Joe Ades, the carrot peeler of the Union Square Greenmarket died on Sunday at age of 75. Here’s the NYT article about his death today.This man was a master salesman. If you never had the opportunity to watch his pitch, do yourself a favor and watch this video.Watching him at the Greenmarket was always a joy. And as for the peelers, they’re the best. I bought one from him for $5 a few years ago and it’s still the only peeler that I use. He would end every pitch with:“The peelers are 1 for $5 and 5 for $20. Now, why would anyone need five peelers if they last a lifetime? You keep one and give the rest to four friends.” Often when I use the peeler, I think about him and try to immitate his pitch in his delightful British accent. My only regret is that I never bought five peelers from him so that I could have kept one and given the rest to four friends.

in a time when there's hardly anytime to prepare good food and the convenience of inexpensive fast food products are pushing us further and further away from our food sources, joe ades made it fun to play with your food.

His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed his answer to the “So what do you do?” question: “I sell potato peelers on the street.” Mr. Ades (pronounced AH-dess) died on Sunday at 75, said his daughter, Ruth Ades Laurent of Manhattan. She said he never talked about how many peelers he sold in a year, or how many carrots he had sliced up during demonstrations. She said he stashed his inventory in what had been the maid’s room of the apartment. You can read his obituary HERE.