and have full flavor and, you know, take it from your garden to your table. And that's more or less what our farmers are trying to do. Mm-hmm. You know, uh, just sort of, uh, harvest, mature produce. It doesn't have to travel far. It's not the cooler long and the short of that time period. Uh, obviously you can clip a week off of it if you're buying locally as instead of buying from California. And it, you know, it's, it's all for your benefit.

Speaker 4 15:44

And tomatoes don't have to fit in a six by five, uh, pack.

Speaker 5 15:46

No. And that's, tomatoes are another store. We tried to sort of emulate the successful a few years ago and go to tomatoes that were, uh. You know, the ship better, the thicker skinned and whatnot. Mm-hmm. And, uh, what we found out is that, uh, you know, people really aren't appreciating them as much as the old ugly tomatoes that, uh, they grew up with.

Speaker 6 16:06

Sure.

Speaker 5 16:06

It's sort of a revolt to towards heirloom varieties and, more flavor. That's, that's number one on their list. It's not, number

Speaker 4 16:12

one on our list, man.

Speaker 5 16:13

Yeah.

Speaker 4 16:14

I, I don't know what happened this year. Uh, it seems to be the, the worst. It's been a long, long time. California strawberries, I don't know if they came out with a new hybrid. I don't, but they're white in the middle. Flavorless. Thick skinned cardboardy. I can't wait for the Jersey strawberries to come out.

Speaker 5 16:31

That's actually, they're happening, they're just starting this.

Speaker 4 16:34

Yeah, this is

Speaker 5 16:34

this past week and uh, that's sort of one of my pet projects. I'm working with some growers in an ag agent, south Jersey. That's one of our secrets. And the first thing, my wife, you know, you'll be somewhere and you have a strawberry. You cut it open and I'll hold it up to her and it's, you know, I said, what color is this? On the inside,

Speaker 4 16:49

I say,

Speaker 5 16:49

white. And actually we, we have a, a growing, uh, local strawberry industry. And, and they're not the strawberries that we remember as kids. These, the wet sweet berries, they're the Chandler Berry. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 16:59

The

Speaker 5 16:59

one that they grow out in California. But lo and behold, if you actually ripen it the right way, right, it's red on the inside, has a lot of flavor.

Speaker 13 17:08

we are here talking with William Walker from Jersey Fresh, which is uh, run by the Department of Agriculture, the state of New Jersey. We're very excited. To have him on the show because this is a very important program. When you see the jersey fresh la uh, labels or signs in the supermarket or at farm stands or all over the state or even on restaurant menus these days, it's a real organization and they do real things that bring better produce to you and help to keep our jersey farmers. On the farm where they belong

Speaker 12 17:34

and, and we, when we say better produce, we're talking about produce that a has been ripened at the farm as opposed to in a box has been ripened on the vine, and B has gotten to you faster than it could have if it came from any other place in the world.

Speaker 13 17:47

Hello, William?

Speaker 14 17:48

Hello.

Speaker 13 17:48

You were talking to us about the fact, just what Mark had alluded to is that the strawberries that we are doing now are even the Chandler, which are the same variety of strawberry they grow in California. Even when you get Chandler, they're better heat when you get them grown in Jersey because if you get 'em grown in California, they pick them un ripe or they pick them still with the, that stalk on, which actually is very bad for the flavor.

Speaker 12 18:09

Right.

Speaker 13 18:10

And then they And the vitamins. And the vitamins and they ship. 'cause what happens is the flavor and the MA vitamins start to migrate back up into the stalk with strawberries, which is very bad. And, and, but if you grow those same varieties of strawberries in New Jersey, what happens is the farmer picks them with when they're ripe. Yeah.

Speaker 14 18:24

That makes, makes 'em hard to ship from California. If you pick 'em when they're ripe.

Speaker 13 18:27

Yeah, they're mushed by the time they get here, you have jam.

Speaker 14 18:29

Exactly. Which, and that works for our people. And, uh, we're just trying to help to get the word out that, hey, it's out there, it's available. And there's, there's farmers who are really in business now trying to cater to consumers, the wholesale,

Speaker 13 18:41

and I think the farmers have gotten smart. And our government here in New Jersey has gotten smart with Jersey Fresh. Um, because what it, what we realize is, look. W small family farms will never be able to produce strawberries as a commodity. Mm-hmm. As well as the large agribusiness farms, correct? Never. Never, never. Okay. But what we found is that they can produce. Better quality price. Mm-hmm. And for that, they get a premium. And with that they can stay on their farms. Is that the, is that the model of the whole thing?

Speaker 14 19:08

That's the basic gist. If you can't beat people at quantity, you beat 'em at quality,

Speaker 13 19:12

right? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14 19:12

Mm-hmm. That's where we, that's where we're going. It, it's funny, we do, uh, surveys every few years. These. You know, big companies research and, and you know, prices like forth on the list

Speaker 12 19:21

mm-hmm.

Speaker 14 19:21

When people, when you really pin 'em down, I mean, they, they want quality number one,

Speaker 12 19:25

right. we use one of the, the, you pick farms, that's a Jersey fresh farm called in Dike Farms to, to pick our strawberries.

Speaker 14 19:31

Sure.

Speaker 12 19:32

And I, I took my daughter there, my daughter who doesn't like strawberries, and she said. Deb, the, these aren't strawberries, these taste great. Yeah, I love these. And the difference was just having it fresh, having it ripened on the vine, having it red all the way through. And she, had an understanding of this is not the same product that you bring to me from the supermarket in December. It's just not the same thing.

Speaker 14 19:53

It's a qualitatively different product.

Speaker 12 19:55

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14 19:56

And we're, we're finding that out. There's one major, uh, famous chain in central New Jersey area, and they had our strawberries and the old green fiber containers.

Speaker 13 20:04

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14 20:05

Right next to those clamshell California berries. And they were being sold out at $5 a quart. Right. Yeah. And they couldn't keep them in stock.

Speaker 13 20:11

Well, but you know what, if you can get, if you can get strawberries at $3 a quart, that looked beautiful, but don't taste like anything. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or st strawberries of $5 a quart that, that are, that are nice. Yeah, I mean, buy a half a pint of the ones that tastes like something.

Speaker 12 20:23

Well, the, one of the, one of the disadvantages you have when you pick a ripe strawberries, you can only keep it around for a couple days in, in our situation and hopefully at home as well. You take those strawberries and after your second day, you make them into a jam or you make them into an ice cream or a sorbet, or, or, oh, just eat 'em strawberry rhubarb pie.

Speaker 14 20:40

Just throw 'em in a smoothie, add some yogurt, and,

Speaker 12 20:42

and there you go. Or smoothie 'em.

Speaker 13 20:44

Hey William, do you have kids? Three. That's great. You guys, you got the big family guys over there?

Speaker 14 20:48

Well, three under, under 11, three girls.

Speaker 13 20:50

Well you guys are talking about smoothies. Lemme tell you something, everybody, little bit of tequila, get out the blender, little bit of lime juice and you make yourself strawberry margarita. It's delicious.

Speaker 14 21:01

Well, with three

Speaker 13 21:02

kids, we're support our local farmers with the strawberry margaritas.

Speaker 14 21:05

We find ourselves reaching for that smoothie more often than not.

Speaker 13 21:09

Some days, gentlemen, some day, but I'm still in Margaritaville. We

Speaker 14 21:11

have to make sure I give them the right smoothie mix.

Speaker 12 21:13

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Although they sleep like a dream.

Speaker 13 21:17

Right. I wanna, I wanna point out something else though about, we're talking about strawberries for an example, because, you know, people say, oh, buy locally. Well, you know, that's not just a, a mantra that's like, oh, let's do good in the world and, oh, recycle. the other thing is. With the local strawberries, we go to the U pick farms that are involved in your program.

Speaker 14 21:31

Yeah.

Speaker 13 21:32

And they use different varieties of strawberries. Mm-hmm. Varieties that you can never get shipped because they don't ship. Well,

Speaker 14 21:37

no question.

Speaker 13 21:38

But they taste great.

Speaker 14 21:40

Mm-hmm. Wonderful varieties. So the older, wetter berries as well. And, and the kinds, you can't, like you said, you just can't get anywhere unless you go get 'em yourself.

Speaker 12 21:46

Yep. One, one of the things, and I, and I just wanna talk for a minute, 'cause this is one of the programs you're promoting, is, is these U Pick farms?

Speaker 14 21:52

Sure.

Speaker 12 21:53

Just it, what a, what a great thing. A, I think it, it makes the consumer connect with, with more, with the food and understand where it comes from and how it comes from. Good question. Uh, and b, you, you obviously can get better, fresher produce this way. It's, it's such a great program that gets people actually out into the farms. Also is a great outing for you and your kids.

Speaker 14 22:15

No question. Fair family wearing it. Fun thing to do.

Speaker 12 22:17

It's, it's, my kids love it. I enjoy it. It's a great outdoor fun activity to do. And, and what do you do? You come home and you have a flat of strawberries that to do something with and then that's which starts another family activity

Speaker 14 22:30

plus, plus the flat that you and your family ate while picking them.

Speaker 12 22:34

Exactly.

Speaker 14 22:34

We have farmers, that kid that they wanna weigh people before they, before they start to enter their finish as well, you know?

Speaker 13 22:40

Yeah. You know, that I, I, I, the other thing is about bringing kids to, to farms. I have one nephew, my godson, who is very into food, and it's interesting to see kids today because he's, he just knows a lot about food for some reason. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But most of the kids his age don't.

22:54

Yeah.

Speaker 13 22:54

And, From their frame of reference, you know, where does food come from? It comes from a box or a can. Yeah. And so it's, it's really a revelation for kids who, to bring them to a farmer's market and see it growing outta the ground. You, you know, we were talking about varieties before, and I think we can't have any discussion of jersey produce without talking about, you know, the jersey fruit or the jersey vegetable, depending on where you stand on the issue. Uh, the tomato.

Speaker 14 23:15

Yeah.

Speaker 13 23:16

Now there is a, what is. Because I have my own opinions. What is a jersey now? There's a jersey beef, steak, tomato, and then there's the famous jersey tomato, right? There's a difference. Do you guys make the differentiate between those?

23:27

We

Speaker 14 23:27

don't. We don't, I mean, it it, you, you can't because you, you want it to be looked at as the single or commodity, which is Jersey Tomato.

Speaker 13 23:35

Right. You know,

Speaker 14 23:35

you don't want people to be nitpicking it that closely because that's we're

Speaker 13 23:38

nitpick, man. Sorry.

Speaker 14 23:40

Yeah, no, that's all right.

Speaker 13 23:41

It's cool. No, I understand your perspective though.

Speaker 14 23:43

Well, we actually have a bill pending, and it's winding its way through the legislature. It's already happening out in California that anything that's advertised, for instance, a vine ripe and tomato. Has to be a vine ripened tomato. It can't,

Speaker 13 23:54

it's ripen on the vine. Right? What that,

Speaker 14 23:56

that that's happening here.

Speaker 13 23:57

That's not a law yet.

Speaker 14 23:59

It's not. It's winding its way through. So it's not only what's grown here, but in basically in a supermarket situation as well. Something says vine ripened. It needs to be vine ripened.

Speaker 13 24:07

Now, hold on a second. You're telling me that in our supermarkets today, there are things that say vine ripened tomatoes and they're picked green and gassed.

Speaker 14 24:13

Yes.

Speaker 13 24:14

That's not right.

Speaker 14 24:15

Exactly.

Speaker 13 24:17

That's just wrong.

Speaker 14 24:18

And we're writing the worlds wrong one day at a time.

Speaker 13 24:20

Oh man.

Speaker 14 24:21

Yep.

Speaker 13 24:22

You're gonna get me up on my high horse and then no one's gonna be able to talk for the rest of the show.

Speaker 12 24:25

Yeah. It's, it's not hard to, it's really hard to get him off that horse once he's up there.

Speaker 13 24:29

Well, when we have, the thing about Jersey tomatoes is, first of all, the tomato when, uh, picked, ripe is a fairly fragile, um mm-hmm. Fruit.

Speaker 12 24:37

It's,

Speaker 13 24:37

um, and, and. We are in Jersey, are famous for the tomato because of course our j we have, there is a variety, there are seven varieties of tomatoes that can be called Jersey tomatoes. There's a Jersey Tomato Council, isn't that right? Some organization that,

Speaker 14 24:48

well, there, there was a Jersey Tomato Council, but unfortunately those guys weren't able to make, uh, a long term go of it either.

Speaker 13 24:54

Mm-hmm. That,

Speaker 14 24:54

that hasn't worked out for them.

Speaker 13 24:55

That's a, that's a bummer. Yep. But, but the old varieties of tomatoes that we used used to grow in Jersey are called, are. Referred to as Jersey Tomatoes. And then there's the Jersey beef steak, which is still a very good tomato, very good tomato that was developed at Rutgers that is a little rounder and a little better looking and a little more cooperative. Sure. But the whole jersey, the whole heirloom tomato movement across the country is pretty amazing. We deal with heirloom tomatoes a lot, and we have some custom planted for us and. That's a very short season. Mm-hmm. But tomatoes are so versatile, especially in a culture that embraces Italian cuisine so much.

Speaker 12 25:25

But you can lengthen the season by planting some of these different varieties that come up at different times. Great point, great point. It's a great way to lengthen out the

Speaker 13 25:33

season, and when we come back, we're gonna talk with you about refrigeration. And how to be very careful, especially with tomatoes and other things, because refrigeration is not always a good thing. Americans wanna refrigerate everything, but we'll talk about that and give you some helpful hints when we come back.

25:46

William, we were talking just before the break about, refrigeration. Sure. Most people think, "Well, if I've got it, the way to keep it longer is I've got to put it in the refrigerator."

Speaker 13 25:53

what's the real deal with that?

Speaker 14 25:55

Well, tomatoes, you don't wanna put them in a refrigerator. Aha. So you might wanna buy them in various stages, you know, and, and put them on the, on your counter. Uh, if you wanna ripen 'em quicker, you can put 'em in a paper bag and, uh, sort of the old, uh, let it breathe in and out its own, uh, ex, you know, exhale. It's, it's a

Speaker 13 26:13

production,

Speaker 14 26:14

right? You don't,

Speaker 13 26:14

you don't want just to clarify that for everybody. You don't wanna put the tomato in a plastic bag because. Put

Speaker 14 26:20

it in a paper bag. You don't want it to stay moist.

Speaker 13 26:22

Right.

Speaker 12 26:22

Otherwise it'll rot.

Speaker 13 26:23

Exactly. And you, you wanna concentrate the gases that are coming off it, but you also want it to be able to respire out the moisture in the tomato so that it can ripen. But the fact, but what you don't wanna do with the tomato. Don't, don't wanna

Speaker 14 26:34

refrigerate

Speaker 13 26:35

it. Just don't refrigerate tomatoes. Don't refrige tomatoes. Don't refrige don't refrigerate tomatoes.

Speaker 14 26:38

So do you think should, would never refrigeration of tomato?

Speaker 12 26:41

Yeah.

Speaker 13 26:42

I

Speaker 12 26:42

You think you should refrigerate

Speaker 13 26:43

tomatoes? Oh yeah. I go to the, I go to these fine dining restaurants in, in August and you know, they, they really are, they've done, you know, they're like, oh, they got the local tomatoes and they do a tomato and mozzarella salad. Mm-hmm. And then you get, and it tastes like nothing.

Speaker 12 26:55

Yeah,

Speaker 13 26:55

because

Speaker 12 26:55

I, I had one last

Speaker 13 26:56

night. Oh, God. At

Speaker 12 26:57

a restaurant last night. Exactly that.

Speaker 13 26:58

But you don't put a tomato in the refrigerator. Mm-hmm. Okay. And if you, and then you gotta leave the tomato and you cut it and you can, you can bring it down to like 55 degrees. Mm-hmm. Okay. But if you put it in the refrigerator an hour later, it's like fresh mella an hour later.

Speaker 12 27:11

Right.

Speaker 13 27:11

It's a store-bought thing. It's, you ruin everything about it.

Speaker 14 27:14

It's like a nice glass of wine. You have to let it warm up.

Speaker 13 27:16

You

Speaker 14 27:17

have to be able to taste it.

Speaker 13 27:18

Yeah. But the thing is, if you have a nice warm glass of wine, you put it in the refrigerator, you can take it out again and it'll come back. The tomato's dead.

Speaker 14 27:23

You're right.

Speaker 13 27:24

That's true. Now the, there are some other fruits that we have to be careful about refrigerating. If we refrigerate, say unripe tree fruit. Mm-hmm. That's not a good thing, is it?

Speaker 14 27:32

Yeah. Peaches. Your best example. Same situation. Works the same way. Right. buy them, uh, in various stages and sort of keep 'em on your counter and, and work it that way because really peaches will get mealy. And, and, uh, and that, that's been a problem historically with peaches that you're gonna get from far away. They've just been refrigerated for too long.

Speaker 13 27:50

Right.

Speaker 12 27:50

And they, and they do exactly that. They get mealy. Do

Speaker 13 27:53

you know,

Speaker 12 27:53

that's a great, great description. If

Speaker 13 27:54

you, pretty much any unripe fruit is not gonna ripen in your refrigerator. It's just what's gonna happen is it will not ripen, but the inside will continue to go forward. So you, you'll get like a mealy middle of everything. It seems

Speaker 14 28:05

like it can actually rot before it's ripened.

Speaker 13 28:07

Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's been,

Speaker 12 28:09

I, I actually, I, I will cheat with like a peach or something 'cause I do like to eat 'em kind of cool. I'll put 'em in the fridge about 15 or 20 minutes before I'm gonna eat em.

Speaker 13 28:16

And I'm the fussy partner.

Speaker 12 28:17

Hey, you go.

Speaker 13 28:18

Um,

Speaker 12 28:19

my, my absolute favorite way to eat a piece of fruit. And I, and I said I, I do sometimes like a little bit cool, but out on like an 85 or 90 degree day plucked right off the tree that 85 or 90 degree peach or white nectarine that came right off the tree. Oh yeah. Where it's just super juicy and, and. Totally ripe there. There's no flavor like that. I'm, I'm actually salivating a little.

Speaker 14 28:44

You eat it up for trash. Can

Speaker 13 28:45

you know, you know it's funny

Speaker 12 28:46

with a towel. Yeah.

Speaker 13 28:47

Mark. And my favorite fruit of the season and we like, were like giddy when like asparagus is here. See, our family think we're crazy, right? But our favorite fruit of the season is white peaches. Now white peaches are the most fragile of all peaches. They need to be picked when they're ripe and they don't ship at all. And you've got to like. Gently carry them even to the farmer's market. And we have a few farmers that we deal with directly. We, we pick up a lot of stuff 'cause we got the most farmers in one location at the Union Square, green Market in New York. And we'll when they, they'll we'll be like, when are white peaches coming? When are white peaches coming? And you go and it's like an under the table thing. Like they have two cases set aside for you. And literally we drive them back to Jersey. And I would say I eat a case because a true white peach, which you don't see in the supermarket even in season. 'cause they're so maddeningly delicate. I mean look at them wrong when they bruise, but you bite into a true. Local ripe peach at the height of the season that's been picked, ripe and it like sweet as can be. It smells like summer. Yeah. The juice runs down your forearm onto your elbow and splashes onto the sidewalk.

Speaker 12 29:43

Yeah. This is for, you have to wear short sleeves when you,

Speaker 14 29:46

I'm gonna continue to look for the white peaches. 'cause the new varieties we've had the last couple of years, they actually aren't quite as fragile, you know, as, as they as they were certainly. And, uh, you're gonna start seeing them more and more. Apparently demand for those is going up. Like 15, 20% a year.

Speaker 13 29:59

It's amazing. We, by the way, on the high end, I mean, I eat them like that, but we also, whenever we, we get them and we use 'em in a number of things, but we use them in fo gra white, white

Speaker 12 30:06

peach, and fo gra is a magic

Speaker 13 30:07

combination. S fo gra and then SA couple of slices of white peaches in the fo gra butter in the pan. Wow. And just make a sauce from that. Oh my God.

Speaker 12 30:15

I like the way you say butter when you mean fat.

Speaker 13 30:16

Well, it's a euphemism. Look it up.

Speaker 14 30:20

My daughter wanted to be butter for Halloween last year.

Speaker 13 30:21

He wanted to be butter. That's great. I like that.

Speaker 14 30:24

That's how wonderful. It's,

Speaker 13 30:25

that's great. Well, you know, um, one of, one of the things I wanted to say before is if people go to your website and it's, you know, I hate government websites, they're always like states slash us.gov.org. You know, commercial websites are. Stage left.com, you know, um, but we're gonna put on the restaurant guys radio.com this afternoon, I promise. I've been a little lax some time in updating things. We're gonna put your website where you can find out where there are local farmers markets in your community. Mm-hmm. Where you can find out where there are, pick your own farms anywhere in the state where if there's a certain kind of produce that you like that you're looking for, you can look that up in their advanced search capabilities where there's a chart of what's usually available when, and you can even subscribe to the service that you send to us that we use at the restaurant. That's invaluable, which is the forecast. Right where

Speaker 12 31:03

that's a great thing.

Speaker 13 31:05

Thank you. it says, okay, what's coming this week? Uh, arugula, asparagus, cilantro, dandelions, leaks, lettuces, parsley, radish, and spinach, uh, jersey. Fresh forecast, blueberries, harvest should begin in a week to 10 days. And so if you wanna really use this and integrate it into your life it's easy, it's there, and you can look and see what's

Speaker 12 31:20

up and menu planning. And not just for the, a restaurant, but for a consumer.

Speaker 14 31:24

Well, this really emanated from our, our visits. We go out every spring and we meet with all the big, uh, supermarket, produce people and all the chains. And about three years ago they said, Hey, you know, we got half an idea and we can see what's in the spot market. But if you can give us a heads up, particularly with the forecast, you know, 2, 3, 4 weeks from now. That's really what their planning schedule is. They have to put together their ads for, you know, they're looking at mid-June right now.

Speaker 13 31:47

Right? Well,

Speaker 14 31:47

we're, and they need to know what's gonna be on sale.

Speaker 13 31:49

We're, and you can do, you can get the same forecast as a consumer. It doesn't cost anything. And it's really great. Now, we've been doing this for seven, eight years now. Mm-hmm. But we've been doing it with the local farmers. We'll be like, Hey Ben, what's coming in next week? That's very time consuming. If that's not your full-time

Speaker 14 32:01

job. That's time consuming. And the fact that you as a rest tour, take the time is unbelievable. Most guys spend, you know. Half an hour a week, just, you know, what we used last year at this time. And they just, yeah. And it, it comes from the ends of the earth.

Speaker 13 32:12

No, no, no. We, we, we, we go from the plate to the menu. That's what it's inspired by.

Speaker 12 32:17

But, but every year's different. And that's one of those things every year is, is a little bit different that you, you have to, you have to plan based on what that year's bringing you. One of the things you said before is The fall has determined what some of the things in the spring are going to be. So you've got a menu plan based on that.

Speaker 13 32:32

Hey, William, uh, we we need to, to, to leave you with that. I want to thank you for taking the time outta your busy schedule to talk with us, and I want to thank you for the great work that you're doing. Thanks.

Speaker 14 32:40

Thank you.

Speaker 12 32:40

Appreciate it. Keep, keep it up. Jersey Fresh gets better and better every year and you're bringing better and better products with people in New Jersey.

Speaker 13 32:47

Thanks for your time. Thank you. Thank you man.

Speaker 14 32:48

Thank you. Take your note.

Speaker 13 32:49

Okay, so that, that was William Walker from Jersey Fresh, which is, uh, under the Department of Agriculture, the state of New Jersey, a government program that works. I'm always naysay everything. It's nice to before something for a change. And we'll put up all that information on our website. you're listening to the Restaurant guys, You are back with the restaurant guys, talking about Jersey Fresh Produce here in Jersey. Mark and I are so excited because it's the time of year.

Speaker 12 33:07

It's the most wonderful time. Now

Speaker 13 33:09

that that's Christmas,

Speaker 12 33:10

it's the second most wonderful time. That's it for my singing, by the way. Oh, I've been banned from singing on the radio.

Speaker 13 33:17

Singing is what that was, and the ratings are doing so well. Um. Yes, we were talking, about the, farmer's markets that are coming up. I'm gonna put that up on the website later. The links to the Jersey Fresh website.

Speaker 12 33:27

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 33:28

Go there. The pick your own farms are a fun thing to do on a weekend.

Speaker 12 33:32

It's great,

Speaker 13 33:32

but also just to go to the farm Standard to know what's gonna be in the supermarket before it's gonna be. And boy, that's a great way to plan a menu at

Speaker 12 33:39

home. You, you know that my family and I, we make four trips a year and, and actually I go to a lot of the U pick farms more than that to get stuff for the restaurant. But my family and I have four trips a year. we go apple picking every year. Okay. And they always have a, a corn maze And there, there's some, usually some fun activities for the kids to do. Mm-hmm. As well as pick the apples. They love it. They love it. every year we go pumpkin picking. Obviously that's a, a big fun thing too. Uhhuh and, and there's also one of those mazes there, uhhuh and, and more activities and strawberry picking it. It's just a lot of fun. To go and pick corn or strawberries or, or apples or pumpkins and go with your kids. They, they really, really love it. It's a thrill you're outside and a great chance to spend some time

Speaker 13 34:18

and you can, and you can find out how to, to do that with, from the link to, to Jersey Fresh. Exactly. I really like this organization. Can you tell I'm all positive today, you know that I'm manic. Right. So this is an update for me.

Speaker 12 34:26

I want to give you one Apple fact, Francis, that I don't think, you know, do you know that all the apples for the whole year are picked in October, November?

Speaker 13 34:34

I didn't

Speaker 12 34:34

that if you're eating an apple right now, it was picked in October, November last year that they just refrigerate them and that's, that's why your apples are all mealy and everywhere at the beginning of the year for in the United States. Yeah.

Speaker 13 34:45

October, November around the whole country.

Speaker 12 34:46

Well, I mean, you have places that ripen apples earlier than that. They're done by October, right? They're done by, done by November-ish.

Speaker 18 34:54

And that's, that's all the apples

Speaker 19 34:55

One more disturbing food fact. You had to bring us out on a downer. Sorry. Why did you have to bring us out on... It was such an up show.

Speaker 18 35:01

Let's go pick some strawberries, everyone. All

Speaker 19 35:02

right, thanks. Hey, you've listened to another hour with The Restaurant Guys. Hope you've enjoyed it. I'm Francis Schadt.

Speaker 18 35:07

And I'm Mark Pascal.

Speaker 19 35:08

We are The Restaurant Guys,