
2024 Produce Year in Review
By Adam Calder
For all you data-lovers out there, here is another round-up of the top selling items in the produce department for the year.
#10. Russet Potatoes: 4,468 lbs.
Roasted, boiled, baked, mashed, smashed or fried, who doesn’t love a starchy, fluffy russet potato.
#9. Yukon Gold Potatoes: 4,603 lbs.
Similar to russets in flavor, with a slightly waxy texture and a lovely gold color, these find their way onto many grocery lists.
#8. Bartlett Pears: 5,028 lbs.
An all-around good pear. Most people eat them fresh, and they also work well in cooked desserts such as wine-poached pears or pear crisp.
#7. Yellow Onions: 5,605 lbs.
Their middle-of-the-road heat and long shelf life make yellow onions the standard for most shoppers. Try chilling your onions before slicing, the cold stops the formation of syn-Propanethial S-oxide, the onion’s natural defense when its cell walls are damaged. When this chemical hits your eye balls, another chemical reaction occurs that turns it into sulfuric acid!
#6. Carrots: 6,174 lbs.
This number doesn’t even count the 2-pound carrot bags (1,402) or baby carrot 1-pound bags (1,085) or bunched carrots (1,058) we sell in a year!
#5. Broccoli: 6,078 lbs.
A nutritional powerhouse that can be eaten fresh, steamed, roasted or added to soups, stews, stir-fry and casseroles. Available year-round, much to the consternation of children everywhere.
#4. Celery: 6,283 lbs.
The versatility of this fleshy stalk lends to the large amount of celery we sell. Crunchy and refreshing when raw, soft and savory when cooked.
#3. Honeycrisp Apples: 6,978 lbs.
The desire for this apple is astounding. There are many flavorful, crisp apples on the market (Opal, Cosmic Crisp, Sweetango, Sugar Bee), but they all fall far behind the sales of the Honeycrisp. Unfortunately, this overwhelming consumer preference for Honeycrisp is taxing on orchard soil (it requires large amounts of calcium to obtain that crunch) and also limiting the biodiversity of other apple varieties as they are removed to make room for Honeycrisp trees.
#2. Avocados: 12, 471
That is an incredible leap in sales numbers from the #3 slot, almost double! Nutritionally dense, filling, satisfying and delicious, these fruits have much to offer. Since our avocados are also Fair Trade, you can feel good about helping avocado farmers earn a fair wage for all their hard work.
#1. Bananas: 28,639 lbs.
I don’t know if I will ever understand the power bananas seem to have over people. They go into nearly every shopping cart or basket, and are on almost every grocery list. Unless it specifically says otherwise, organic or conventional, the banana you are eating is a Cavendish variety. The Cavendish is currently under attack from the fungus that killed its predecessor, the Gros Michel, in the 1960’s. Scientists are racing to grow a replacement variety that can withstand this fungus, before the Cavendish is wiped out as well.
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