In the world of superfoods, one name stands out as a pioneer in harnessing the potential of aronia berries: Blake Johnson, the visionary force behind the American Aronia Accelerator. Through his dedication and unwavering commitment to health and wellness, Johnson has propelled aronia berries into the spotlight, shining a light on their exceptional health benefits and culinary versatility. On today’s episode of the podcast, we will hear about how his determination led him to establish the American Aronia Accelerator, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at unlocking the berry’s nutritional prowess.

Transcript:

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[Lori Taylor]: Hey everybody, welcome back.

It’s Lori with the Produce Moms podcast. As

 

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[Lori Taylor]: you know, I love hosting this

show and coming back to you week after week.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: It’s definitely something that

just warms my heart. And the biggest reason

 

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[Lori Taylor]: why is because we get to meet

so many amazing people and hear some incredible

 

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[Lori Taylor]: stories right here together on

the Produce Moms podcast. So we are continuing

 

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[Lori Taylor]: our theme, talking about superfoods.

And today is, gosh, some people would probably

 

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[Lori Taylor]: say it’s like the superfood of

superfoods. Maybe even an item that you have

 

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[Lori Taylor]: not even tried, or maybe we have

tried it. You just don’t know about it. All

 

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[Lori Taylor]: right. So here’s the kicker.

I don’t think I’ve ever tried an Aronia berry.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Um, but I’ve heard a lot about

them and I’ve heard like they’re getting some

 

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[Lori Taylor]: momentum even here domestically.

There’s an American Aronia accelerator. Um,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: three a, I think is what their

alias is or ACE two, I don’t know. We’ll find

 

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[Lori Taylor]: out because we’ve got, uh, we’ve

got Blake Johnson. He is the CEO. of the American

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Aronia Accelerator. He is an

Aronia berry grower. He comes from a long history

 

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[Lori Taylor]: of agriculture within his family.

So multi-generation American ag, first generation

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Aronia berry grower. So with

that, Blake, we’re so glad you’re with us.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Welcome to the Produce Moms Podcast.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Hey, thanks, Laurie. Really

excited to be here. So thanks for having me

 

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[Blake Johnson]: on. Thanks for

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I’m

 

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[Blake Johnson]: the great

 

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[Lori Taylor]: so

 

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[Blake Johnson]: interview.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: glad you’re here. Yeah. And like

I said, I mean, I really think that we’re all

 

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[Lori Taylor]: going to learn a lot. Um, I know

I probably shouldn’t ask you this question,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: but I feel like I’ve never tried

an Aronia berry. Do you think that I’ve had

 

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[Lori Taylor]: one and just didn’t realize it?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: You know, if you’ve traveled

in Eastern Europe or in Europe, you’ve probably

 

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[Blake Johnson]: had one.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Stateside, probably not.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay, well, interesting. I’m

not super well traveled in Europe. I’ve been

 

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[Lori Taylor]: to Paris. I don’t remember anything

having, and throughout France, I don’t remember

 

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[Lori Taylor]: having aronia berries when I

was there, but maybe I did. But Blake, let’s

 

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[Lori Taylor]: talk about the fruit. I mean,

so I think that there’s probably going to be

 

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[Lori Taylor]: a real level of discovery for

everyone who’s with us today. I could not define

 

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[Lori Taylor]: an aronia berry if someone asked

me to. So I’m gonna ask you. You’re the farmer,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: you’re the CEO of the America

Aronia Accelerator, so tell us what an Aronia

 

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[Lori Taylor]: berry is.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: An aronia berry is a, it’s

a Midwest, US grown crop that’s underutilized.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: And it’s the highest variant

antioxidants, resveratol, catechins, and originally

 

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[Blake Johnson]: used by native Americans as

a cold remedy. So it’s got a long history

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: of health and wellness benefits.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow, okay. So, and the fact that

it’s a Midwest thing, I also am quite embarrassed,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: because you know I’m from Indiana,

and I feel like that’s part of my personal

 

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[Lori Taylor]: and professional identity in

a big way as being a Midwest steward to all

 

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[Lori Taylor]: things agriculture. So I feel

like I need to apologize to the American Erronea

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Accelerator, but here we are.

Like you’ve got your big spotlight moment,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: and we’re all getting educated

on this together. Um, okay. So what’s it taste

 

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[Lori Taylor]: like if it’s that healthy? Is

it like super bitter?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: I would say it tastes like

a crab apple or a sweet

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Oh,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: green apple, a tart green apple.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: It does leave that drier feeling

in your mouth. Like if you go to Napa Valley

 

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[Blake Johnson]: and have a really dry Merlot,

it will

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Mm-hmm.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: have that health feel. That’s

the tannins in there because it’s absolutely

 

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[Blake Johnson]: loaded with tannins.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Really? Okay. What’s it look

like?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Looks like a blueberry. I mean,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Go.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: same size, just a deeper, darker

purple,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: but grown pretty similarly

too. I mean,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: it grows on a shrub.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: It’s a harvest once a year,

you know, it comes back every year.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay, interesting. And so are

a lot of the folks who grow aronia berries,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: are they also in the blueberry

business?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: You know what, we originally,

so every, all the machinery comes from Poland.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So the original machinery that

we started using was a blueberry picker. So

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Oh, okay. Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: there

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I’ve been

 

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[Blake Johnson]: are

 

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[Lori Taylor]: on,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: some…

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I’ve like the tractor that goes

through and

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Yeah.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: yeah, I’ve, I’ve actually even

driven one of those Blake. So, okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So yeah, really, what we saw

a lot of our growers is they did it for diversification

 

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[Blake Johnson]: on the farm. You know, if the

corn crop is having a bad year, maybe they’ll

 

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[Blake Johnson]: have at least a reliable source

of income through aronia. But we do have, you

 

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[Blake Johnson]: know, a seventh-generational

cranberry grower in Warren, Wisconsin that

 

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[Blake Johnson]: also grows aronia berries.

And so there

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: are some people that grow blueberries

as well that do aronia. Quite frankly, it’s

 

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[Blake Johnson]: been just a diversification

play for a lot of these typical commodity row

 

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[Blake Johnson]: crop farmers. Your corn, your

beans, your wheat,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Sure, yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: something different.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: And I’m assuming that the diversification

has yielded some positive returns or else,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: there probably wouldn’t be an

American Aronia Accelerator and you probably

 

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[Lori Taylor]: wouldn’t have seventh generation

cranberry growers getting into this.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, well, it’s taken a while,

right? We’ve had, it’s been going for about,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: A3 has been going for about

two years, but there have been two co-ops that

 

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[Blake Johnson]: have tried to get Aronia to

the forefront, but you know, farmers are really

 

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[Blake Johnson]: good at growing crops.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: They don’t have time to do

the marketing, educating

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Oh,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: the market

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I know.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: as you

 

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[Lori Taylor]: That’s

 

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[Blake Johnson]: do.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: why I created this business Blake.

Like that’s how I, that’s why I have a seat

 

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[Lori Taylor]: at the table. And really you

have to focus on the farming. There’s too many,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: too many variables, so much regulation.

Um, and it’s like, okay, you, you either need

 

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[Lori Taylor]: to have dedicated staff to the

marketing or align with trusted third parties.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: So I completely agree with you.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Yeah. And you know, I was guilty

of just sitting on the sidelines as a grower

 

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[Blake Johnson]: for

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Mm-hmm.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: eight years and, you know,

seeing these costs build up, collapse, build

 

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[Blake Johnson]: up, collapse. And finally,

you know, I’ve got a pretty good network and

 

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[Blake Johnson]: some great friends in marketing

and business. I said, you know, it’s time to,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: it’s time to step up. And that’s

why we started eight three. And

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: my whole background is egg

and biosystems engineering. So, you know, marketing

 

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[Blake Johnson]: is not my strong suit. So I

found some really good people, some really

 

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[Blake Johnson]: good friends to help do this.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I love it. Well, we’re going

to pull out the storyteller in you today and

 

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[Lori Taylor]: turn you into a marketing and

brand ambassador here on the show. Okay, so

 

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[Lori Taylor]: let’s start with how it all began.

So if it’s a crop that was essentially indigenous,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I mean, it was part of Native

American lifestyle, why don’t more people know

 

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[Lori Taylor]: about it?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So get your mousse, your gel,

your LA gear, shoes on. We gotta go back to

 

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[Blake Johnson]: the 80s.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So this is where this started.

But

 

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[Lori Taylor]: What about

 

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[Blake Johnson]: like,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Reebok pumps? I was a real

 

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[Blake Johnson]: okay,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: big

 

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[Blake Johnson]: you’re

 

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[Lori Taylor]: fan

 

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[Blake Johnson]: my

 

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[Lori Taylor]: of the Reebok

 

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[Blake Johnson]: car.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: pump.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: I sell every one of those.

My mom would never let me have them.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yes.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Bye.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: And my Lisa Frank binder. Did

you

 

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[Blake Johnson]: I’m

 

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[Lori Taylor]: probably?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: sorry.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah. I don’t know if you remember

those. Like every girl had the Lisa Frank binder

 

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[Lori Taylor]: with like the orca whale on it.

Okay. I’m,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So now,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I’m there. I’m in the zone. Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: okay, 1980s, early 80s, so

Poland took a cultivar from North Dakota, an

 

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[Blake Johnson]: aronia cultivar, they brought

it over there. They started populating and

 

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[Blake Johnson]: growing and harvesting aronia

to the extent that they now do 55 million pounds

 

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[Blake Johnson]: a year

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: of aronia

 

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[Lori Taylor]: And Poland?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: in Poland and Ukraine in that

area.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Bye.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So about 10 years ago, a gentleman

from Iowa, brought one of their cultivars back

 

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[Blake Johnson]: called the Viking variety.

And it was supposed to, basically what that

 

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[Blake Johnson]: is, is all the fruit ripens

at the same time. It’s a little shorter than

 

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[Blake Johnson]: the Mackenzie variety. So it’s

easier to harvest mechanically. So Iowa is

 

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[Blake Johnson]: now the hotbed of Aronia. That’s

where, you know, I think they have at least

 

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[Blake Johnson]: one Aronia plant in every single

county in Iowa.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow, okay,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Iowa

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Iowa.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: State University, their extension

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I guess that

 

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[Blake Johnson]: sort

 

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[Lori Taylor]: makes

 

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[Blake Johnson]: of.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: sense though, when you talk about

it being primarily attractive to growers for

 

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[Lori Taylor]: the diversification. So

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Right.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: these growers who are in the

row crop business, corn, wheat, soybeans, makes

 

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[Lori Taylor]: sense. They’ve got this land

and rotating crops. It sounds like Aronia’s

 

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[Lori Taylor]: become a big solution for them.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, exactly.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: And then I heard it from an

uncle who was down in Nebraska who started

 

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[Blake Johnson]: growing it and coming from

my dad grew up on a farm and he worked his

 

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[Blake Johnson]: butt off to get off the farm.

He went into medicine, he was an orthopedic

 

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[Blake Johnson]: surgeon. So I come from a whole

line of medicine. My mom was a nurse, brother

 

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[Blake Johnson]: was a dentist. And I thought,

you know what, I can kill two birds with one

 

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[Blake Johnson]: stone here. One I can go back

to the farm. I can see my grandparents a little

 

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[Blake Johnson]: bit more before they pass away.

It’s about 90 minutes from Fargo.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: I love being out there. I’m

an outdoors guy. And then secondly, knowing

 

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[Blake Johnson]: all the benefits, Hey, I maybe

I can put my impact on, you know, medicine

 

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[Blake Johnson]: or health or whatnot, like

the rest of my family’s done through Aronia

 

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[Blake Johnson]: berries and products and getting

this out to everybody.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Sure.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So that was my real driving

force for putting them in the ground. It was

 

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[Blake Johnson]: never a monetary thing. And

like I said, I sat on the sidelines, you know,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: watching other people do things

and until we started this. So that’s really

 

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[Blake Johnson]: why I got started.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow, interesting. Okay, and so

when it came from, so funny, it kind of reminds

 

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[Lori Taylor]: me of like, almost like the Durham

wheat story. Like, you know, it came from Arizona,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: then it went to Italy, they turned

it into pasta, and it became, you know, something

 

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[Lori Taylor]: that we then imported back into

the States. So that’s kind of what this story

 

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[Lori Taylor]: of the berry and the agricultural

growth of this in particular fruit is kind

 

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[Lori Taylor]: of reminding me of, but… All

right, so let’s talk about, I gotta ask you

 

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[Lori Taylor]: the question I ask everyone.

It’ll be very interesting to see what you say,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: especially with your scientific

background. So what is a superfood, Blake?

 

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[Lori Taylor]: How do you define it?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: superfood is something you

have to eat and then they make a Marvel movie

 

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[Blake Johnson]: about you, right? You have

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Oh

 

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[Blake Johnson]: some

 

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[Lori Taylor]: come on, yeah, a little true,

okay, maybe.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: To me, I guess I define a superfruit

as something that benefits you or a health

 

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[Blake Johnson]: function by consuming it on

a regular basis.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Beautiful. Okay. So let’s dive

into why Aronia berry fits that definition.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Okay.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: So you mentioned that it’s full

of antioxidants and other nutritional properties,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: anything that you’re comfortable

diving into as it relates to the nutritional

 

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[Lori Taylor]: benefits of this, of

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Yeah,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: this berry.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: absolutely. So like I said,

medicine is kind of in my family. So know quite

 

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[Blake Johnson]: a bit about it through the

periphery of being around it. But my mom’s

 

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[Blake Johnson]: has hypertension. My brother’s

got hypertension. I was borderline hypertension

 

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[Blake Johnson]: and started taking eronia.

I no longer am even close to needing blood

 

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[Blake Johnson]: pressure medication. But yeah,

I can even, I mean, it lowers blood, in 2021.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: I’ll just read this off, dude.

They did a six to eight week study that significantly

 

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[Blake Johnson]: reduced blood cholesterol and

systolic blood pressure.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: So that’s huge. That’s a…

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah. And to not have to like

get on a daily statin medication or something

 

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[Lori Taylor]: like that.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Right,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: take something natural that

can

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Right.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: do that. And then they also

had a couple of people in a nursing home, they

 

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[Blake Johnson]: did a three month study where

they drank three ounces of veronia juice and

 

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[Blake Johnson]: they decreased UTIs by 55%.

So there’s, I mean, there’s all of these different

 

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[Blake Johnson]: studies that have been done.

Most of them obviously have been done in Europe.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: The US is starting to do some

as well, but there’s tons

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Right.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: of health benefits. And again,

it’s the highest in resveratrol. Remember with

 

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[Blake Johnson]: raspberry, everyone’s going

crazy because of the resveratrol that was in

 

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[Blake Johnson]: raspberries. Well,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Right.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Aronia happens to be higher

than raspberries and resveratrol.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: We’ve kind of discussed that

with a few different episodes. Like we had

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Jackie London, she’s essentially

our honorary nutrition officer here at the

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Produce Mom. She’s a registered

dietician and has been involved from clinical

 

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[Lori Taylor]: to media and research work and

beyond. But we talked a lot about kiwi actually

 

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[Lori Taylor]: and how it’s a lot more potassium

than a banana, but people don’t realize that

 

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[Lori Taylor]: because… the food marketers

found something that they could, the banana

 

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[Lori Taylor]: marketers were like, okay, we’re

gonna promote this fruit for its potassium

 

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[Lori Taylor]: content, which is great. No one’s

saying that bananas aren’t leaders in potassium,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: but they certainly aren’t the

produce department’s leader the way that most

 

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[Lori Taylor]: people assume. So this, I can’t

remember the micronutrient resveratol, what

 

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[Lori Taylor]: is it called again? How do you

pronounce it?

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Resveratone?

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Resveratol, I don’t. I’m not

really, I mean, I’ve heard it, but I’m not

 

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[Lori Taylor]: really familiar with it. So raspberries

have been promoted as the produce department

 

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[Lori Taylor]: leader in Rosvera Talk.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Oh yeah, when Dr. Ross had

an episode, I remember watching and like everything

 

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[Blake Johnson]: on Amazon sold out for resveratrol.

It was just

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Interesting.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: flying

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: off the market.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I know. I don’t know who the

modern day, um, like Dr. Oz effect is on, on

 

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[Lori Taylor]: food episodes. I mean, I remember

being at the sales desk and he would like say

 

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[Lori Taylor]: something about, um, a Romanesco

was one of the veggies that he talked about.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: And you know, we would sell maybe

two cases of Romanesco a day, you know, at

 

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[Lori Taylor]: that time, and now Dr. Oz talked

about on a show and everyone was like, I need

 

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[Lori Taylor]: to get Romanesco. And it’s crazy.

I don’t know who, who in the modern day society

 

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[Lori Taylor]: has that kind of impact. I mean,

certainly, uh,

 

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[Blake Johnson]: It’s you,

 

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[Lori Taylor]: it’s.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Laurie.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I hope

 

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[Blake Johnson]: It’s

 

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[Lori Taylor]: so.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: you.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Right. Like we’re trying to build

that for sure at the produce mom. So thanks

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Blake. Um, all right. So let’s,

so this is, this is good to know. So I love

 

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[Lori Taylor]: the stories too, that talk about,

you know, like the studies with the UTIs and

 

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[Lori Taylor]: your own personal journey with

erronea. How is it marketed to folks? Is it

 

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[Lori Taylor]: mostly marketed as a supplement

or in the juice form? Is there market access

 

294

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[Lori Taylor]: even for the fresh form?

 

295

00:14:34,334 –> 00:14:37,276

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, there’s in Iowa, you

can buy it fresh.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Mm-hmm.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: We, what we do is we have a

lot of IQF. So I mean, think of your

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yep.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: smoothie medleys that you’d

put in your smoothie. I use it, I use a Roni

 

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[Blake Johnson]: in my smoothie every morning

after the gym. It’s a great natural anti-inflammatory

 

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[Blake Johnson]: and being 40 and two back surgeries,

I need that more than ever.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah. And I couldn’t even see

it as like, is it available as a boost at like

 

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[Lori Taylor]: any of the smoothie shops? Like

I go to Tropical Smoothie Cafe all the time.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: Mm-hmm.

 

305

00:15:07,410 –> 00:15:13,452

[Lori Taylor]: Um, and I usually add like the

Vital Proteins Collagen and to my Detox Island

 

306

00:15:13,492 –> 00:15:15,473

[Lori Taylor]: Green, but can

 

307

00:15:15,458 –> 00:15:15,623

[Blake Johnson]: That’s

 

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00:15:15,553 –> 00:15:15,593

[Lori Taylor]: I

 

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[Blake Johnson]: the

 

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[Lori Taylor]: add

 

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[Blake Johnson]: best.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Aronia Berries? Like does that

exist at other, at other

 

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[Blake Johnson]: It doesn’t work.

 

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00:15:19,574 –> 00:15:20,334

[Lori Taylor]: food service?

 

315

00:15:20,771 –> 00:15:22,676

[Blake Johnson]: It doesn’t. That’s what we’re

trying to get going here. Yeah.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, I’m,

I’m going to make, I’m going to make the requests.

 

317

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[Lori Taylor]: Would

 

318

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[Blake Johnson]: Ha

 

319

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[Lori Taylor]: I

 

320

00:15:28,165 –> 00:15:28,247

[Blake Johnson]: ha!

 

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[Lori Taylor]: go, cause they know me at least

this one franchise by my house. I’m going to

 

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[Lori Taylor]: request the Aronia berries and

try to get that dialogue going. Little grassroots

 

323

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[Lori Taylor]: gorilla marketing for you. But,

um, so yeah, so I assume that if it’s, if it

 

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[Lori Taylor]: has that tart flavor, it probably

really lends beautifully to smoothies then.

 

325

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[Blake Johnson]: It does. Yeah,

 

326

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[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

327

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[Blake Johnson]: really good. It does have a

little earthy taste too. You know, if you put

 

328

00:15:51,470 –> 00:15:56,315

[Blake Johnson]: in too much, it will get some

more of that earthy taste. Not quite like a

 

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00:15:56,375 –> 00:15:57,296

[Blake Johnson]: beet, but

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Right.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: you know, you can, if you eat

it raw, you’ll taste that more than if you

 

332

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[Blake Johnson]: were just throwing a smoothie.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Sure. Okay, so how do most people

in America enjoy it today? I mean, obviously

 

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[Lori Taylor]: we’ve talked about smoothies,

but is it sold in the juice form so people

 

335

00:16:14,300 –> 00:16:19,822

[Lori Taylor]: can do like what the European

study proved? And how do people find aronia

 

336

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[Lori Taylor]: berries?

 

337

00:16:20,670 –> 00:16:24,213

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, you can find it in powder.

So we do have it in powders on Amazon. And

 

338

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[Blake Johnson]: what we focus primarily on

A3 is just B2B, so business to business. But

 

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[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

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[Blake Johnson]: there are some brands out there.

There’s a really great woman-owned brand on

 

341

00:16:32,240 –> 00:16:36,964

[Blake Johnson]: Minneapolis called So Good,

So You, and they do little shots. And

 

342

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[Lori Taylor]: Oh.

 

343

00:16:37,024 –> 00:16:41,428

[Blake Johnson]: so the shot, the skew, they’ve

got skews with functionality. And the one that

 

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[Blake Johnson]: they’ve used with Aronia is

grapefruit juice and Aronia juice, and it’s

 

345

00:16:45,952 –> 00:16:50,582

[Blake Johnson]: a beauty skew. And I believe

that’s for all the antioxidants, which are

 

346

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[Blake Johnson]: great for skin and hair and

everything like that.

 

347

00:16:54,435 –> 00:16:54,595

[Lori Taylor]: Well,

 

348

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[Blake Johnson]: There’s

 

349

00:16:54,635 –> 00:16:55,615

[Lori Taylor]: and functionals,

 

350

00:16:54,856 –> 00:16:55,157

[Blake Johnson]: another.

 

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[Lori Taylor]: I mean, my goodness, like the

functional food space is just exploding as

 

352

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[Lori Taylor]: it relates to especially the

beverage category. But, um, gosh, so many components

 

353

00:17:06,264 –> 00:17:08,986

[Lori Taylor]: of the grocery store, you’re

starting to see functional foods kind of take

 

354

00:17:09,026 –> 00:17:14,110

[Lori Taylor]: a front seat, um, and become

part of not just the key messaging, but even

 

355

00:17:14,150 –> 00:17:15,050

[Lori Taylor]: the brand identity.

 

356

00:17:15,614 –> 00:17:19,561

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, well, and I think we

even see that up in Fargo where, you know,

 

357

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[Blake Johnson]: the Midwest hasn’t been known

for health and wellness. You know, it’s meat

 

358

00:17:22,319 –> 00:17:23,199

[Lori Taylor]: No.

 

359

00:17:22,407 –> 00:17:24,030

[Blake Johnson]: and potatoes. You get the horseshoe

 

360

00:17:23,679 –> 00:17:23,879

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

361

00:17:24,090 –> 00:17:25,273

[Blake Johnson]: states, count the coast,

 

362

00:17:24,939 –> 00:17:25,239

[Lori Taylor]: We get

 

363

00:17:25,313 –> 00:17:25,453

[Blake Johnson]: you

 

364

00:17:25,419 –> 00:17:25,539

[Lori Taylor]: all,

 

365

00:17:25,473 –> 00:17:25,553

[Blake Johnson]: know.

 

366

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[Lori Taylor]: we get all the, we’re a source

of all the jokes, right?

 

367

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[Blake Johnson]: Yeah.

 

368

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[Lori Taylor]: Um, I saw, I saw a great piece

on TikTok that said, taking an Indiana girl

 

369

00:17:35,542 –> 00:17:39,523

[Lori Taylor]: on a date and it like, versus

a California girl. And I mean, I have a lot

 

370

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[Lori Taylor]: of great friends in California,

but this is so funny. The California, the spoof

 

371

00:17:45,045 –> 00:17:47,886

[Lori Taylor]: on this, you know, so the comedian’s

like, okay, here’s the California girl. She

 

372

00:17:47,926 –> 00:17:51,981

[Lori Taylor]: orders a salad and a water and

Then the Indiana girl, it was like, I’ll take

 

373

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[Lori Taylor]: the loaded baked potato and a

beer.

 

374

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[Blake Johnson]: Oh, good.

 

375

00:18:00,387 –> 00:18:04,770

[Lori Taylor]: But so you’re so right. And it’s

like everyone, that is what the Midwest is

 

376

00:18:04,810 –> 00:18:10,335

[Lori Taylor]: known for when it comes to, you

know, how we eat. So the fact that a product

 

377

00:18:10,355 –> 00:18:17,360

[Lori Taylor]: like this can kind of break through

that. Um, and, and the Midwest can become,

 

378

00:18:18,121 –> 00:18:23,785

[Lori Taylor]: um, not just the tech test market,

but also like the launch pad for Ronia berries,

 

379

00:18:23,805 –> 00:18:24,926

[Lori Taylor]: I think says something,

 

380

00:18:25,046 –> 00:18:25,346

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah,

 

381

00:18:25,146 –> 00:18:25,366

[Lori Taylor]: right.

 

382

00:18:25,546 –> 00:18:31,031

[Blake Johnson]: yeah. No, it’s, I mean, it’s

taking hold here. We’ve got a great festival

 

383

00:18:31,071 –> 00:18:34,794

[Blake Johnson]: every fall called Aronia Fest,

and there’s three to 4,000 people that come,

 

384

00:18:35,054 –> 00:18:35,214

[Blake Johnson]: which

 

385

00:18:35,180 –> 00:18:35,261

[Lori Taylor]: Oh

 

386

00:18:35,274 –> 00:18:35,434

[Blake Johnson]: is

 

387

00:18:35,302 –> 00:18:36,012

[Lori Taylor]: my gosh.

 

388

00:18:35,714 –> 00:18:39,197

[Blake Johnson]: awesome. That’s September 10th

this year. It’s in a small town outside of

 

389

00:18:39,217 –> 00:18:43,601

[Blake Johnson]: Fargo, Arthur, North Dakota.

It’s about 30 miles out of Fargo, but yeah,

 

390

00:18:43,641 –> 00:18:47,864

[Blake Johnson]: it’s fun. It’s super fun. Live

music, and there’s vendors, and I’ve got two

 

391

00:18:47,884 –> 00:18:49,106

[Blake Johnson]: kids, and they love running

around.

 

392

00:18:49,751 –> 00:18:54,149

[Lori Taylor]: Lots of Aronia berry ingredients

in all the foods or

 

393

00:18:54,786 –> 00:18:55,426

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, there’s

 

394

00:18:55,194 –> 00:18:55,334

[Lori Taylor]: yeah.

 

395

00:18:56,247 –> 00:18:58,510

[Blake Johnson]: aronia like scones and jellies.

 

396

00:18:58,171 –> 00:18:58,396

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

397

00:18:58,890 –> 00:19:02,634

[Blake Johnson]: And I mean, you name it, they

try and put aronia in everything. There’s soap,

 

398

00:19:02,714 –> 00:19:04,296

[Blake Johnson]: aronia soap and… I hate it.

 

399

00:19:04,387 –> 00:19:08,088

[Lori Taylor]: Wow. Yeah. Well, it kind of reminds

me of like the Gilroy garlic festival. You

 

400

00:19:08,108 –> 00:19:12,569

[Lori Taylor]: know, they, they started doing

that years ago and, um, it w there was garlic

 

401

00:19:12,589 –> 00:19:17,930

[Lori Taylor]: and everything, even an ice cream,

you know? So, yeah. Um, very interesting. So

 

402

00:19:17,970 –> 00:19:22,512

[Lori Taylor]: September 10th folks, put that

on your calendar, head to Fargo and enjoy the

 

403

00:19:22,552 –> 00:19:28,593

[Lori Taylor]: Aronia Fest. I’ve never been,

I don’t know if I’ve been to North Dakota.

 

404

00:19:28,613 –> 00:19:30,994

[Lori Taylor]: I don’t think I have.

 

405

00:19:30,222 –> 00:19:30,723

[Blake Johnson]: It’s great.

 

406

00:19:31,054 –> 00:19:31,314

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

407

00:19:31,225 –> 00:19:34,797

[Blake Johnson]: It’s awesome. It’s amazing.

It’s a great place to do business too. I mean.

 

408

00:19:34,679 –> 00:19:38,507

[Lori Taylor]: Okay, well, I’ll put it on the

list. I think I’ve been to, I think I’ve only

 

409

00:19:38,527 –> 00:19:40,271

[Lori Taylor]: been to South Dakota.

 

410

00:19:39,634 –> 00:19:39,955

[Blake Johnson]: Okay,

 

411

00:19:40,431 –> 00:19:40,632

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

412

00:19:40,798 –> 00:19:43,065

[Blake Johnson]: I will hold that against you,

Lori. We’ll get some out there.

 

413

00:19:46,526 –> 00:19:51,089

[Blake Johnson]: There’s another product out

there that focuses on eronia just because of

 

414

00:19:51,169 –> 00:19:54,152

[Blake Johnson]: its gut health. It’s a prebiotic.

And then,

 

415

00:19:54,144 –> 00:19:54,247

[Lori Taylor]: Oh.

 

416

00:19:54,172 –> 00:20:03,819

[Blake Johnson]: you know, it increases intestinal

microbiota. And that company is called Gutbar.

 

417

00:20:04,260 –> 00:20:08,703

[Blake Johnson]: And everything they do is based

on gut health and using eronia to do that.

 

418

00:20:08,763 –> 00:20:10,685

[Blake Johnson]: So they’ve got shots, they’ve

got

 

419

00:20:10,455 –> 00:20:10,935

[Lori Taylor]: Really?

 

420

00:20:10,725 –> 00:20:11,405

[Blake Johnson]: barfers.

 

421

00:20:11,595 –> 00:20:15,738

[Lori Taylor]: So Aronia berry is the principal

ingredient in these gut

 

422

00:20:15,690 –> 00:20:15,911

[Blake Johnson]: Right.

 

423

00:20:15,778 –> 00:20:19,241

[Lori Taylor]: health remedies. Okay. Let’s

talk a little bit more about that because that

 

424

00:20:19,321 –> 00:20:23,744

[Lori Taylor]: is, that is like the overwhelming

resounding trend of not just this superfood

 

425

00:20:23,804 –> 00:20:27,807

[Lori Taylor]: mini series, but even going back

to our last theme here on the produce mom’s

 

426

00:20:27,827 –> 00:20:31,990

[Lori Taylor]: podcast, it was food as medicine,

and we talked about all the different stakeholders

 

427

00:20:32,030 –> 00:20:36,713

[Lori Taylor]: in that, in that national movement,

everyone was like, it’s all about gut health.

 

428

00:20:37,073 –> 00:20:43,315

[Lori Taylor]: That’s what, that’s what this

whole. movements about is because diet related

 

429

00:20:43,355 –> 00:20:48,181

[Lori Taylor]: disease begins and ends in the

gut. So tell us a little bit more about erronea

 

430

00:20:48,221 –> 00:20:49,222

[Lori Taylor]: berry and gut health.

 

431

00:20:50,702 –> 00:20:55,884

[Blake Johnson]: Uh, yeah. So it’s, it’s very

high in fiber, which I think really helps,

 

432

00:20:55,965 –> 00:20:56,245

[Blake Johnson]: right.

 

433

00:20:56,167 –> 00:20:56,377

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

434

00:20:56,465 –> 00:21:01,047

[Blake Johnson]: Um, to keep everything regulated

and then being, you know, an anti-inflammatory,

 

435

00:21:01,067 –> 00:21:04,269

[Blake Johnson]: there’s always inflammation

in the gut based on foods you eat.

 

436

00:21:04,904 –> 00:21:05,093

[Lori Taylor]: Right.

 

437

00:21:05,110 –> 00:21:08,111

[Blake Johnson]: Um, you know, if you take the

food sensitivity tests, you can see which is

 

438

00:21:08,151 –> 00:21:14,435

[Blake Johnson]: causing you inflammation and

intestine intestines with a gut. And so, yeah,

 

439

00:21:14,475 –> 00:21:20,746

[Blake Johnson]: they had a really, I believe,

um, the, the founder. I think she is actually

 

440

00:21:20,786 –> 00:21:22,887

[Blake Johnson]: a registered dietitian. So

 

441

00:21:22,983 –> 00:21:23,214

[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

442

00:21:23,107 –> 00:21:26,969

[Blake Johnson]: she did a lot of research on

eronia. And I think that a small eronia hobby

 

443

00:21:27,009 –> 00:21:31,111

[Blake Johnson]: farm and then saw the benefits

of eronia and that it’s, you know, prebiotic

 

444

00:21:31,171 –> 00:21:35,072

[Blake Johnson]: and everything. And they started

this company out of Colorado. They launched

 

445

00:21:35,112 –> 00:21:39,114

[Blake Johnson]: it about a year ago. And I

just received my first samples about three

 

446

00:21:39,154 –> 00:21:41,115

[Blake Johnson]: weeks ago and they are fantastic.

 

447

00:21:42,107 –> 00:21:43,689

[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

448

00:21:42,396 –> 00:21:43,856

[Blake Johnson]: Absolutely fantastic.

 

449

00:21:44,069 –> 00:21:44,289

[Lori Taylor]: What was

 

450

00:21:44,196 –> 00:21:44,537

[Blake Johnson]: And

 

451

00:21:44,329 –> 00:21:45,331

[Lori Taylor]: the name of the company again?

 

452

00:21:45,997 –> 00:21:46,517

[Blake Johnson]: gut bar.

 

453

00:21:47,253 –> 00:21:48,975

[Lori Taylor]: Gut Bar. All right, that’s

 

454

00:21:48,798 –> 00:21:53,881

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah.

 

455

00:21:49,015 –> 00:21:51,178

[Lori Taylor]: a brand name we’ll all remember.

Um.

 

456

00:21:54,041 –> 00:21:58,264

[Blake Johnson]: All right. And it stabilizes

blood glucose by about 42%. So

 

457

00:21:58,419 –> 00:21:58,750

[Lori Taylor]: How?

 

458

00:21:59,825 –> 00:22:04,368

[Blake Johnson]: yeah, so there’s, I mean, that,

that definitely helps anything to do with,

 

459

00:22:04,708 –> 00:22:06,169

[Blake Johnson]: with the body, the gut.

 

460

00:22:06,967 –> 00:22:11,272

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah, definitely. So I know you’re

biased, Blake. I mean, you grow this berry

 

461

00:22:11,312 –> 00:22:16,259

[Lori Taylor]: and you’re the CEO of the American

Aronia Accelerator. But do you think that there’s

 

462

00:22:16,279 –> 00:22:20,764

[Lori Taylor]: a healthier berry available?

Or a healthier

 

463

00:22:20,374 –> 00:22:20,841

[Blake Johnson]: You know I used

 

464

00:22:20,804 –> 00:22:21,165

[Lori Taylor]: berry

 

465

00:22:20,862 –> 00:22:20,943

[Blake Johnson]: to.

 

466

00:22:21,185 –> 00:22:22,306

[Lori Taylor]: that’s grown in America?

 

467

00:22:23,738 –> 00:22:28,040

[Blake Johnson]: Not in America, I wouldn’t

say. And the other reason why I think aronia

 

468

00:22:28,060 –> 00:22:33,003

[Blake Johnson]: is so healthy is because there’s

no natural pestered diseases. So right there,

 

469

00:22:33,043 –> 00:22:35,664

[Blake Johnson]: you can take away any pesticides.

You’re not spraying

 

470

00:22:35,643 –> 00:22:36,007

[Lori Taylor]: Really?

 

471

00:22:35,704 –> 00:22:39,766

[Blake Johnson]: any pesticides on it. You don’t

have to fertilize it. I haven’t fertilized

 

472

00:22:39,806 –> 00:22:47,591

[Blake Johnson]: mine in 10 years and I get

berries every year. Now maybe… Yeah.

 

473

00:22:43,143 –> 00:22:45,213

[Lori Taylor]: Well, shit, that’s why the farmers

like it so much.

 

474

00:22:47,611 –> 00:22:51,533

[Blake Johnson]: Maybe clearly increase yield,

maybe, I don’t know, potentially, but there’s

 

475

00:22:51,573 –> 00:22:53,486

[Blake Johnson]: no need. And… You know, we

 

476

00:22:53,423 –> 00:22:54,083

[Lori Taylor]: Wild.

 

477

00:22:53,547 –> 00:22:54,418

[Blake Johnson]: keep ours right in the…

 

478

00:22:54,783 –> 00:22:59,124

[Lori Taylor]: So that’s really rare. I mean,

it’s not rare if you’re growing it in a greenhouse.

 

479

00:22:59,144 –> 00:23:02,605

[Lori Taylor]: I mean, that’s kind of like the

big thing that everyone in greenhouse growing

 

480

00:23:02,665 –> 00:23:07,767

[Lori Taylor]: or controlled environment agriculture

loves to tout. You know, they can control the

 

481

00:23:07,807 –> 00:23:11,108

[Lori Taylor]: environment. So therefore there

is no need for any sort of crop protection,

 

482

00:23:11,228 –> 00:23:21,291

[Lori Taylor]: but for it to be growing outdoors

in a climate that, you know, has the… It’s

 

483

00:23:21,311 –> 00:23:24,994

[Lori Taylor]: a dynamic climate growing in

the Midwest. It’s not like it’s a subtropical

 

484

00:23:25,034 –> 00:23:31,921

[Lori Taylor]: climate every day. So how is

that the case? Is it just, it goes back to

 

485

00:23:31,961 –> 00:23:38,406

[Lori Taylor]: the heirloom variety of this?

I mean, I’m just confused. Is it, tell me more.

 

486

00:23:39,362 –> 00:23:43,243

[Blake Johnson]: So here’s what I, there’s some

things I do know and some things I don’t know.

 

487

00:23:43,363 –> 00:23:43,663

[Blake Johnson]: Why

 

488

00:23:43,482 –> 00:23:43,688

[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

489

00:23:44,344 –> 00:23:48,285

[Blake Johnson]: pests don’t take them, I have

no idea. I think it’s probably has to do with

 

490

00:23:48,585 –> 00:23:51,947

[Blake Johnson]: the defense mechanisms and

the leaves and everything. Cause I know, you

 

491

00:23:51,967 –> 00:23:55,228

[Blake Johnson]: know, deer will start chewing

on them. And then the first time they do it,

 

492

00:23:55,248 –> 00:23:59,250

[Blake Johnson]: they’ll stop because it gives

them an upset stomach to chew on the leaves.

 

493

00:23:59,350 –> 00:24:03,092

[Blake Johnson]: So they don’t touch them. The

berries, like I mentioned, are a little tart.

 

494

00:24:03,332 –> 00:24:08,590

[Blake Johnson]: So until that sugar content

or that Bricks content really ramps up. they

 

495

00:24:08,610 –> 00:24:12,791

[Blake Johnson]: won’t touch them. And usually

that would be probably four weeks after harvest.

 

496

00:24:12,951 –> 00:24:17,233

[Blake Johnson]: So we harvest around like a

15 bricks. They can get to like a 25, but by

 

497

00:24:17,273 –> 00:24:20,315

[Blake Johnson]: that time we’ve harvested them

already. So

 

498

00:24:20,679 –> 00:24:20,944

[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

499

00:24:20,935 –> 00:24:25,657

[Blake Johnson]: yeah, and then, I mean, we

keep ours in the middle of a CRP field, or

 

500

00:24:25,697 –> 00:24:30,019

[Blake Johnson]: conservation reserve program.

So it’s all tall grasses meant for wildlife

 

501

00:24:30,279 –> 00:24:30,587

[Lori Taylor]: Mm-hmm.

 

502

00:24:30,619 –> 00:24:34,261

[Blake Johnson]: and there’s deer and there’s

rabbits. And I mean, you name it, every bug

 

503

00:24:34,281 –> 00:24:38,754

[Blake Johnson]: critter is out there. And…

You know, in the winter, rabbits might chew

 

504

00:24:38,794 –> 00:24:42,115

[Blake Johnson]: it down a little bit, but that

just makes it bushier and makes the growth

 

505

00:24:42,175 –> 00:24:42,915

[Blake Johnson]: more vigorous.

 

506

00:24:42,418 –> 00:24:42,712

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

507

00:24:43,576 –> 00:24:50,358

[Blake Johnson]: So we don’t mind that at all.

And it’s a self pollinator, which is great.

 

508

00:24:50,398 –> 00:24:53,979

[Blake Johnson]: We have had though companies,

you know, bee guys come out and say,

 

509

00:24:53,914 –> 00:24:54,182

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

510

00:24:53,999 –> 00:24:58,480

[Blake Johnson]: Hey, can we put bee boxes out

here? Cause it produces a really clear honey

 

511

00:24:58,520 –> 00:25:00,761

[Blake Johnson]: because the flower is white.

 

512

00:25:01,177 –> 00:25:02,125

[Lori Taylor]: Wow, okay.

 

513

00:25:02,754 –> 00:25:05,976

[Blake Johnson]: The fun fact, I didn’t know

North Dakota is the number one honey producing

 

514

00:25:06,036 –> 00:25:07,097

[Blake Johnson]: state. So this guy was

 

515

00:25:06,963 –> 00:25:07,243

[Lori Taylor]: I didn’t

 

516

00:25:07,137 –> 00:25:07,377

[Blake Johnson]: telling

 

517

00:25:07,324 –> 00:25:07,544

[Lori Taylor]: either.

 

518

00:25:07,397 –> 00:25:07,617

[Blake Johnson]: me. I

 

519

00:25:07,604 –> 00:25:07,765

[Lori Taylor]: All

 

520

00:25:07,658 –> 00:25:12,381

[Blake Johnson]: didn’t

 

521

00:25:07,785 –> 00:25:10,995

[Lori Taylor]: these reasons to come to North

Dakota. I had no idea.

 

522

00:25:12,401 –> 00:25:15,524

[Blake Johnson]: know honey was different even

based off of what kind of blossoms. So.

 

523

00:25:16,207 –> 00:25:25,933

[Lori Taylor]: I did know that, but yeah, that’s

amazing. So I’m blown away. And as you’re describing

 

524

00:25:25,973 –> 00:25:31,816

[Lori Taylor]: this, there’s a lot of regenerative

agricultural properties within the erronea

 

525

00:25:31,856 –> 00:25:36,399

[Lori Taylor]: berry cultivation and standards,

you know, the growing process of erronea berries.

 

526

00:25:36,439 –> 00:25:41,001

[Lori Taylor]: It’s almost reminding me of an

episode I hosted, gosh, it’s probably been

 

527

00:25:41,141 –> 00:25:48,458

[Lori Taylor]: over a year ago now on… foraged

foods, like just, you know, we, and I interviewed,

 

528

00:25:48,478 –> 00:25:53,362

[Lori Taylor]: um, Hammond’s black walnuts and

it’s like, yeah, we just, you know, they just

 

529

00:25:53,382 –> 00:25:55,744

[Lori Taylor]: come back year after year. We

don’t really have to do a lot for them and

 

530

00:25:55,764 –> 00:25:59,988

[Lori Taylor]: they’re, they grow wild. And,

you know, I know that yours, this ronia berries

 

531

00:26:00,008 –> 00:26:03,971

[Lori Taylor]: aren’t necessarily a, a forage

food growing wild, but gosh, as you’re describing

 

532

00:26:04,011 –> 00:26:07,774

[Lori Taylor]: the process, I’m like, this reminds

me of foraged foods.

 

533

00:26:09,310 –> 00:26:15,433

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, and I mean, you can clip

off one of the weeds every summer, and you

 

534

00:26:15,453 –> 00:26:17,895

[Blake Johnson]: can populate another aronia

plant right from that. I

 

535

00:26:18,315 –> 00:26:18,577

[Lori Taylor]: Mm-hmm.

 

536

00:26:18,655 –> 00:26:21,977

[Blake Johnson]: mean, that’s how all ours were

done. They’re all a clone of each other.

 

537

00:26:22,287 –> 00:26:22,515

[Lori Taylor]: Right.

 

538

00:26:23,298 –> 00:26:30,142

[Blake Johnson]: And once you get to, I don’t

know, about 10 years, 15 years, basically when

 

539

00:26:30,162 –> 00:26:33,484

[Blake Johnson]: they’re probably about an inch

and a half, the canes are about an inch and

 

540

00:26:33,504 –> 00:26:37,010

[Blake Johnson]: a half, you just mow them down.

You just go and cut them all down. and then

 

541

00:26:37,031 –> 00:26:39,941

[Blake Johnson]: the next year they come up

again. That year you won’t have any fruit on

 

542

00:26:39,961 –> 00:26:42,069

[Blake Johnson]: them, but the following year

you’ll be back to full production.

 

543

00:26:42,555 –> 00:26:45,002

[Lori Taylor]: Wow, very interesting.

 

544

00:26:44,446 –> 00:26:47,609

[Blake Johnson]: And we need to get it going

in the U S because like I said, Europe does

 

545

00:26:47,809 –> 00:26:53,916

[Blake Johnson]: 55 million pounds a year. We

probably do two to three at most right now.

 

546

00:26:54,323 –> 00:26:54,449

[Lori Taylor]: Mm-hmm.

 

547

00:26:54,396 –> 00:26:58,280

[Blake Johnson]: And they’ve got over 400 products

and we’ve probably got 10.

 

548

00:26:59,279 –> 00:27:02,600

[Lori Taylor]: And when you say products, do

you mean like consumer products or do you mean

 

549

00:27:02,640 –> 00:27:03,301

[Lori Taylor]: varieties

 

550

00:27:02,754 –> 00:27:03,055

[Blake Johnson]: right.

 

551

00:27:03,521 –> 00:27:03,761

[Lori Taylor]: of

 

552

00:27:03,878 –> 00:27:04,260

[Blake Johnson]: Thanks for

 

553

00:27:04,161 –> 00:27:04,421

[Lori Taylor]: aronia

 

554

00:27:04,280 –> 00:27:04,641

[Blake Johnson]: watching.

 

555

00:27:04,441 –> 00:27:08,944

[Lori Taylor]: berries? Consumer products, okay.

So our consumer products, you mentioned the

 

556

00:27:08,984 –> 00:27:13,086

[Lori Taylor]: powder form is really popular.

We’ve already discussed there’s the juice or

 

557

00:27:13,166 –> 00:27:19,370

[Lori Taylor]: the individually quick frozen

berries that are then used as smoothies or

 

558

00:27:20,450 –> 00:27:26,574

[Lori Taylor]: an ingredient within like a broader

smoothie blend or berry blend. What are some

 

559

00:27:26,594 –> 00:27:30,002

[Lori Taylor]: of the other products that…

where erroneous berries can be encountered.

 

560

00:27:30,946 –> 00:27:33,148

[Blake Johnson]: We actually see it a lot in

Europe in cosmetics. I

 

561

00:27:34,048 –> 00:27:35,549

[Lori Taylor]: I can believe that. Yeah.

 

562

00:27:35,491 –> 00:27:39,415

[Blake Johnson]: really believe in cosmetics.

We’ve seen it used in wine

 

563

00:27:40,122 –> 00:27:40,369

[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

564

00:27:40,977 –> 00:27:44,461

[Blake Johnson]: as well. Stick packs, so on

the go, like ready to

 

565

00:27:44,403 –> 00:27:44,683

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

566

00:27:44,481 –> 00:27:44,721

[Blake Johnson]: drink

 

567

00:27:44,703 –> 00:27:44,864

[Lori Taylor]: Like

 

568

00:27:44,741 –> 00:27:44,981

[Blake Johnson]: stick

 

569

00:27:44,884 –> 00:27:45,625

[Lori Taylor]: hydration

 

570

00:27:45,021 –> 00:27:45,181

[Blake Johnson]: packs.

 

571

00:27:45,806 –> 00:27:46,968

[Lori Taylor]: type beverages,

 

572

00:27:47,646 –> 00:27:47,990

[Blake Johnson]: Right.

 

573

00:27:47,729 –> 00:27:48,210

[Lori Taylor]: especially with

 

574

00:27:48,071 –> 00:27:48,294

[Blake Johnson]: And then

 

575

00:27:48,251 –> 00:27:48,331

[Lori Taylor]: the

 

576

00:27:48,314 –> 00:27:48,354

[Blake Johnson]: we.

 

577

00:27:48,391 –> 00:27:54,002

[Lori Taylor]: fiber and all the, all the antioxidant

properties that it has.

 

578

00:27:55,002 –> 00:28:00,263

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah. And then, like, I’d really

like to see it in, like, an Acai bowl, you

 

579

00:28:00,283 –> 00:28:03,564

[Blake Johnson]: know, something like that with

aronia, because it’s four times the amount

 

580

00:28:03,605 –> 00:28:07,526

[Blake Johnson]: of antioxidant as acai or pomegranate

or blueberry. So

 

581

00:28:08,039 –> 00:28:08,347

[Lori Taylor]: Wow.

 

582

00:28:09,407 –> 00:28:12,368

[Blake Johnson]: the antioxidant content is

just off the charts compared to anything that’s

 

583

00:28:12,448 –> 00:28:16,409

[Blake Johnson]: out there. And, you know, you’re

not importing, you know, aronia from Brazil

 

584

00:28:16,449 –> 00:28:17,749

[Blake Johnson]: like you are for acai.

 

585

00:28:19,104 –> 00:28:20,757

[Lori Taylor]: Right, right. Gosh.

 

586

00:28:20,638 –> 00:28:25,490

[Blake Johnson]: And then we have, we’ve played

around with it with gummies, just like supplemental

 

587

00:28:25,234 –> 00:28:25,465

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

588

00:28:25,530 –> 00:28:28,417

[Blake Johnson]: gummies. My kids love them,

but we just haven’t

 

589

00:28:28,371 –> 00:28:28,851

[Lori Taylor]: Everyone

 

590

00:28:28,457 –> 00:28:28,778

[Blake Johnson]: taken them.

 

591

00:28:28,912 –> 00:28:32,098

[Lori Taylor]: loves them. Anyone who acts like

they don’t like a gummy bear is lying.

 

592

00:28:32,630 –> 00:28:32,893

[Blake Johnson]: Really?

 

593

00:28:36,767 –> 00:28:40,649

[Lori Taylor]: Or, you know, gummy vitamins.

I mean, look at how that, that industry has

 

594

00:28:40,709 –> 00:28:44,112

[Lori Taylor]: exploded, like to the point where

it’s like, do they even sell chewable vitamins?

 

595

00:28:44,132 –> 00:28:46,113

[Lori Taylor]: They’re all just gummies now,

you know?

 

596

00:28:46,559 –> 00:28:46,843

[Blake Johnson]: Right.

 

597

00:28:47,034 –> 00:28:55,180

[Lori Taylor]: Um, yeah, pretty cool. So I am

absolutely intrigued. I can’t wait to make

 

598

00:28:55,220 –> 00:29:00,584

[Lori Taylor]: the request when I buy my next

smoothie for an Aronia mix in. Um, but I also

 

599

00:29:00,624 –> 00:29:05,771

[Lori Taylor]: can’t wait to go to some of these,

you know, so good. So you. Gut bar, I’m sure

 

600

00:29:05,791 –> 00:29:10,034

[Lori Taylor]: there’s others, but those were

two that we mentioned today that folks can

 

601

00:29:10,074 –> 00:29:18,018

[Lori Taylor]: go to purchase Aronia berry products.

And hopefully as your footprint expands at

 

602

00:29:18,078 –> 00:29:22,681

[Lori Taylor]: the American Aronia Accelerator

and the other growers kind of join forces with

 

603

00:29:22,721 –> 00:29:26,603

[Lori Taylor]: what you’re doing, hopefully

we’ll be able to purchase them at the fresh

 

604

00:29:26,643 –> 00:29:32,146

[Lori Taylor]: market too. Like just buy them

in the produce departments. Yeah.

 

605

00:29:32,031 –> 00:29:32,699

[Blake Johnson]: That’s the goal.

 

606

00:29:33,947 –> 00:29:38,737

[Lori Taylor]: That’s amazing. So you mentioned

2 million, approximately 2 million pounds as

 

607

00:29:38,777 –> 00:29:43,889

[Lori Taylor]: the domestic yield right now.

How many acres does, does like your farm have

 

608

00:29:43,909 –> 00:29:44,610

[Lori Taylor]: for instance?

 

609

00:29:45,502 –> 00:29:51,973

[Blake Johnson]: So we’ve got 20 acres and we

could probably produce on that 150,000 pounds

 

610

00:29:52,333 –> 00:29:52,674

[Blake Johnson]: a year.

 

611

00:29:52,465 –> 00:29:52,675

[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

612

00:29:53,756 –> 00:29:54,617

[Blake Johnson]: So right in that area.

 

613

00:29:54,939 –> 00:29:59,488

[Lori Taylor]: Right. And so all the all the

growers collectively are able to bring to market

 

614

00:29:59,588 –> 00:30:02,414

[Lori Taylor]: approximately two million pounds

on an annual basis.

 

615

00:30:02,994 –> 00:30:07,535

[Blake Johnson]: Yeah, two to four depending

on, I mean, really in the last three years,

 

616

00:30:07,815 –> 00:30:10,936

[Blake Johnson]: because everyone’s kind of,

like I mentioned, the costs built up and they

 

617

00:30:10,976 –> 00:30:16,237

[Blake Johnson]: flopped. There’s probably been

20 to 30% of the crop has been torn out

 

618

00:30:16,033 –> 00:30:16,439

[Lori Taylor]: Oh, okay.

 

619

00:30:16,277 –> 00:30:20,858

[Blake Johnson]: because there hasn’t been a

market. So that’s really why we jumped in and

 

620

00:30:20,878 –> 00:30:22,199

[Blake Johnson]: said, let’s get this going.

 

621

00:30:22,180 –> 00:30:22,422

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

622

00:30:22,219 –> 00:30:27,220

[Blake Johnson]: This is too good of a story.

It’s Midwest, especially when you look at the

 

623

00:30:27,280 –> 00:30:28,441

[Blake Johnson]: supply chain issues

 

624

00:30:29,575 –> 00:30:29,785

[Lori Taylor]: Yeah.

 

625

00:30:30,581 –> 00:30:34,509

[Blake Johnson]: during COVID that… There’s

a guaranteed supply chain right here.

 

626

00:30:35,439 –> 00:30:40,323

[Lori Taylor]: Right. Well, and empowering the

American farmer, like I could go on and on.

 

627

00:30:41,023 –> 00:30:41,484

[Lori Taylor]: Um, we’ll need a

 

628

00:30:41,474 –> 00:30:43,199

[Blake Johnson]: Right.

 

629

00:30:41,544 –> 00:30:45,827

[Lori Taylor]: dedicated episode for that topic,

but, um, we have a few in the archives folks,

 

630

00:30:45,947 –> 00:30:49,550

[Lori Taylor]: it’s a total soap box for me,

I’m not going to get started on it today, but

 

631

00:30:49,610 –> 00:30:53,554

[Lori Taylor]: I will say once again, that food

security is national security and we need to

 

632

00:30:53,594 –> 00:30:58,538

[Lori Taylor]: support our American farmers.

Um, all right. Well, Blake, this has been an

 

633

00:30:58,638 –> 00:31:01,541

[Lori Taylor]: absolutely enjoyable episode.

I feel like I’ve learned so much about erronea

 

634

00:31:01,601 –> 00:31:06,397

[Lori Taylor]: yet at the same time. I’m like

so much more to learn. I can’t wait to check

 

635

00:31:06,457 –> 00:31:10,541

[Lori Taylor]: out some of these retailers that

you mentioned and do a little online shopping

 

636

00:31:10,581 –> 00:31:15,946

[Lori Taylor]: and get some Aronia products

here in my household. But where can people

 

637

00:31:15,966 –> 00:31:20,390

[Lori Taylor]: go to learn more? Check out what

you’re doing at the American Aronia Accelerator,

 

638

00:31:20,530 –> 00:31:24,754

[Lori Taylor]: understand more about this fruit,

and then any closing remarks that you have.

 

639

00:31:26,018 –> 00:31:29,201

[Blake Johnson]: Sure, yeah, we’ve got a website.

It’s www.a3aronia.com.

 

640

00:31:32,765 –> 00:31:37,390

[Blake Johnson]: So that shows all of our B2B

products. I guess in closing, Laura, I was

 

641

00:31:37,450 –> 00:31:39,573

[Blake Johnson]: super excited to be on here

and just

 

642

00:31:39,695 –> 00:31:39,821

[Lori Taylor]: Well…

 

643

00:31:39,893 –> 00:31:43,457

[Blake Johnson]: absolutely ecstatic to be able

to speak with you. So this is fun, this is

 

644

00:31:43,477 –> 00:31:43,937

[Blake Johnson]: super fun.

 

645

00:31:44,519 –> 00:31:48,520

[Lori Taylor]: Thank you, Blake. It’s been a

blast and we’re going to stay in touch and

 

646

00:31:48,580 –> 00:31:51,361

[Lori Taylor]: I’m going to, I’m going to see

you soon in North Dakota. It sounds like a

 

647

00:31:51,401 –> 00:31:55,703

[Lori Taylor]: place I need to be, especially

during the Aronia fest. So not sure I can make

 

648

00:31:55,743 –> 00:31:57,884

[Lori Taylor]: it this year, but I’m probably

gonna put it on my calendar for next year.

 

649

00:31:57,924 –> 00:32:01,686

[Lori Taylor]: Okay.

 

650

00:31:59,950 –> 00:32:00,640

[Blake Johnson]: We look forward to it.

 

651

00:32:01,806 –> 00:32:05,187

[Lori Taylor]: Yes. So thank you so much for

being part of today’s show. Thank you all for

 

652

00:32:05,227 –> 00:32:09,149

[Lori Taylor]: tuning in. It’s been another

great episode of the produce moms podcast.

 

653

00:32:09,189 –> 00:32:13,270

[Lori Taylor]: Like I always say, you know,

rate reviews, subscribe, share with a friend.

 

654

00:32:13,819 –> 00:32:18,040

[Lori Taylor]: We’d love to have your support.

It does help us a lot, but you know what? With

 

655

00:32:18,080 –> 00:32:21,141

[Lori Taylor]: or without it, I’m gonna come

back next week with another great story from

 

656

00:32:21,241 –> 00:32:25,922

[Lori Taylor]: agriculture. So leave the review

or don’t. I’m still coming back and doing this

 

657

00:32:25,942 –> 00:32:31,944

[Lori Taylor]: thing next week, okay? All right,

talk to y’all soon. Don’t hang up.