The Orchard on The Donna Drake Show - CBS WLNY

Video Transcript

Donna: Joining us now is power couple Marissa and Mitchell and we're going to be talking about the orchard. Welcome to the show. How are you?

Mitchell: Good, how are you?

Donna: Good.

Donna: I called you a power couple because I love your love story. So you met in college, right? And uh, were you guys both like eating like healthy food back then or just like regular old College stuff?

Mitchell: Just old College stuff.

Marisa: I had a lot of ice cream.

Donna: Mitchell, you grew up with healthy fruit and vegetables, yes? Tell us about the Journey of the orchard.

Mitchell: Well, my dad started in 1957 and back then there was a lot of fruit stores. Uh, that on our block in Brooklyn, there were four fruit stores, okay. And they used to fight over pennies like blueberries. One store had them for eight cents, one had it for nine cents, one had it for 10 cents.

Donna: The Fruit Wars, haha.

Mitchell: For two years we couldn't make a living, okay, because it was all about price. So he said I have to be different. I'm going to search for the best quality fruit and even if I have to fly it in, which he did from New Zealand, from South Africa back in the early 60s, wow. And so it was a way ahead of his time. He had a vision and he created this store with high quality, good eating and uh, he developed over the years, over 65 years, a reputation of having the best.

Donna: And so Marisa, when you went to dinner at family's home for the first time, is this what you were true like a beautiful display of fruit?

Marisa: There was always one, one was always at the house. It was always and it was so amazing. Yeah, it was amazing.

Donna: So the two of you now are you know working together on this. You ship uh Delicious Fruit and cookies, um all over the all over the country

Marisa: Yes

Mitchell: All over the country. And we go to the five boroughs every day

Marisa: Every day hand deliver.

Mitchell: If somebody calls before 10 o'clock in the morning, that day will deliver it in the five boroughs, hand delivery.

Donna: It's such a nice gift too when you can whether someone's you know getting married or they're having a celebration or sadly if someone has a loss in their family, yes, you know the gift of something healthy, delicious, nutritious makes you feel good. And they're beautiful. I mean like the quality just like shines forth. They look like pallets, they look like they're painted, they don't even look real because they are so real. Does that make sense to you?

Mitchell: Yeah

Donna: Do people say that to you?

Marisa: Yes.

Donna: Like I looked at this strawberry, look, this is a gift of art from the universe, this strawberry just, I mean, this is so pretty, pretty. I want to name it, you know.

Donna: There was a, it reminds me of a voiceover I did when I was a kid. It was, I had to do a cartoon voice for a strawberry, um, didn't you see I'm a big red strawberry and I was like the voice of a strawberry. This is the kind of strawberry I'm talking about here, um, they're lovely. You also hand dip the fruit, right?

Mitchell: So yeah, we do everything by hand, okay. And we make everything to order. So at that particular day, if you give an order two days before, a week before, it's not made until that morning, and shipped out on that day. And we, um, like the all the strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, we hand pick. So we sell all this merchandise also to the retailer as far as to any consumer who wants you know a small container of blueberries, we actually hand pick every single Berry in the container.

Donna: And I see one right here. So this one might want to just be my friend. So right, I'm coming over here. You gave me one of these grapes earlier, Mitchell. Tell us about the difference of the variety of grapes and things that you carry.

Mitchell: Yeah, so we carry, we, we search all over the country and also all over the world for the best quality of any, any particular item. Like I had a customer the other day say, oh, I got tomatoes that look just like yours, little tomatoes on the vine, but after eating yours, when I got the other, the other ones, I could have swore they were the same and he goes, there's no comparison.

Donna: The Taste is different.

Mitchell: So this particular grow of this wine grape is seedless. He's probably the best grower in the world and they come from Chile

Donna: Okay, yeah, because they do taste, they taste divine, you know, they really do.And I think that when you're going to have something that's nutritious, it should be delicious and it should be like a gift, right? And that's really what, what you have provided for everyone. This is interesting, the way that this one particular thing is cut, um, it has like a little variety of color to it. It looks like an orange, but I don't know what it is. What is that?

Mitchell: Yeah, that particular item is a blood orange, okay, it's a blood orange and they're sweet tart but good flavor. A lot of people enjoy that particular fruit.

Donna: And I was asking, my rest today, can you eat the, said yes you can. What are these? What do they taste like?

Mitchell: These are edible orchids, okay. They taste like flowers.I don't know if you're ever a kid and, yeah, and you're playing and then all of a sudden you're, you're on on your grass and you start eating, you know, you get in your mouth and you're eating grass. It's, it's a flower, but it's under glass. There's no pesticides and you know, it's like uh, like lettuce or any other vegetable.

Donna: We used to eat honeysuckle, Marissa. Do you ever remember like taking like the honeysuckle flower and just eating the inside, the stamen or whatever those are called? Yeah, this is so exciting and so wonderful. And you have baked goods as well, right? This is traditional. So who are making your baked goods?

Mitchell: So, the cookies come from a bakery that's made daily. We get a fresh delivery every morning and, you know, it's good quality, baked goods and and with the fresh fruit, everybody loves it. So if you don't want to eat a cookie, you got a strawberry, it's fresh. Lychee nuts.

Donna: Oh my God, I see that. That's these, right?

Mitchell: Yep, that's a fresh nut.

Donna: So great, so so great. And I'm sure that every party that you guys go to, they already know what you're expected to bring, right? It's like you're like a vinter and you've got to bring a bottle of wine, you're bringing it.

Mitchell: They're always interested in, oh, what was that? What is this?

Donna: Yes, I know, I'm learning too because I, you see them, but they're never as beautiful as what you have here. And one of these like little, I know my fruits, um, kumquats. Now I know Marissa and Mitchell, uh, thank you all, thank you for joining us.

Marisa: I want to say one thing.

Donna: Yes, of course. Marissa wants to say one thing, yes.

Marisa: We're launching our produce online so now you can buy individual fruits and vegetables online

Donna: Really?

Marisa: Yes, before you had a call on the phone.

Donna: But now you can do online orders?

Marisa: Yes, our platters are all online, but now you can also do produce.

Donna: I thank you both. This is like really cool.

Marisa: Thank you.

Donna: There you go. If you want to eat something that's fresh, delicious, nutritious for you, you've got to call them. It's just the orchard, it couldn't be any better than that. What a great name, um, and kudos to you and your entire family. Thank you for watching. Thank you for me to you, you know, a lychee nut and a compuan, I don't know. I'd love to be able to show you, there's like blackberries and just strawberries, it's delicious. Be well, bye-bye.