INTERVIEW
Fruits By Pesha BY ELISHEVA TAITZ
R
achel and Hezi Yazdi are the parents of four and owners of Fruits By Pesha, a boutique business specializing in fresh and dehydrated fruits and vegetables. They are known for their show-stopping platters and the most recent craze — dehydrated marshmallows, affectionately dubbed “Munchmellows.” Fruits by Pesha products, kosher certified by the OK, are available in many retail markets and ship nationwide through Amazon or their website, www.fruitsbypesha.com. Find them on Instagram @fruits_by_pesha.
How did you get started with Fruits by Pesha? Fruits by Pesha fell into our laps in an unexpected way. After years of working in each of our family’s retail businesses, we had to figure out what our next step would be once Hezi’s family’s business closed. For family gatherings and holidays we always offered to bring cut fruit, because fruit is always a crowd pleaser, no matter the age. Over the years we practiced and learned how to make beautiful fruit art arrangements. In June 2017, Hezi sent some pictures to our friends and they persuaded us to open an Instagram account and post our fruit creations — we didn’t even know how Instagram worked at the time! When orders started coming in, we were in such disbelief. After providing fruit platters for our children’s school carnival, we received a call from the school asking us if we were interested in making dehydrated fruit for their Purim mishloach manot packages. We didn’t know the first thing about dehydrating but we were intrigued, so we bought a small dehydrator. After trial and error and lots of feedback from friends and family, we realized we were doing something right. We began production in a small facility in Queens. Once business started picking up, we were able to move to a larger facility in Brooklyn, closer to home.
Who is Pesha? When I was in second grade, we had a substitute teacher on Fridays. I was a quiet girl and always sat in the back of the classroom. When the teacher asked my name and couldn’t hear me after multiple attempts, she ended up calling me Pesha Baila, which of course is not my real name at all! It became a pseudonym
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of sorts and what I ended up using for my social media accounts. When Hezi asked me what to call our new business venture, I jokingly said Fruits by Pesha, which stuck!
What is involved in the dehydrating process and how long does it take? The process is very long. First we have to thoroughly wash and peel the fruit. Then we slice and arrange it on trays to go into the dehydrators. At that point, it’s a waiting game. Some items take 14-18 hours to dehydrate and others take 20+ hours. It’s a long process but is so worth the wait to enjoy the fruits of our labor — literally!
What is the hardest product to produce? Grapes are one of the hardest fruits to dehydrate, clocking in at about 28-36 hours. Strawberries are also difficult, mainly because of the cleaning process to prepare them for dehydration. People also don’t realize how much the fruit shrinks during dehydration. For instance, a 2-pound watermelon will become a mere 2 ounces of fruit after dehydration. An average 12-inch platter contains about 1 pound of dehydrated fruit, which was once about 10-12 pounds of fresh fruit!
How does dehydrated fruit differ from the classic category of dried fruit? w w w.f leishigs.com
