Miami Fruit is a sustainable farm dedicated to providing a diverse variety of fruits to customers all over North America. Come take a tour with us, as the owners showcase some amazing fruits that you’ve probably never seen before!
Miami is a thriving city known for its lively culture and incredible food scene, thanks to the abundance of colourful foods grown in the region and diverse people who call the city home! Hidden away in one of Miami’s westernmost, agricultural areas lies a farm that delivers an assortment of sustainably grown fresh fruits to people across the United States and Canada.
Miami Fruit started as a fruit stand in 2015, and has since grown to become one of the most popular tropical fruit delivery companies in the country! We got to meet with founders Rane and Edelle, to ask all about what it takes to operate a sustainable fruit farm.
Planting the Seeds for Miami Fruit
"It started as a labour of love," Rane tells us, "just me and my bike trailer, biking fruits from the farm to the farmer's market."
Edelle grew up in California, where her interest in a plant-based diet sparked her curiosity about food, leading her to start growing vegetables in her own backyard. Once she experimented with growing fruit, there was no going back and led her to move to a tropical climate where she could explore growing a larger variety.
It was then that she met Rane, and the two connected over their passion and fell in love. Edelle moved to Miami and the seeds of today’s Miami Fruit began to sprout. As word spread about their unique selections, more and more people started to take notice, and they started shipping their goods all across the country. Now, eight years later, they have a thriving fruit delivery business and are growing an ever-increasing range of fruit for their customers!
Standing Out
One of the things that sets Miami Fruit apart from similar companies is the sheer variety of fruits they offer. With thousands of fruit varieties not available in most grocery stores, Miami Fruit is dedicated to offering as many unique finds as possible to customers across North America, while also supporting local farmers.
Rane and Edelle developed their farm by consulting with local farmers to acquire their seeds. Always searching for unique and exotic fruits, they communicate with producers from all corners of the world to find out what is being grown and how it is being grown. If they find a variety they want to grow, they will often trade seeds with that farm.
“There's an unknown amount of fruit varieties in the world," says Rane. "In South Florida, we grow maybe 100 or 120 varieties of bananas alone. At our farm, we've got probably a couple of hundred varieties, but we'll continually narrow those into what is the most desired."
Going Viral
Thanks to Edelle’s creative marketing strategies, Miami Fruit has become an unstoppable sensation on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, amassing over 476,000 followers on Instagram and 1.2 million followers on TikTok! This has resulted in an engaged following full of people wanting to learn more about the stunning natural beauties.
Using familiar food items to help describe each variety, such as comparing a ripe black sapote to a chocolate pudding, Miami Fruit aims to have a fun yet educational dialogue with its viewers, hoping to spread the health benefits of eating a variety of colourful fruits to new audiences. With such a wide variety of fruit on offer, it can be difficult to choose what to buy, so we asked Rane and Edelle which of their fruits are their customers' favourites.
"Our best-selling product is the variety box because I think a lot of people want to try a little bit of everything," Edelle says. "But also the sprouted coconut, mamey sapote, and banana variety boxes are pretty big, too."
Planet-Conscious
Sustainability is a top priority for Miami Fruit too, always keeping environmental impact in mind when growing, harvesting, and even shipping. Many fruits found in grocery stores have travelled thousands of miles from many other countries, going from farm to distributor, from distributor to grocery store. By growing their fruits locally and shipping them directly to the customer, Miami Fruit cuts out the “middlemen”, thus reducing oil and gas consumption, and cuts cost. Additionally, the quality of the fruit is higher because it can be picked at a riper, more mature stage before being sent out. Even Miami Fruit’s packaging is made from 100% recycled and recyclable materials, yet still protects the produce from the often bumpy shipping process.
The changing climate and hotter weather have already impacted the farm's business, causing Edelle and Rane to try and use warmer temperatures to their advantage and focus on growing more tropical crops usually found in warmer areas. Not every farmer is so lucky however, and are feeling the impacts of climate change more and more every year.
Miami Fruit hopes to offer these unique and specialised crops to the surrounding shrinking agricultural communities, but it can only be achieved with the support of customers who value what they’re doing. The journey from following their dreams to creating a company with a commitment to sustainability is incredibly inspiring! If you are looking for a new way to get fresh, high-quality fruit, consider giving Miami Fruit a try to support their incredible business.
Miami Fruit does not currently offer tours open to the public.
For more green projects, inspiring people, and innovations working to save our planet, be sure to follow us on Instagram @goinggreenmedia or check out the Going Green YouTube Channel.
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