Episode 2092 - Wholesale Nuts & Dried Fruits: Brain, Heart, & Energy-Boosting Snacks

In today's wellness-focused market, consumers are actively seeking functional foods that offer more than just great taste. They demand nutritious snacks that actively support brain health, heart health, sustained energy, and strong immunity.

Wholesale Nuts and Dried Fruits is an industry leader, providing bulk, farm-fresh ingredients directly to consumers. Our online shop features a wide selection of sustainably packaged nuts and dried fruits, each naturally rich in vital nutrients for your well-being.

Founder Matthew Baron embarked on this mission after a personal diabetes diagnosis inspired him to deeply re-evaluate the impact of food on health. Leveraging decades of experience in food advertising, Matthew built Wholesale Nuts and Dried Fruits on the foundation of offering real, raw, and beneficial ingredients. His personal journey brings a powerful and authentic lens to the booming functional food movement.

Discover the Power of Functional Snacking with Our Bulk Ingredients:

Our premium selection of wholesale nuts and dried fruits provides targeted benefits for your daily health needs:

🧠 Walnuts for Brain Support: Our bulk walnuts are an excellent source of Omega-3 fatty acids, essential for optimal brain function and cognitive health.

❤️ Almonds for Heart Health: Choose our wholesale almonds to help lower cholesterol and promote a healthy cardiovascular system. These heart-healthy nuts are a delicious and beneficial snack.

💪 Pumpkin Seeds for Energy & Recovery: Rich in magnesium, our bulk pumpkin seeds are ideal for muscle recovery and providing a natural energy boost throughout your day.

🍇 Dried Fruits for Immunity & Digestion: Our selection of natural dried fruits offers a concentrated dose of antioxidants and fiber, supporting a robust immune system and healthy digestion.

At Wholesale Nuts and Dried Fruits, we are committed to providing the highest quality bulk functional snacks to fuel your healthy lifestyle. Explore our online shop for premium nuts, seeds, and dried fruits that truly do more for your body.

Web: https://www.wholesalenutsanddr...
Instagram: @wholesalenutsanddriedfruit

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
What it is, what it do bide the world.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It is your girl, the one and only Ash Brown,
and this is the Ash said It show. Over two
thousand episodes since twenty fourteen, half a million streams around
the world. None of this is possible without you, guys,
So I thank you so so very much. Today my
guest is the founder and owner of Wholesale Nuts and

(00:27):
Dried Fruit, the wonderful Matthew Baron. Hey, Matthew, thank you,
thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
You're glad to be here. And let's take the half
off and get it to a million.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Ooh, you guys heard it. He's putting it out into
the universe. Go ahead, but we'll putting it out there, Matthew.
We love all that energy.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, I mean, look, we can get there.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
You know, like with the speed of the internet, you know,
things take off.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Yeah, you know, you just need that one interview, that
one maybe I say some controversial, maybe I say thing beneficial.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
People want to share it.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
You never know when something's going to just pop out.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
You never know.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
You know, we may have some some Hollywood connections to
talk about later on, Matthew, who knows, We'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
We have we could have some we have some full
conversations about the diets of fantastically famous celebrities.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I love it all right, So Matthew, to start things off,
what was the core mission that you had for whole sound,
nuts and dried fruit.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Let's go with about nine years ago. I found out
I was a diabetic.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
So I found out that sugar was the enemy.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
I remember the first time I went into a bar
after learning that alcohol is all sugar, that there's really
no difference between a beer and a Scotch and a
sugar if we can coffee, and I just would look
at the bar and just see bags of sugar instead
of buddles of alcohol, And I'm like, that's so good, right,

(02:08):
And so I started thinking, like, if I'm going to
recover from being a diabetic and not have as much
sugar in my diet, I'm going to have to move
my career into.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Something that is a benefit to my own diet. And
then look at like trends, Right, how many.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
New diabetics there are every day? You know? The trend
of diabetes in Mexico is I mean literally insane.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I think like half of the population is diabetic.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, there's some crazy number of like a third to
a half of the entire population is diabetic. And they
just love soda, right, they just love like candy, and
it's so part of the culture. And then like bread
is so part of the culture, Like white bread is
such a part of the culture.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
That you know, like almost you can't get it out
of the culture.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
So like if you go and you order a plate.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Of vegetables, good good luck in Mexico, you know they'll
be like, you mean you want a vegetable.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
I want to play the vegetables.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
So like you think we have more than one vegetables corn.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
It's like it's very curious.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
But uh, you know, I'm down there and they have
they grow macadamia nuts and mango. So my business has
brought me to Mexico for sure.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
And so.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
You know, I love it down there, like the farms
and the whole thing. You know, my Spanish is terrible.
I don't I don't go to Mexico City like I
go like the back country, you know. And uh yeah,
it's just one of those things where it's just a
culture that needs so much help with their diet, right,

(03:59):
and Americans, we have so much food, We have such
an abundance of food that's terrible for us, Right, they
say in the supermarket, like eighty percent of there is garbage,
and then there's like twenty percent that is actually healthy exactly, yeah,
right when they say they're like hang out at the ends,
like the edge of the of the aisles, like go

(04:22):
around the edge of the building and not down the
aisles because that's where they keep.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
All the junk. And it's like all the good stuff
is on the edges.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's that.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
So I just got really inspired, you know, and I
wanted to My business started with nuts and dried fruit.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
You know.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Of course people start giving static for the dried fruit part.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
They like, but that has sugar in it.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
I'm like, there's no way you're going to convince me
that a dried piece of raw mango is going to
be worse than a Snickers bar.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Or grapes.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
You know, like, how many great is it going to be?
The equalist Nickers for so I used to hear that
all the time. I think people are getting smarter about it.
But you know, certain culture, certain religions they believe in
like having food preserved and ready, you know, survivalists. My
favorite customer is gluten free survivalists because they're just buying

(05:26):
boxes of food in case things go in case think
through sideways.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, I mean especially now, Yeah, that's a whole nother story.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
There, so a whole other you go down that path altogether.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
But really what it is is I did it to
serve myself and then to have like a mission with
my business, right, like something that is for the future,
for kind of the evolving food system.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
And you know.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
The idea that like every year there's more and more vegans.
Every year, there's more and more vegetarians, you know, every
year there's more people eating just raw food diets, you know,
and I needed to become one of those people.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
And so the best to do.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
It was, you know, to get in there, to meet
the farmers and start the business. My business is essentially
fresh nuts, striped fruit and seeds.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
That is like what it's about, you know. So not
a lot of people get.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
Fresh quinoa or you know, fresh dried blueberries or fresh
macadamia nuts. You know, they're always they always enjoy you know,
a fresh product. So I barely ever get a return.
I mean, there's the only time I get a return
is when I do something wrong. You know, a pistashio
that should have been taken out of its shell is

(06:52):
less than a shell or somethings versed and salted and
should have been But that's rare, I mean less than
one percent.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
That's pretty good, Matthew, Yeah, be awesome.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
I'm pretty happy about that.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
Like, I'm extremely happy that people are finding what they're
looking for, being able to buy twenty five pound boxes
and getting exactly.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
What they want.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Wow, twenty five pound boxes. So people are getting like
for real, for real supplies of this stuff, like these
are not like cutesy little six ounce bags.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Well, the way it started was in a twenty five
pound box. The farmers and the processors were interested in
sending it out fresh right, right, So if it's a
twenty five pound box, so like, yeah, we can take
this off the top of the palette and just send
it right off. Because everything's kind of in twenty.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Five pound boxes.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
About seventy percent of what I do is in pounds,
but there's see, you know, stuff that comes from outside America,
and so those things are in kilograms. So there's always
like two and a half pounds left.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Over of things like laying around the warehouse. It's so funny,
but you know that is like a size that is.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
The optimal price and the optimal freshness.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Like it's so.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Easy to just take it and just redirect it to
a customer from e commerce.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yes, Now, what are some of the varieties that you
all offer? Like what are someone that's coming to your
site for the first time ever today, Like as they're
listening to us, now they're going they're searching the site,
what are they going to see?

Speaker 4 (08:35):
So the nuts are things that almost everyone has tried, right, pecans, almonds,
pecans coming from Georgia and Texas. Almonds are almost always
coming from California. Then you've got more fringe things like
brazil nuts and pine nuts.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, you've got things like macademia nuts.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
That mostly come from uh Mexico, sometimes Kenya, right, you know,
they don't as much come from from.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Hawaii anymore, like you would think that macadamion us used to.
And really we just send out the freshest.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Food possible, Like that's really the mandate. It's the freshest
food possible. Then there's pistachios, another California products, you know,
and then you're talking about dried fruit. So it's raisins.
It's dates and figs.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
You know, the figs Black Mission figs.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Come from Turkey and Calimurna figs come from California.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
That's why the name is Calimurna.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
You know, you have things like dried papaya, dried pineapple,
you know, different kinds of varieties. Right, So I'm not
afraid of like taking on something new as long as
people are looking for it.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, that sounds me. I don't think I've ever had
a dried papaya. I've had papaya just straight off, and
it's like sometimes it can be a task to cleave its.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
Most people love the dried blueberries because they've never had.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
A fresh dried blueberry.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
I don't think they only get that little nub blueberry
that comes on like oatmeal, you know, like the really old, dehydrated,
like certainly the skin kind of a thing, but never
like a like a plump dried blueberry.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
The only dry The only time I think that I've
had somewhat of an experience with a dried blueberry is
I was a flight attendant and they had the little
baggies of the chocolate covered berries and they would be
in there and they would they would be amazing because
you know they're you know, wrapped in sugar and cocoa

(10:54):
and everything else. But I don't think that I've really
like ever had like a dried blueberry like to really
because I love blueberries, I put it in my smoothies
when I'm making pancakes and stuff like that, but I
don't think.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
I remember I have blueberries every day. I mean, I
am die hard for walnuts and blueberries, and.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
I sell both those things.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
So it's it's my design.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Like if you have a hand of walnuts and a
handful of blueberries every.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Day, like you can only be so unhealthy. Like I
guarante you know, I'm.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Not a medical doctor, but if you start off with
a handful of walnuts and a handful of blueberries, yeah,
it's doing pretty good.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
You're doing pretty good in life. Okay, all right, you
think you're converting me here, Matthew. Like I'm already vegetarians.
I don't eat meats. I don't eat the red meats
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
But I have been trying to balance and just really
watch what I've been consuming, and you know, looking at
labels a lot more intently, and you know, just really
being able to just be in charge of what it
is that I'm consuming and what I'm eating, So I
definitely have to check you guys out.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's that's not even in question.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
I mean most of my stuff is completely raw, right,
which means there's no anything right, there's no roastings, there's
no anything right.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
The nuts are mostly raw. The final category what I
sell is.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
Seeds, so that's kin watchia, flat seeds of pumpkin seeds,
and so that is that is just like when people
start eating that, Like when people start putting chia in
their smoothies, like they don't they don't stop. Like when
I get a customer like that gets a twenty five

(12:40):
pound box for whatever it is, forty eight dollars or
something like they that's I just got them.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Oh wow, that is amazing now.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Putting in with your breakfast. Like once you even just
start putting one scoop in and.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
You start realizing that you're doing it every day, you
get a twenty five pound box, then it's on wow.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
I love that, I love it. I love it. Now.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
What proactive measures are you kind of employing to ensure
just consistent availability of your products?

Speaker 4 (13:15):
I focus on a freshness, so prices will go up
and down. At first, I thought, oh, they're only going.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Up, no problem.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
But their commodities, I mean, they're so commodified.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'm not reinventing the wheel.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Like anyone who orders a box of pistasios knows a
box of pistashios.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Like getting the fresh sassios is.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
What kind of keeps people coming back. If they're a
lover of that one thing, or if they're doing events
or they have a big family, you know, or they're
just making.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Cookies for Christmas or the holidays or whatever, then.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
You just you just know you've got them when you
get them.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
The fresh product.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Now, are there any new products that maybe you guys
are going to be offering to customers soon? Can we
talk about anything or is that kind of under wraps
for now?

Speaker 1 (14:13):
No?

Speaker 4 (14:13):
No, I'm working on mushrooms right now. Okay, I got
I got inspired to do dried mushrooms because everyone was
moving towards powders and tinctures, right. So it's the body
doesn't doesn't take it as much as it does with

(14:36):
what they call fruiting body, which is basically just like
a dried fruit, like it would have.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
A dried apricot. It would be a dry.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Lines mean, gotcha.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
And it's just like seeing those people that love mushrooms
get so excited about it. It's a it's a completely
different conversation than when you go in and talk about
some dried fruit. They're just people that love mushrooms are
like crazy mushroom people.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
You know.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
It's like I've been telling my friends for years, wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Listen to me.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Now it's cool, you know that kind of thing, Like
mushrooms talk to each other like they're pretend like it's
like the CIA, what are they talking about? Like their
roots talk to each other. So I just love like
the vibe of running a mushroom business for that because

(15:32):
it's so physically big, right, Like the mushrooms when you
dry them, they're just they take up so much space
that a five pound box is as big as like.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
A twenty five pound box of pine nuts.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
So the shipping is more when the boxes are bigger, right.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
But it's just one of those.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Things where like a bulk is a five and a
ten pound bag a box.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Know, yeah, yeah definitely, And we and.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
We do just we just do one bag inside of
a box, so there's no individual pounds, right, So everything
is packed fresh like in a bag or the putting
a box. So the thing that always frustrated me was
people that would sell twenty five pounds pounds in a
box and it would be twenty five individually wrapped pounds.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Okay, you know, so it's all that plastic.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeahssary plastic.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
And then it's like the weight of the plastic. Then
you're shipping like the weight of the plastic.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
So so that became another like mission business, you know,
like I get questions.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
About plastic all the time. I get down with plastic.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
So, Matthew, what is the best way for people to
get their hands on some of these amazing ducks.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Well, they can feel free to ask me for any sample.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
I don't mind.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
You can also go to Wholesale Nuts and Dried Fruit
dot Com. That's a wholesale nuts and Dried Fruit dot com.
Wholesale Mushrooms dot Com is kind of the new project.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
If you're a.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
Lover of Lion's Maine and Chaga and my takie and
chautaki mushrooms and all that, you know, that's where I'm
getting started.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
With that, and I just you know, you can reach
out to me.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
It's barren at wholesale Nuts and Dried Fruit dot Com.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Half my business is people.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
That are starting up their own businesses, you know, so
they just like, you know, they call me in a
haze like, oh, I need one hundred pounds or something
like tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
I'm like, well the day after that, do you know.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
But most of it's just customers, you know, just people
that are on Walmart dot com or Amazon, people that
find the website, people that.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Are on eBay looking for deals.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yes, and eBay.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
It has been a great channel.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
It's crazy how many people are like looking for deals
for food really that is yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, and you can buy things in.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Bulk on eBay, right, Like that's kind of where people's
brains think to go.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
So that's been really interesting.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
But honestly, like my website, it's most of my sales
and most of my attention.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
And I just love writing about like the history of.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Food and you know what people were eating.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Two hundred years ago.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
And I sell you know, dried apples, so what's the
history of apples.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Or apple pie?

Speaker 4 (18:58):
So that's kind of like gets me up in the
morning and excited about what I do.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yes, yes, and I love it.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
I mean, it's just it's all about you know, like
you said, it started from your health journey and now
it's absolutely something that is helping so many families around
the world.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
So who else to you and your team?

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Thank you so much. I mean, it's a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
It's thirty seven farmers to put it together. So without them,
I wouldn't even you know, I wouldn't even you know.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
I'm from Center City, Philadelphia.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
You know. We talked about working in advertising and you know,
making entertainment, and I don't know anything about farming.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
You know, it's a tractor. I'm just like, take.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
A picture of me, like I'm a cool attractor. I
don't know anything about for me. I don't have a
green thumb at all. I just know what raw healthy
ingredients are and.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Then okay, and that's plenty.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
That is apparently. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Wow, well, Matthew, thank you so much for coming through.
We certainly appreciate you dropping these gemstones on us and
opening people's minds to you know, just a healthier way
of living. There's always choices, you know, and you've got
to try to find those good choices for yourself. And

(20:20):
I would love it if you would come back and
share with us new announcements. I know stuff is going
to be launching in the next couple of months and
weeks and stuff. I would love it for you to
come back and share with us, because we're all about it.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
I would love to give you some samples and let
you try yourself.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
You know, yes, the blueberries or the.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Walnuts, you know, yes, yes, next time you come, we
will talk about my experience with the blueberries and the
walnuts and all the good things.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
So so now we're we're putting this into the universe.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Just like like you said, we're gonna get to that
full million listen all around the world. So yeah, I'm
looking forward to Matthew. Thank you so so much. Thank
you all that, and I appreciate each and every one
of you guys, Thank you so much for your love
and support. Keeping in mind. Anyone to tell you that

(21:14):
you can't do what you want to do, you look
them square in the face, you tell them, don't believe me.
Just watch watch what I do. Watch me make it happen,
Watch me make history. That's what we're doing this for
the history books. Social media is nice, but real life
is so much better. Until next time you guys,