This Is How New York City Gets Its Produce

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:15)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:16)

Tracy, I just want to start this episode by thanking you for those tomatoes you brought me the other day.

Tracy Alloway (0:22)

How many tomato references are we gonna make in our episodes going forward? How long can we stretch this out?

Joe Weisenthal (0:29)

I don't know, something hit me in my mid-30s. It's like when you're a kid, the whole excitement of summer is like not being in school, and then you get a little older, and the whole fun of summer is, I don't know, like traveling or partying or something.

And then something hit me in my mid-30s or late-30s where it's like the best part of summer is like really fresh tomatoes.

Tracy Alloway (0:49)

I don't know if that's really sad or great that the thing we look forward to in our old age is fresh tomatoes, but I'm glad I could do that for you, Joe.

Joe Weisenthal (0:57)

Yeah, so for listeners who don't know, Tracy has a garden, and she posted some tomato pictures, and I was like, I need some, so Tracy brought some. Anyway, they're the best produce I've had in a while, and I'm just gonna say, and this is a contested point, but there are people who claim that, by and large, the quality of produce in New York City is not what they would expect in a world class.

Tracy Alloway (1:19)

Oh, now, wait a second, Joe. You're attributing this to other people now. You say that New York City doesn't have good produce.

Joe Weisenthal (1:25)

I'm just parroting something I saw, and some people say, like, oh, the quality of onions here is terrible. I actually do, I kind of agree with that with the onions.

By and large, I don't really notice it, but I know this is popular. I searched on Reddit, a bunch of people said this. A bunch of people say it on Twitter. There is some, New York City produce is controversial.

Tracy Alloway (1:46)

So I don't cook enough in New York to have an educated opinion about this. I will say one thing I noticed moving from Hong Kong to New York is it's almost an inverse picture. So in Hong Kong, you have incredibly cheap, incredibly fresh, very accessible fruit and vegetables everywhere. You have the wet markets and things like that.

And meat is very expensive. Whereas when you come to the States, you can buy like a 20 pound brisket. It doesn't actually cost that much, but getting a bag of onions is, it seems more difficult. It's almost reversed.

Joe Weisenthal (2:21)

That is interesting. And it does raise this question. And it's like a miracle of the modern economic supply chains, capitalism, what have you, that we can be in this dent area. And by and large, we get produce. But I don't know anything about where it comes from really.

I don't know anything about the supply chain of produce. And so whether it's good or bad, and New York is obviously so diverse in the types of places one could go grocery shopping.

So you have the local chains, you have Whole Foods, you have the Chinatown.

Tracy Alloway (2:51)

I was going to say, this is what I find quite interesting about New York is you do have that mix of different retailers. So everything from the big chains like Whole Foods that people are probably familiar with, all the way down to independent carts, basically selling fruit and vegetables.

Joe Weisenthal (3:08)

Yeah, it's super interesting. And I literally live on a block and at the corner of my block, there's a guy 24 7 365 who sells produce on these things. I don't know how he does it. I should probably just go up and like chat with him one day about his business.

Tracy Alloway (3:22)

Get him on the podcast.

Joe Weisenthal (3:23)

Yeah, maybe he'll come on the podcast. It's a great idea. Anyway, produce in New York City, so many interesting questions, so much controversy, et cetera.

I want to know like how New York City gets its produce and where it's coming from and whether the reputation in some corners is deserved or undeserved.

Tracy Alloway (3:39)

I will say the hardest thing about bringing you those tomatoes was the actual transportation and figuring out a way to bring them into New York without getting them super bruised. So it seems challenging.

Joe Weisenthal (3:50)

When you brought them that morning, they had like this nice sort of like crisp, fresh feel to them. And then I left them on my desk and I brought them home that night.