Gourmet News • March 2021

PHOTO FEATURE:

FEATURED PRODUCTS:

FEATURED PRODUCTS:

Asian Influences

STAR Olive Oils

Elmhurst Milked

SEE PAGE 18

SEE PAGE 14

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T H E

VOLUME 86 • NUMBER 3 MARCH 2021 • $7.00 • New Charcuterie Marries Old World Tradition with Texas PAGE 6

• Wise Bird Cider Stakes a Claim on Excellence PAGE 8

• A Frozen Treat for Everyone from Alden’s Organic Ice Cream PAGE 10

• Shelf-Stable Creamy, Crispy Snack Bars PAGE 11

• Meska Sweets Offers a Taste of Morocco PAGE 12

• Featured Products PAGE 13

• Asian Influences PAGE 18

• Editors Picks PAGE 20

• Ad Index PAGE 22

B U S I N E S S

N E W S P A P E R

F O R

T H E

G O U R M E T

I N D U S T R Y

Divine Chocolate Leads by Example

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Divine Chocolate is on a mission to serve the 100,000 Ghanaian cacao farmers who co-own the brand and use the fair trade premiums generated by their cacao sales and producer support programs to pay for a wide range of programs from literacy and tenant rights advocacy to funding for new cacao sheds – whatever the farmers decide will make their lives easier and their chocolate better.

Troy Pearley is the Executive Vice President and General Manager for Divine Chocolate North

America, and the farmers cooperative that grows the cacao for the brand is Kuapa Kokoo, which means “good cocoa farmer.” Di-

vine Chocolate is owned by Weinrich, a German chocolate manufacturer, and Kuapa Kokoo, the farmers who grow the cacao.

The Kuapa Kokoo cooperative

started out in the early 1990s with 2,000 farmers in 22 villages. Now its 100,000 farmers are organized into 66 districts in six regions of Ghana. “That’s just because of the way they do business and the transparency of the organization.

The farmers trust them in Ghana and want to work with them,” Pearley said. “I have the privilege of running a company that has a social mission. Our aim is to have a positive impact on

Brass Roots is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based snack food company that has taken New Orleans children under its wing as its social mission. The company is involved with a number of youth organizations in New Orleans, providing health and wellness education to the youth enrolled in the programs.

“Everything is generally focused around kids – it's nutrition and kids,” said Aaron Gailmor, the company's Founder and Chief Eats Officer. Part of that work in-

volves teaching Southern cooking skills to youths at Covenant House, which helps formerly homeless teens find their way in the world. When he's not doing that, he might be teaching kids who are enrolled in Roots of Music, a program that helps kids pursue music even if their parents can't necessarily afford to buy instruments, how to pickle vegetables. “Cooking is such an important part of getting back on your own two feet,” Gailmor said.

He finances the mission by making healthy snack foods

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

based on sacha inchi seed as their hero ingredient. Sacha inchi is a native of Peru that's also known as the Incan peanut. It behaves like a nut in recipes, but it's free of the top nine allergens. “It crunches like a nut, but it's a seed,” Gailmor said. “It's more nutritious than any other nut out there.”

With 50 percent more protein and twice the fiber of an almond, the sacha inchi seed's taste and mouth feel are similar to a peanut

Nutiva’s newest product is a line of four organic avocado oils packed into 12-ounce pouches that would be extremely convenient to toss into my chuck box the next time it feels socially responsible to pack myself, my cameras and my notebooks off to Grand Canyon to commune with ravens, watch the cloud shadows chase each other across the canyon walls and write myself into wholeness there where the Earth falls away at my feet. The Organic Avocado Oils include Organic 100% Pure Avocado Oil (a steamrefined oil that’s perfect for highheat cooking), Organic MCT Oil Blend Avocado Oil, Organic Hemp Seed Blend Avocado Oil and Organic Extra Virgin Avocado Oil (a full-flavored oil that can be used similarly to extra virgin olive oil) – all a good source of monounsaturated fats along with potassium, folate and Vitamins K, C and E, and all versatile enough to accommodate the needs of a menu based on whatever else I happened to pack into the box before pointing my Jeep north from Tucson.

Along with the oils themselves, Nutiva has packed into the squeeze pouches its own sense of food as a force for social and

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Brass Roots: Snacks with a Mission to Serve Kids

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Nutiva Advocates for Social Justice

Schuman Cheese Gets Cheesy with Plants

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Schuman Cheese, best known in the specialty food world for cheeses like its Cello Italianstyle cheeses and its Yellow Door Creamery Alpine Collection and in the snack food industry for its Whisps, which are cheese crisps made from 100 percent cheese, is venturing into the plant-based cheese space with its new Vevan line.

Schuman's cheesemakers had noticed plant-based cheeses coming onto the market, and they'd seen their popularity growing, but they'd figured that was nothing to do with Schuman,

which was, after all, in the business of making dairy cheeses that honored classic Italian traditions.

of the category and try tasting some of the products. Since their Head of Innovation was urging it

The company's Head of Innovation, though, suggested that they look again at the market strength

so strongly, Schuman's leadership decided to get together to hear her out and try some of the plant-

based cheeses on the market.

They left that meeting with one big takeaway, said Keith Schuman, who heads up the company's Vevan business unit: “If this is what people are getting, there's room to do better.”

If Schuman had one big thing to offer the market, it was that the company had cheesemakers who know how cheese is supposed to taste, they figured. “We know cheese. We know it down to its microbiological Continued on PAGE 10

4

GOURMET NEWS

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

//

MARCH 2021

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Dear Friends: As I write this letter, I’m sitting outside in my backyard in front of a smoky fire that I lit in the fireplace on what I call my winter patio, and with the sun shining down on me, I’m just a little too warm in the sweatshirt I’m wearing. A pair of mourning doves are perched on the mesquite tree from which I have hung a bird feeder, and a few minutes ago, a couple of roadrunners strutted by.

They are most likely the mother and son that I spent the summer watching as the mother came by first to steal kitty kibble out of the bucket I keep on the patio just outside my back door to feed wandering cats and the occasional skunk or raccoon. A few weeks after the mother roadrunner had become a regular visitor, she showed up along with a younger bird that she led up to the bucket and fed while he crouched down beside her and fluttered his wings. Through the course of the summer, they just kept coming back, and I watched as he started coming alone sometimes, first to wait by the bucket until his mother showed up to feed him and then eventually just to take care of himself.

Roadrunners are said here to be a sign of good luck, and having them include my home in their everyday lives has been a blessing. I have seen them almost every day through the winter, and I note with a peculiar gratitude that I wouldn’t have known

about any of this if it hadn’t been for the pandemic lockdown that has kept me at home for their visits.

It was around this time last year that I came outside one morning to investigate the source of strange noises on the patio to be surprised by a pair of javelinas with their snouts buried in the bucket of the expensive bird seed I buy to keep a pair of cardinals happily in residence. I chased them out, and the next morning, I emailed my handyman to come and repair the fence they’d squirmed through.

As I was waiting for the handyman to work me into his schedule, I was also watching the news and seeing the pandemic rising around the world like Noah’s flood. I did what we were all doing, watching the waters rising, knowing there was nothing that I could do to hold them back, saying some prayers and preparing as best I could. Like many others, I desperately wanted to believe the predictions that the virus might go away when the weather got warmer, and I was taking comfort in the thought that Arizona’s summer heat might end the virus’ reign over us sooner rather than later even though I was also watching news reports that pointed out that the virus was flourishing in the Southern Hemisphere, which was already in the tail end of its summer. I would not have believed you if you’d told me that we’d still be in the midst of this horrifying pandemic a year later.

Now, though, I know that many of us

have taken this past year to think deeply about the futures of their businesses. You can read some of that thinking in this month’s issue of Kitchenware News. Others of us have used the time to recommit themselves to being friends to their neighbors and brothers and sisters to strangers, and some of those stories are on the front page of this month’s issue of Gourmet News. Still others have celebrated their wins in the annual Good Food Awards, which honor those food producers whose products are both delicious and made with respect for the planet that nourishes us all. You can meet two of those in this month’s Gourmet News as well.

I hope that you’ll all enjoy whichever magazine you’re holding as you read this letter, and if you’d like to read the stories in the other, you can easily do that by visiting us at www.gourmetnews.com or www.kitchenwarenews.com. Just click the cover images that you’ll find on the home page.

We hope to see you there. Each of the websites has a contact link for you to reach out to us if you’d like, and I assure you that we read our email, and suggestions about what you’d like to read in our magazines are always very welcome.

Until next month, I wish for you all some of the peace and joy that I find as I’m sitting in the sunshine watching my wild birds and hoping that the roadrunners will call. GN — Lorrie Baumann Editor In Chief

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marries New Charcuterie

Old World Tradition with Texas

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

When Tim Harris heard that a group of Spanish businessmen were planning to export a herd of Spanish-bred pigs to the United States, his first reaction was a little outrage that the prized genetics of the swine whose meat goes into jamon Iberico were being allowed to leave Spain. Then, a few years later, when he got a call from Texas rancher Ashly Martin, who said that the venture had gone bust, and he was looking for a buyer for those Spanish pigs, his first reaction was to be a little miffed that it had taken Martin so long to find his way to La Tienda, the online retailer through which Harris imports gourmet Spanish food products into the U.S. “If you Google ‘Iberico,’ I’m one of the first names that comes up,” he said.

Martin’s story was that he’d been a cattle rancher for the previous 14 years when he’d decided that he needed to find another line of work. “Cattle is a hard deal. I ran a lot on leased country. It’s kind of hard to make money on it. I was getting out of livestock altogether,” Martin had said.

He’d passed that word around to friends and neighbors while he was looking for an alternative way to feed his family, preferably something that would keep him a part of the agriculture industry, when a friend introduced him to a group of Spaniards who were looking for a partner for a plan involving Iberico pigs for which they were looking to find an American home. “I looked it up and started looking at the breed and what the hams bring,” he said. The plan sounded like it would allow him to stay in agriculture, and he’d be able to run them on his own land rather than trying to lease enough acreage to feed a herd big enough to benefit

from the economies of scale necessary to making a profit on the operation. He decided to go into business with the Spaniards and they started flying pigs to him from Spain.

The swine settled in happily as American immigrants and started eating their way across Martin’s 1,500 acres in the Texas Hill Country. “Out here we have a lot of mesquite trees. There’s a lot of live oak, similar to the kind of acorns they have in Spain,” Martin said. “Pigs prefer the mesquite rather than the acorns. It’s like candy to them. They like to eat prickly pear – not just the fruit but also the thorny leaves. We’d burned off the pasture to rid it of the prickly pear thinking that I was doing the pigs a favor, but then it turned out that they like eating it.

“They clean up your pasture. That was a pleasant surprise. These pigs are cleaning up under the oaks. It’s hard, stony soil, so they don’t root much. They aerate the soil a little bit. It’s good for the pasture if you rotate them.”

Martin’s neighbors were snickering a little bit when they heard what Martin had going on, but he could live with that. Then the whole plan fell apart when the Spaniards backed out, leaving Martin with a 2,000 porker problem.

“It turned from something exciting to something terrifying.

We called everyone we knew to see what we could do with these pigs.”

It took him about 40 calls to find a phone number for La Tienda, and Tim Harris answered the call.

“Ashly reached out that they had the herd of Iberico pigs: ‘I was wondering if you wanted to work together?’ Harris picks up the story. “He had all these pigs running around, and his first plan with the Spaniards didn’t work out.

“I heard his story. He’s a former Marine. He’s been ranching cattle for 14 years and had been having a difficult time making ends meet with Angus,” Harris said. “His neighbors thought he was crazy. Pigs are just not central to Texas cuisine – it’s a beef state. The neighbors have to spend time keeping feral pigs off their property.”

At first, Harris struggled a bit with the idea that the pigs had been taken out of their native land, and he knew that some of his Spanish friends would disapprove. Then he started doing a little more research into the history of the Iberico breed, and he learned that Spaniards had been exporting pigs with those bloodlines out of their country and into the New World since the days of the Spanish Conquistadores, who’d boarded them onto ships as provisions for their voyages to the New World. The Spaniards had left breeding populations on the Canary Islands and on Bermuda and other uninhabited islands in the Caribbean, so they’d be there to provision the ships on their next voyages.

One of those populations of pigs dropped off by the Spanish became the ancestors of the Ossabaw Island Hogs, a free-range breed found on Ossabaw Island, off the coast of Georgia. Now listed as critically endangered by The Livestock Conservancy, these pigs have genes that suggest that they came from the Canary Islands, where the pigs probably interbred at some point with Asian pigs. According to The Livestock Conservancy, more research is needed to sort out exactly how the pigs on the Canary Islands and on Ossabaw Island are related to Spanish Iberian pigs.

Since 1978, Ossabaw Island has been owned by the state

GOURMET NEWS

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MARCH 2021

of Georgia and managed as a preserve by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which has recommended that the feral swine be eradicated to protect other species resident on the island. Georgia currently licenses quota hunts for the swine on the island.

The same sort of porcine migration may account for the presence of pork bones found at the bottom of a well in Jamestown, Virginia, just a short distance from where Harris set up shop as La Tienda 25 years ago. Merry A. Outlaw is the Senior Curator for the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, which is currently conducting archaeological excavations at Fort James, established in 1607 on Jamestown Island as the first permanent English settlement in the New World. These studies have revealed that pigs were the most commonly consumed domestic animal by those first settlers, she said. “These animals may have come from England or locations en route to Jamestown, such as the Canary Islands, the West Indies, or Bermuda, where the Sea Venture wrecked on its way to Virginia in 1609,” she said. “To determine the origin of the earliest pigs eaten and discarded at Jamestown, Jamestown Rediscovery is currently steering DNA and isotopic research of pig bones.” Harris is so excited about this research that he’s helping support it.

This is a story that starts with the first settlers who arrived in Jamestown in 1607. Their route from England took them southwest off the Iberian coast, then along the African coast. The ships stopped in the Canary Islands before proceeding to the West Indies, where they stopped at a number of islands before eventually sailing up the American coastline to arrive at Jamestown Island. “The thought is that the pigs that came to Jamestown were picked up at one of these islands during the voyages,” Outlaw said. “But we don’t know.”

Those first colonists who arrived in Jamestown proved spectacularly inept at the skills required to establish a permanent colony. They realized almost from their arrival that the Virginia Company of London, which had recruited them to establish a colony intended to generate profits and return them to England, had exaggerated the ease of the endeavor. By October, half of those who’d arrived in April were dead, and few of those remaining survived the next winter. Resupply expeditions to the colony didn’t succeed in turning the situation around, since, inasmuch as they’d expected to find an uninhabited paradise with gold on the ground, the colonists didn’t come with much in the way of useful skills, and by the fall of 1608, it was obvious in London that the colony was failing. The company raised new capital and brought in a turnaround specialist in the person of Sir Thomas Gates, who recruited his own team of potential colonists with operational skills and in June 1609 set sail for the colony in a fleet of nine ships with the Sea Venture as the flagship for George Somers, named the admiral of the fleet, and carrying Gates, who was taking up his position as the colony’s governor.

The fleet followed the route taken by the earlier settlers until, within seven days of landfall, they ran into a hurricane off the coast of Bermuda. The Sea Venture was separated from the rest of the fleet and, badly damaged, limped to a landfall on the Bermuda island chain. Since the ship had been carrying some of Gates’ team of operations specialists who had actual skills and this was Bermuda rather than Gilligan’s Island, the Sea Venture’s passengers set to work building boats from the wreckage and trees they cut on the island, and within a year, they had two small ships, which they named the Patience and Deliverance, ready to sail up the coast to Jamestown. Meanwhile, the other hurricane-damaged ships in their fleet had arrived in Virginia in August 1609 after lightening their load by jettisoning most of the supplies they’d been bringing to resupply the colony. The arrival of more hungry mouths to feed rather than the supplies they were expecting was an unwelcome surprise to the colonists, who had just endured what’s still known among Virginia’s historians as the “Starving Time,” when most of them had died and the survivors had been reduced to eating the dead, which suggests that any pigs who’d come across on earlier voyages that had stopped in the Canary Islands were probably long gone.

The next spring, the castaways on Bermuda set sail for

7 Virginia on Patience and Deliverance, possibly with a pen of captured pigs, and landed in Virginia in May 1610, where Gates took a look around at the colony and announced that their situation was untenable and the colonists should abandon their fort and sail up to Newfoundland, where they’d catch a ride from a fishing vessel

headed back to England. The colonists boarded Patience and Deliverance and set sail up the James River, where, in a coincidence that wouldn’t have passed muster with even the director of one of Steven Seagal’s later films, but is nevertheless true, the flotilla met a new resupply fleet bearing another turnaround specialist recruited by the Virginia Company after they’d gotten the word in London that Gates and his team had been lost at sea.

This party was commanded by Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr, who’d been named the new governor of Jamestown. Since he had a year’s worth of supplies with him, he was able to convince the colonists to turn around and sail back to Jamestown, where one of the first things he did was to take a look around and suggest, probably in an English aristocrat version of the tone that Jon Taffer uses when he walks into a bar that he’s planning to rescue, that if the colonists were planning to survive in Jamestown, they might want to start by cleaning up the place.

That may have been, Outlaw said, when pig bones were unceremoniously dumped into an abandoned well and then sealed up until they were excavated by the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, which has noted that the earliest archaeological contexts of the pig bones also contain bones of the Bermuda petrel, a large sea bird known to inhabit only Bermuda. “We recovered several animal bones from Bermuda and shells from the West Indies and Bermuda from that well, and also from a second well that was filled with trash a year later,” Outlaw said. “We hope to find that the pig bones from the first two wells were Bermudian pigs or Iberico pigs… . We don’t know if they were coming from the West Indies, Bermuda, the Canaries, or the Azores. Or perhaps England. We just won’t know until the completion of DNA and isotopic research.”

“We know that hogs were in Jamestown in 1608 because John Smith documented them, noting that three pigs had produced 60 pigs within a very short time. They were

kept on a nearby island in the James River named Hog Island. It still is Hog Island…. During the ‘Starving Time’ winter of 1609 and 1610, the hogs of Hog Island were eaten by the Indians, who were also suffering from food shortages.”

“An interesting fact about Jamestown is that it is where Pocahontas married John Rolfe, the colonist who first raised tobacco in Virginia, the crop that saved the colony. It was the number-one export from Virginia until the late 1990s or so,” Outlaw added. “Tobacco grew here naturally, but it was Indian tobacco, about two or three times stronger than the South American tobacco. It’s thought that John Rolfe, who was on the Sea Venture, got the tobacco seed from Bermuda, which was abundant in Bermuda, just like the hogs.”

Within a month after their first phone conversation, Martin and Harris had put together a company. They offered fresh Texas-raised Iberico pork for sale, but they couldn’t produce the pork fast enough to create a consistent supply of fresh meat, so Harris started shopping around for charcutiers who could cure the meat to make products that could even out supply with demand. He lives just down the road from Sam Edwards and Edwards Smokehouse, so he wandered over there to tell Sam about his Texas Iberico pork. “Our pigs will jump over an acorn to eat a mesquite bean. The climate in Texas is close to that in Spain, and our animals spend 100 percent of their lives outdoors. We’re certified humane by A Greener World, with no antibiotics ever. We raise them humanely, so they’re not confined. We don’t use nose rings. We don’t dock their tails. The mothers are never put in breeding crates. We think it’s the right thing to do to treat these animals well,” is part of how he pitches his pork. “Our animals are very calm. There’s very little anxiety. Our productivity is as high or higher than the Spanish herds. You can taste it in the product.”

Edwards agreed to buy hams that he now brands as his Edwards Smokehouse Surryano hams. Broadbent’s in Kuttawa, Kentucky, took some of the pork to make it into country hams and bacon. Loins went to Spotted Trotter in Atlanta, which produced the Sweet Prickly Pear Lomo that won a Good Food Award this year. “Kevin [Ouzts] makes all of our cured whole muscle products,” Harris said.

“We’re not trying to copy Europe. This is a great breed that comes from Spain, but the product that we’re making is American, and not only that, it’s Texan.”

“Our hams are funky and salty and smoky. They’re nothing like you would produce in Spain – that was on purpose.

We want to celebrate the amazing variety of American charcuterie,” he added. “So far, we’re succeeding, and that’s great. Ashly still has his ranch.” GN

GOURMET NEWS

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MARCH 2021

Wise Bird Cider

excellence stakes a claim on

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Fourteen ciders across the nation were recognized in the 2021 Good Food Awards.

Wise Bird Cider, in Lexington, Kentucky, makes two of them.

Wise Bird won the award for its Hewe’s Crab and Pommeau. Its Ashmead’s Kernel was named a finalist.

Hewe’s Crab is a famous cider variety of apple that’s a cross between an American wild crabapple and a European cultivated variety. It appeared in Virginia in the early 18th century, and cider made from it was a favorite of George Washington. Thomas Jefferson planted Hewe’s Crab apples on his Monticello estate, where the orchard became an important repository for the variety’s genetics after Prohibition destroyed the American cider industry in the 1920s and apples like the Hewe’s Crab that didn’t make good eating off the tree fell into disfavor. Today, though, the Hewe’s Crab Apple is enshrined in the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity Ark of Taste as a treasure worth saving, and Monticello is, among other distinctions, a preserve for the genes of these apples.

Wise Bird’s Pommeau is a fortified dessert cider made with Wise Bird’s York Imperial cider double-distilled by Barrel House Distilling Company, also located in Lexington, and blended with heirloom apple varietals and aged in oak barrels. It’s a nod to the Pommeau made today and historically in Normandy, France, which has an ancient cider tradition that shares its roots with French winemaking. There, Pommeau is made by blending Calvados with fresh apple juice and served as a digestif.

The Wise Bird Ashmead’s Kernel that was named as a Good Food Award finalist is made from an English apple revered as one of the first cider apples in existence. Ashmead’s Kernel makes a cider with pronounced floral notes on the nose rounding out to a lush fruitiness on the back. The Wise Bird Ashmead’s Kernel’s sweetness and the hints of pear make a spectacular pairing

with Rogue River Blue Cheese that reveals the cheese’s savory notes and an intense umami.

These ciders are made by Cidermaker Tim Wright, who founded Wise Bird along with his wife, Greta, in 2019 after the two of them, who were living at the time in Washington, D.C., took up cider making as a hobby. “For us, a hobby had turned into an obsession,” he said. “Suddenly we were planning family vacations around cider.”

Weekend excursions into Virginia to taste cider and participate in the culture of craft cider led to making their own. They won a couple of awards in the non-commercial category of the Great Lakes Cider and Perry Competition, one of the largest in the world. “That was the realization that quitting our jobs, selling our house and putting every dollar we had into making this dream a reality maybe wasn’t completely crazy,” Wright said with a wry grin that came through in his voice over the phone.

The couple had family in Lexington, so when they decided to take leave of their careers and plunge into cider, Lexington was where they went to find a location in the Distillery District where they could establish a cidery and tasting room where visitors can sit and enjoy a glass of cider while they watch the cidermakers at work. Their location is the site of the original James Pepper Distillery, which operated from the late 1800s to around 1950, Wright said. The cidery is located in the former distillery’s rick house, with 4,000 square feet of space divided by a waist-high wall between the tasting room and the production area.

Wright makes cider five to seven days a week, year-round, although August through January is the peak production season. The apples are pressed at the orchards, and Wright receives the juice in white 275-gallon food grade plastic totes – usually one variety of apple per tote, although occasionally apples are blended at the press for specific ciders. The juice is fermented in stainless steel tanks, then bottled and pasteurized – a

process that takes three to six months from start to finish, depending on the apples themselves, how the fermenting goes and what’s planned to happen to the cider after fermentation.

The Wrights’ decision to establish their business in Lexington was helped along by the fact that the city hasn’t had a lot of competition for them: there’s one other business that makes some cider in addition to its craft beers and specializes in modern ciders, which are ciders that are often made from commercial dessert apples like those sold in supermarkets, sometimes including juice from other fruits and occasionally flavored by herbs or spices. The Wrights wanted to make traditional ciders from the juice from cider-specific apple varietals – and only from apples. “We think of ourselves as winemakers. We’re of the school of thought that apples should be treated the way grapes are treated for making wines,” Wright said. “You want to use specific varietals of apples that have distinct combinations of acids and tannins.” The acids in a cider confer balance and zest, while the tannins provide body and spicy aroma as well as clarity.

Although contemporary cider-making is generally considered an outgrowth of the craft beer movement that celebrates the creativity and skill of the brewer with variations on a few basic ingredients, resulting in a style of cider that is uniquely American, traditional cider makers like the Wrights trace the lineage of their craft to the French winemaking traditions through the region of Normandy and to the West Country of England, where the Roman armies commanded

by Julius Caesar are thought to have brought their own knowledge of the craft of fermenting apple juice with them when Caesar came, saw and conquered first Gaul and then England. The Romans were eventually driven back out of England and France, but the people who watched the Roman soldiers retire after defeat continued making cider.

As with wine, a craft cider is an expression of the skills and the aesthetic of the cidermaker and the characteristics of the fruit

that went into it. The flavors contributed by the apples depend on the traits of the apple variety and the terroir of the particular orchard where they were grown. “It changes from year to year, and that is part of the traditional orchard style of cider that we make.

We could have a vintage of a Harrison single varietal cider that presents different from what we made the year before because of changes in the weather conditions. We aim to showcase the character of the specific apple or blend of apples in our ciders,” he said. “With modern cider, the apple is used as a sugar base that you’re going to add other fruit flavors into, so the nuances of the apple are no longer the centerpiece.”

“We make cider from the best apples that we can get our hands on,” Wright said.

About a third of the apples that go into his ciders come from Evans Orchard in Georgetown, Kentucky, including the Gold Rush apples that are the only modern apple that Wright currently uses in Wise Bird ciders.

The Gold Rush apple, so named for its golden color and bronze blush combined with its rush of flavor, is a dual-purpose apple characterized by a rich, spicy flavor. It makes excellent cider straight from the tree but develops sweetness as it’s stored and matures into a crisp dessert apple with a spritely flavor and firm texture after a few months of cold storage.

The cultivar is a cross between Golden Delicious and an experimental apple grown at the Purdue Horticulture Research Farm in West Lafayette, Indiana, from a cross made in 1972 at Urbana, Illinois, through a collaborative breeding program of the Indiana, Illinois and New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Stations. It was introduced to the market in 1992.

Wright uses Gold Rush in his Commonwealth Gold Cider and in Pomme Pomme, which won a platinum award in the 2020 Cidercraft magazine awards’ modern cider category. Pomme Pomme is what Wright describes as a gateway cider for people who’ve been used to thinking of ciders more as the sweet, fruity beverages frequently produced by ciderers who view the beverage as an offshoot of the craft beer movement rather than the drier ciders, often with higher alcohol content, made by the ciderers who compare themselves with winemakers. “It’s meant to be the cheerleader of our ciders – an entry point,” Wright said. “This is the first time we’d won an award at this level and we’re honored to be compared alongside a handful of ciders and cider makers that we revere.”

For more information, visit www .wisebirdcider.com or email tim@wise birdcider.com. GN

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A Frozen Treat for Everyone from Alden’s Organic Ice Cream

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Alden’s Organic Ice Cream is an always-organic brand of premium ice cream founded and owned by Oregon Ice Cream, which also owns other ice cream brands. The company is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, where the brand was founded in 2004.

“We still make every batch right there in Eugene and ship all over the United States from that location,” said Joelle Simmons, the company’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “The premise is to be a brand that’s irresistible to all. We wanted Alden’s to have something for everyone in the family.”

In keeping with that core mission to offer something for everyone, the company offers dairy-free frozen desserts and glutenfree ice cream sandwiches along with the scoopable options in its signature “sqrounds” containers as well as novelties that include ice cream sandwiches in three different formats as well as stick bars for a total of 60 SKUs. The dairy-free line, which is certified vegan, is the latest in the range, offered in 14-ounce pint-size cups as well as novelties. “These are all really hitting at a great spot for the American consumer,” Simmons said. “The novelties help set Alden’s apart, whether we’re talking about sammies

Schuman Cheese Continued from PAGE 1 form,” Keith Schuman said. “Our Head Cheesemaker got right to work.” It didn't take him long to come up with a product that he could present to the company's leadership to taste. They approved. “Within months we had a first-try prototype that was already better than the competition,” Keith said. “Since then, we've continued to refine it.”

“We're trying to make plant-based cheese more cheesy,” he added. “We're bringing the cheesemaking world to the non-dairy category.”

The first Vevan products to market were a collection of shreds and slices: ChedShred, Ched-Melts, Mozza Shred, MozzaMelts, P'Jack Shred and P'Jack Melts.

Brass Roots Continued from PAGE 1 or macadamia nut, Gailmor said. “The crunch is snappier than a peanut,” he said.

“When it comes to nutrition, it's superior even to the almond.”

In addition to its high fiber content, the sacha inchi is also high in Omega-3 fatty acids, according to Gailmor. “The sacha inchi seed has a similar level of Omega-3 as a chia seed, which is considered to be one of the best plant-based sources,” he said.

Brass Roots sources its sacha inchi seeds from a supplier who grows them in Thailand and Laos and who is also involved

or sticks. They’re driving sales growth.

Everything we make is certified organic – everything is non-GMO, so consumers can feel good about what they’re giving their families.”

The dairy-free options are made from a base mix that includes brown rice, oat flour, coconut oil and pea protein that Alden’s calls its Oregon Blend. The pints line offers flavors that include Double Strawberry, Vanilla Bean and Freckled Mint Chip along with Muddy Brownie, Caramel Almond Crunch, Cookie Crumble, Peanut Butter Chip and Mocha Latte. There’s also a Vanilla Bean Round Sammie and Dairy Free Caramel Drizzle Round Sammie.

“What it [Alden’s Oregon Blend of nondairy proteins with coconut oil] did was give us a nice neutral base, so that whatever we were making delivered on true flavor,” Simmons said. “Strawberry tastes like strawberry, without an underlying flavor of coconut or nuts. It delivers on our high standards.”

Alden’s is expanding the line in 2021 with a Key Lime Sammie made with vanilla wafers and a Classic Summer Bar collection of stick bars in Horchata, Strawberry Lemonade and Root Beer Float flavors.

“The Root Beer Float bar is root beer sherbet and vanilla ice cream. It’s a root beer

float on a stick,” Simmons said. “Horchata is vanilla swirled with cinnamon sauce on a stick.

We think we nailed it.

We’re very, very excited about it.” The dairy-free novelties are all sold in boxes of four. “We’re launching now and expect it to be taking off this summer,” Simmons said.

The dairy-free line is key to Alden’s mission to have something in the freezer case for every consumer, but the dairy-free options are appealing even to consumers who aren’t strictly vegan, according to Simmons.

“There are a lot of people who look for dairy-free options. We’re finding that more and more it’s about curiosity,” she said.

“There are flexitarians who change depending on how they’re feeling or what else they’re eating that day or how close it is to the weekend.”

Novelties in the Alden’s Organic dairy line include “Old School Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich,” a conventional size rectangular sandwich with chocolate wafers; indulgent round sammies with thick layers of ice cream and either chocolate or vanilla wafers, depending on the flavor; and Mini Squares with chocolate wafers and Vanilla or Sea Salt Caramel ice cream. “We find

that they’re consumed at different times of day for different occasions,” Simmons said.

The Mini Squares are appealing to individuals who are looking for portion control, not just for weight control, but so they can be served as a snack for the whole family in a guilt-free indulgence of pure organic ice cream, she added.

The company has just added gluten-free sammies to its dairy line as well, with Vanilla Bean ice cream between two round gluten-free chocolate wafers. “It has a really nice, luscious brownie texture,” Simmons said, adding that consumers are unlikely to be able to distinguish the gluten-free cookies from conventional wafers.

Alden’s offers a double handful of flavors in its line of 14-ounce pints, including Moose Tracks®, Dough Yeah™ Cookie Dough Fudge, Peachy Keen Twist™ and Caramel Macchiato. The newest introduction for spring is Honey Lemon Cookie, which is a collaboration with Glory Bee Honey’s Save the Bees Campaign. The new variety is shipping now. GN

They're all non-dairy and non-GMO as well as gluten free and lactose free. “The feedback we've gotten from that retail product has been fantastic,” Keith said.

Now, the company is ready to assert that its non-dairy cheese, unlike others on the market, isn't just good enough to use in a vegetarian lasagna or to include in a sandwich with other ingredients that might help disguise its flavor. “Something we noticed from the start was that outside of using plant-based

cheese in cooking, people – well, they weren't using it for anything other than cooking – it just wasn't good enough to stand up on its own,” Keith said.

Vevan, in contrast, could offer those plant-based consumers the opportunity to enjoy vegan cheese in the same ways that consumers of dairy revel in their cheese. “Our cheese, we feel, is good enough to be eaten by itself,” Keith said.

That was the motivation behind the company's latest product introduction, Vevan Snax, which feature Vevan snacking cubes brought together in a snack pack with dried fruit and roasted nuts for

fans of snacks that offer variety as well as protein. Snax are offered in two flavors: Vevan Lemon Poppyseed Mozza Snax, which offer Vevan Mozza infused with a hint of lemon and poppy seeds accompanied by dried blueberries and roasted cashews and Vevan P'Jack Snax, which offer bite-size cubes of Vevan P'Jack along with dried cranberries and smoky almonds. Both are packed in 16-count display-ready cases for retail sale at about $1.50 to $2.50 apiece.

Next to come for Vevan will be products focused on entertaining. “We really want to encourage people to eat this cheese for itself,” Keith said. “It could go next to the cheeseboard for people who don't eat cheese – or it could go right onto the cheeseboard.”

For more information, visit www .vevanfoods.com. GN

with educating young people. The supplier runs a school and a university in rural Thailand and uses the proceeds from sales of sacha inchi seeds to finance those. “He gives job training by having them help with roasting the seeds,” Gailmor said. “We partnered with this product, Beyond the Seeds, because we very much saw eye to eye with our youth missions. That's why he's become such a great partner there – because of these missions.”

Brass Roots has three different product lines. A line of Organic Sacha Inchi Butter is a nut-free, peanut-free alternative to peanut butter, which recently launched in Sprouts and is sold in Louisiana Whole Foods Markets. The Butters are offered in

Classic, Unsweetened and Chocolate flavors and sold in 12-ounce jars that typically retail for around $11.99. The Chocolate flavor is slightly sweetened with organic maple sugar. “I'm from Vermont, so I have some great maple sugar and maple syrup connections,” Gailmor said.

The second line is Roasted Sacha Inchi Seeds, offered in Lightly Salted, Honey Mustard and Salt and Vinegar varieties.

They're sold in a 4-ounce stand-up pouch that retails for about $3.75.

The third is Crunch Puffs, grain-free, high-protein puffed snacks that are packaged in 4-1/2 ounce bags that sit on a grocery shelf in the snacks aisle. Crunch Puffs come in Truffle Rosemary, White Cheddar

and Jalapeño Cheddar and retail for about $4.29.

Brass Roots snacks are brokered by Presence Marketing, and national distribution is available through KeHE and UNFI. Packaging for the products appeals to consumers who'd like their snacking purchase to support the company's volunteer projects. “On all of our packaging, we talk about our social mission,” Gailmor said.

“As soon as they pick it up and turn it around to the back to see the nutrition facts, they can also read about what we do in New Orleans and with our partner in Thailand and Laos.”

For more information, email info@ brassrootsfood.com. GN

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Shelf-Stable Creamy, Crispy Snack Bars

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Super Pop Snacks is a brand of snack bars based on nut butters. They’re gluten free, non-GMO and contain no refined sugars along with 10 grams of plant-based protein per bar. “It’s creamy and crunchy, not packed with protein powders. We’re making this snacks to help feed a healthier family and future,” said Melissa Wessely, Founder of Super Pop Snacks.

Wessely founded her company in 2016, while she was working full-time and wanted a convenient snack for her six-yearold daughter. At the time, she was doing some of her family’s grocery shopping at a small health food store next to where she was working, but she wasn’t finding snacks there that offered the taste that her daughter demanded along with the nutrition that she required. She decided to try making her own in her apartment kitchen. “I came across crispy quinoa at Whole Foods and thought I could do something with that,” she said. “I was trying to get my daughter to eat something nutritious, and my neighbors were having the same trouble. So I started making the snack bars for our family and the neighbors.”

Nutiva Continued from PAGE 1 environmental justice that has been baked into the company’s being since it was founded by John Roulac in 1999. The Avocado Oil line is, like all of Nutiva’s products, organic certified to U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, and the company has overcome a short supply of organic avocado oil in the marketplace by helping to establish a regeneratively grown supply from Ethiopia. To do this, Nutiva collaborated with a long-time sourcing partner to create a nursery program for Ethiopian women that helps them develop independent farming operations. “We have a longterm sourcing partner who specializes in organic superfood ingredients. They were exploring Ethiopia as an opportunity to expand production and were looking for branded partners to work with them,” said Nutiva Vice President of Marketing Anne Thompson. “A catalyst for this whole thing is that there’s pretty much an absence of organic avocado oil in the market.” Each avocado nursery can develop 6,000 seedlings.

She developed a nut-butter mixture that kept its cookie dough texture even after being formed into bars and incorporated ingredients like spices, honey or blueberries to make the bars delicious. Super Pop snack bars contain no preservatives. “I taught myself the basics and got a license to make it at home,” she said. “Ours are soft creamy and crispy. They don’t have anything weird in them, like artificial flavors, fiber syrups and sugar alcohols. It’s literally a snack you can give your twoyear-old or your grandfather.”

She took the bars around to her health food store and then to another, and they started selling. When she’d outstripped the capacity of her home kitchen, she found a bakery where she could make her bars after hours and then took them to southern California farmers markets. “My husband helped us at the farmers market, my daughter too,” she said. “We did that every Saturday – it was a family event.”

Sales of the bars have since outstripped Wessely’s ability to make the bars on her own, so she found a co-packer to make the bars to her recipe. Her husband, who has a background in graphic design, offered his

The program managed by a team of 30 women provides the farmers with training in organic growing and gives them the tools and the avocado seedlings that start them along the path to developing businesses intended to lead to their financial independence. “It was an investment in the future of organic in this important category,” Thompson said.

“There were women taking the initiative to find independent business opportunities....

Some of these women were looking to pursue new career opportunities at the same time that avocado expansion was happening in the region.” Nutiva imports the oil into the United States and processes and packages it into the 12ounce pouches in its zero-waste facility in Richmond, California.

At home in Richmond, the company takes its commitments to social and environmental well-being just as seriously. Its

Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace Opens New Location

services to build her a website, and the company launched on Amazon a couple of years ago. The bars have now been offered for sale in more than 300 locations, including juice bars, hotels and coffee shops. The bars are labeled for individual sale at $3.29 to $3.49. Online, Super Pop Snacks offers a box of 12 bars for $34.99.

“I grew up as an athlete, running cross-country and track. I always ate healthy. Using that background as an athlete and my operations background and knowing how to sell works great for starting a business and becoming a woman entrepreneur,” she said. “I have a natural entrepreneurial spirit. I always wanted to do something that was mine and provided a product or service that can help people.”

For more information, email info@ superpopsnacks.com or visit www.super popsnacks.com. GN

Richmond facility has run entirely on renewable energy for the past seven years.

Five years ago, the company launched the City Fruit Tree Initiative in partnership with the non-profit Common Vision. Since then, Nutiva has donated a fruit orchard to all 28 local public schools. “Another thing we’ve done is a partnership with Planting Justice, which is aimed at serving highneed students,” Thompson said.

Nutiva created an internship program a year ago in which six students learned plant propagation and care as a way to help them consider organic agriculture as a career path. “We’re continuing to support in other ways for that organization,” Thompson added. “We feel that doing right by our community and the environment – we need to start with our own business.”

Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace on Long Island opened its newest store in North Babylon, New York, on January 8, marking the debut of the company’s seventh store on Long Island and the ninth in the chain. The full-service supermarket, renowned for its high-quality, Italian-themed specialties and food offerings, enjoys a loyal customer base seeking a unique culinary and grocery shopping experience.

As with all other Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplaces, the North Babylon location will feature a full-service deli offering homemade dishes prepared using traditional old world recipes; an in-house bakery showcasing specialty cakes, pastries, breads and desserts; a custom-cut meat department with inhouse butchers; a beautiful selection of fresh and organic produce; a full seafood department; a gourmet cheese department displaying the finest and most sought-after selections from around the world; and special viewing rooms where pasta and mozzarella are made fresh daily directly in front of the customer through protective glass partitions. For more information, visit www.uncleg.com.

Two New Vintages of Tillamook Maker's Reserve Aged Cheddars Tillamook County Creamery Association, the more than 110-year-old farmer-owned dairy co-op, proudly announces the release of Maker's Reserve 2011 and 2018 vintages into its Maker's Reserve program.

These cheeses are part of a broader assortment of Maker's Reserve Extra Sharp White Cheddar vintages available this year, including 2015, 2016 and 2017.

La Tortilla Factory Announces Investment by Flagship Food Group La Tortilla Factory, Inc. has announced that Flagship Food Group, LLC has agreed to make an investment into the company to support its future growth strategy. Flagship will become the majority stake holder in the company while the third-generation Tamayo family members continue to remain valued partners. Majority owned by CREO Capital Partners, Flagship is a diversified food company that sells a wide range of food products and services under the 505 Southwestern, Lilly B's, TJ Farm's and other brands. Most of Flagship's brands are rapidly expanding, having experienced double-digit growth in recent years. The transaction closed on January 27, 2021. Terms of the transaction are confidential.

A little farther from home, Thompson herself has been involved in the creation of a two-part webinar that’s open to the public and marketed through the company’s social media channels and those of its retail partners. In this “Tale of Two Plates” webinar, Dr. Qadira Huff, a Washington, D.C. pediatrician at Children’s National, an expert on the history of the American food system and its relationship to systemic racism, is addressing racial disparities in health care by teaching families how to incorporate more plants in their diet as she advocates for food equity and racial justice in the food system. “The first part talked a lot about the history of U.S. agriculture being on the backs of a lot of enslaved people and the current reality about access to healthy food. The second part is more about solutions,” Thompson said. “It’s really exciting, and something we’re proud to do. We hope to have more on these current topics.... We have a deep commitment to bringing health to people and the planet. We’re running a business, but it’s not self-serving; it’s truly advancing a purpose for everyone. That’s the fiber of why Nutiva exists.” GN

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Meska Sweets Offers a Taste of Morocco

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

There was a time before the pandemic when the only places you were likely to encounter the Moroccan-style macarons made by Meska Sweets was in a fine New York restaurant or in the gift basket you received when you checked into your luxury suite at one of the city’s finer hotels.

COVID-19 has changed that, and Meska Sweets is ready to see its cookies on the shelves of specialty grocers.

Meska Sweets entered the American market in 2016 with a line of hand-made, almond-rich, Moroccan-style macarons that were offered in the foodservice channel.

The cookies were adopted by upscale chefs for their white tablecloth restaurants.

In December, 2018, Florence Fabricant pointed out in the New York Times that Meska Sweets’ cookie line included classics like crescent-shaped cornes de gazelle and honey-sesame chebakia that were traditional Moroccan teatime treats, although Meska was also innovating them with flavors like matcha designed to keep up with trends sweeping the American food culture. “It’s our grandmother’s recipe that we’ve upgraded to fit

within the American taste,” said General Manager Mehdi Menouar. Meska’s Orange Blossom and Almond Macaron won the award for the best cookie at Kosherfest 2018.

When the pandemic arrived in the U.S. in 2020, Meska Sweets’ foodservice-centered business felt the tremors along with New York’s restaurant and hospitality industry, and Menouar took some time to think about how he could introduce his cookies into the retail channel.

Grocers had already told him that the short shelf life of his macarons was an obstacle to that, so he had to figure out a way to lengthen the shelf life of his offerings without damaging the qualities that had made them so valuable in the foodservice market – they had to remain an American-influenced interpretation of their Moroccan heritage, and they had to remain all natural, with no preservatives or artificial colors. Menouar traveled home to Morocco to consult with bakers there about how to do that, and he came back to the United States with a new product line of Moroccan cookies that could be

hand-made in a Casablanca bakery approved by the American Food and Drug Administration in quantities that could be scaled to support a national launch into the American retail market.

Like the foodservice line, Meska Sweets’ new retail line of cookies is all natural, with no colorants, and has a 12-month shelf life with no preservatives.

“We’re sticking to all of those things,” Menouar said. “We’re super-excited about it.

We’ve always had this issue of shelf life. Grocers will be much happier with the longer shelf life.”

Five flavors are offered for retail shelves: three sweet varieties and two that are savory and beg to be paired with cheese. “You don’t get to see a lot of savory biscuits on the shelves,” Menouar said. “What’s really cool about the Moroccan gastronomy that most people don’t appreciate is that we’re at the intersection of African and Mediterranean food.

The Spanish and the French colonized Morocco at one time, so the food represents a fusion of traditions. You have this complete mixture of ingredients and spices, a true melting pot of aromas and tastes, and what

we’re trying to do is build on that with our cookies and biscuits, and, hopefully, folks will like them.”

Savory Oregano Moroccan Bites, flavored with mustard as well as oregano and a touch of pepper, and Savory Paprika Moroccan Bites, with mustard and chile pepper as well as the paprika, are the two savory flavors.

The sweet varieties include Sweet Ginger and Almond & Raisins Moroccan Bites and a third c a l l e d Palmier Bites that’s a bite-size twist on a French-style Elephant ears pastry, rich with butter and deliciously sweet. All of them are bite-size nibbles – each a little smaller than a tea cookie, so that a 5.3-ounce box contains about 50. The cookies are sealed into an inner foil pouch inside the box to help maintain their freshness, and a box retails for $4.99.

For more information, visit www.meskasweets.com or email team@meskasweets.com. GN

Cookies Without Compromise from Real Treat

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

A preference for organic products shouldn't mean having to give up entirely the swooningly hedonistic experience of biting into a cookie replete with quantities of butter and sweet with the taste of real sugar, according to Jacqueline Day, the Founder of Real Treat. She and the other women who

Divine Chocolate Continued from PAGE 1 society and be a good catalyst for change.”

About a third of the cooperative’s farmer members are women, and many of them are involved in the cooperative’s literacy program. “The program is almost a women’s empowerment program,” Pearley said. “Women are saying things like how they’re glad that they’re able to read now, so that they can encourage their daughters to pursue their own ambitions rather than settling for a life at home. I was really taken aback at how empowering literacy can be.”

While Kuapa Kokoo operates as the source of the cacao, Divine Chocolate is the company’s sales and marketing arm. It was founded in the United Kingdom in

work with her in her bakery make cookies that she says are “unapologetically delicious,” but also organic.

1998 after Kuapa Kokoo, which had organized with help from a European nonprofit organization, decided that it needed to form its own chocolate company to create an international market for its products. When the company moved into the American market, Divine Chocolate was launched in the U.S. on February 14, 2008, on the occasion of a visit to the White House by a delegation of the Kuapa Kokoo farmers. “Even from the early 1900s, it was very important that women’s leadership was in place,” Pearley said.

“Women have always been highly involved in the decision making process at Divine Chocolate.”

Divine Chocolate’s identity as a fair trade brand is built into its B Corp status, and Kuapa takes particular pride in its transparency, according to Pearley, who joined

She set up shop at Specialty Food LIVE! in January to introduce the American market to her new Pantry product line, a line of cookie that offers the flavors of childhood indulgent experience of her Top Shelf line that's been in the American market for the past year and a half. Launched last fall, the new line includes Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal Raisin, Brown Sugar

Shortbread made to her family's recipe and Dark Chocolate Cookies with Almonds and Sea Salt. “Pantry's all about nostalgia, afterschool snacks fresh out of the oven – the flavors that most people crave,” she said.

“Everybody's working at home in their sweat pants, and people think less about calories. People's priorities have shifted and are gravitating toward things that give us comfort.... What tastes like a hug more than what we used to enjoy at home when we were kids?”

Top Shelf, her previous line, has been in

Divine in 2012, first as director of sales and then advancing from there to become the company’s key decision-maker in North America as its General Manager. “Kuapa Kokoo is led by Madam Fatima Ali, a Muslim woman, and a good deal of the cooperative is made up of Christian farmers who collectively have a common goal. Personally, I am most impressed with how people from different beliefs are able to have a cohesive community and together grow a successful business.”

As a B Corp and Fairtrade company, Divine Chocolate and Kuapa Kokoo are regularly assessed on the structural integrity of the company. Since Divine Chocolate is just the sales and marketing operation for the enterprise – the chocolate bars themselves are made by Weinrich in Europe – Divine Chocolate has

only about a dozen employees at its Washington, D.C. headquarters and another dozen or so on its global staff in England and Sweden.

The Washington location provides accessibility for Pearley to advance the company’s social mission through advocacy to U.S. foreign trade officials, as a board member for Fairtrade America and as a member of the National Confectioners Association’s Chocolate Council. “Divine Chocolate has a voice on this council because of who we are and what we stand for,” Pearley said. “We laugh at Divine about how chocolate can bring so many worlds together. We’ve used the power of chocolate to make positive change in the world. It’s always uphill, but I’m proud to say we’re moving in the right direction.” GN

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Coffee on the Go from 40 Below Joe

Colby Cheese from Widmer’s Cheese Cellars

In a new approach to coffee, 40 Below Joe offers an extraordinary product line that includes coffee lovers’ favorite coffees and dairy-free creamers flash frozen to ensure a delicious, fresh and easy cup of Joe they can eat.

The 40 Below Joe process brews the highest quality Arabica beans and cryogenically (quick) freezes the ultra-fresh coffee into little beads using liquid nitrogen at -320 degrees Fahrenheit. Mixing the coffee beads with non-dairy creamer beads makes for a fun, unique, caffeinated treat that is gluten free, dairy free and vegan.

Wholesalers can now offer this innovative treat to their consumers with the 40 Below Joe retail program. Prepackaged,

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars, Inc. Colby is a first-place blue ribbon winner at the 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest. The cheese is an American Original developed in Wisconsin in 1885.

Widmer’s Cheese Sellers crafts its Colby in small batches using original family recipes to achieve a sweet, semi-soft cheese with milky flavors. Similar in flavor to Cheddar, Colby is softer and has a more open texture and higher moisture content. Cheese makers spray the curds with cold water and stir them while they are still in the vat to prevent the curds from knitting together. This

75g grab-and-go cups make for a convenient treat. 40 Below will provide the wrapped freezer and marketing materials at no cost; the only thing you pay for is the product!

40 Below offers frozen coffee in grocery and convenience stores, cafeterias, bakeries, coffee shops, candy stores and many other retail locations.

Flavors include French Vanilla, Hazelnut, Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Mocha and House Blend.

40 Below Joe 615.510.1560 www.40belowjoe.com

Freshness from the Philippines and Franklin Baker Franklin Baker, Inc. is the largest processor in the Philippines and premier supplier of coconut ingredients to the global food and beverage market.

The company has been in business for more than 125 years and takes pride in long-standing customer relationships, many of which have endured for more than 60 years. Franklin Baker’s products are produced in one of three manufacturing facilities in the Philippines from the freshest nuts available using a proprietary process to ensure freshness and long shelf stability.

Franklin Baker controls its process from tree through shipment, so customers can have the highest level of safety and confidence in the product supply chain.

The company is proud of its long list of third-party certifications and accreditations that includes USDA Organic, NonGMO Project Verified, Fair Trade USA, BRC, Control Union, ISO 9001:2000, ISO 22000:2005, HACCP, FDA Philippines, GMA-SAFE, AB PAO Accredited Testing Laboratory, SEDEX, kosher, halal-certified, and Award of Excellence, 2016 - 2021 American Master of Taste & Gold Medal Endorsement for Superior Taste and 2019 - 2021 Beverage Champion by Chefs In America. The highest product standards make Franklin Baker “A Cut Above the Rest.”

Franklin Baker Company www.franklinbaker.com

MarDona Black Truffle Marinara Sauce MarDona Specialty Foods’ gourmet Black Truffle Marinara Sauce is versatile and perfect for any pasta dish or as a dipping sauce for a crusty bread. MarDona uses only pure, natural ingredients in the making of its gourmet sauce – the best crushed tomatoes, fresh spices, pure truffle-infused olive oil and the finest black truffles. Then the sauce is slow-cooked over a low heat for hours to achieve its lus-

cious thickness and well-balanced great taste. Sodium and calorie levels are as low as possible, and it’s gluten free.

MarDona Specialty Foods 855.645.7772 www.mardonausa.com

procedure gives Colby a more elastic texture than Cheddar.

Perfect for shredding, melting or slicing, it complements burgers, fajitas, chili, rye bread, apples or pears. Widmer’s Colby is available in four flavors: Plain, Jalapeño, Caraway Seed and Vegetable and Herb.

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars can be purchased in 5-pound pieces (two per order), 2.5pound pieces (four per order), 1-pound pieces (10 per order) or 8-ounce pieces (20 per order).

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars 888.878.1107 www.widmerscheese.com

Plant-Based, Versatile Noodles NakaNoodle is a tasty, gluten-free, lowercalorie, lower-carbohydrate, zero-guilt alternative to conventional pasta, noodles or rice. The Vertullo imports line includes three different varieties: Fettuccine, Rice Style and Ramen.

Each item is plant-based, vegan, nonGMO and keto friendly. This is the only brand in this category with products that,

through a proprietary process, have a superior texture profile, do not need to be drained before use and are ready to heat simply by tearing a notch in the bag and microwaving for 90 seconds.

Vertullo Imports LLC 516.780.5882 www.nakanoodles.com

Imported Fiorucci Prosciutto di Parma Fiorucci is the brand of specialty meats that delivers the true taste of Italy. For more than 170 years, Fiorucci has used Old World recipes to produce a full line of authentic Italian charcuterie meats, cheeses and premium snacking products using only handtrimmed cuts of premium pork and the finest ingredients, then slowly aging them to perfection.

Now available for purchasing, Fiorucci has imported specialty cuts of Prosciutto di Parma for customers to indulge. These premium-imported cuts of ham are made from individually selected breeds of heritage pork raised in the Parma region of

Italy. They are hand-salted and cured between 12 and 18 months, giving each slice a unique salty, sweet and slightly nutty flavor that is exclusive to Prosciutto di Parma.

Silky prosciutto makes every dish feel like a special occasion. It’s a delicious accompaniment to cheese, melons, dates, olives and breads. This ham variety can also be served at the start of a meal as an antipasto, wrapped around steamed asparagus spears or as an ingredient in specialty sandwiches or pizzas.

Fiorucci Foods www.fioruccifoods.com

Olivia’s Croutons Bring the Crunch

STAR Olive Oils Offer Variety, Quality

The satisfaction of adding a good wholesome crunch to soups or salads has never fallen out of favor. The latest trends may be low fat, low sodium, keto, paleo, nonGMO or organic, but a real crouton can never be imitated. Sometimes you just crave a good salad with a good crouton, or a hearty soup with few crunchy morsels on top, and, oh the disappointment, when the croutons don’t deliver.

Olivia’s is all about the crunch. Made from whole ingredients, never flavorings, powders or enhancers, these good, wholesome, crunchy croutons stand apart from others. If your shelf is full of the same old, same old, redundant flavors, tastes

When looking for a great olive oil, STAR is your trusted partner. Since 1898, STAR has been using tradition and passion to create its line of quality and authentic olive oils for everyday uses.

STAR oils are tested to meet or exceed the International olive oil industry standards and for that, it proudly wears its NAOOA seal on all its bottles.

STAR's goal is to offer the best quality

and textures, push a few of those SKUs aside and make a little room for a crouton that delivers a little extra and a lot of difference to your discerning customers.

Olivia’s Croutons offers five varieties of croutons, including its Gluten Free and three seasonal stuffings.

Olivia’s Croutons www.oliviascroutons.com

and versatile selection at affordable prices. With a great selection of authentic olive oils that includes an oil for every palate, STAR offers the health benefits of olive oil along with the right oils to dress a salad or to use for dipping, baking or grilling.

STAR Fine Foods www.starfinefoods.com

GOURMET NEWS

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MARCH 2021

15

White Coffee Norman Rockwell Gourmet Coffee Line

Stop and Smell the Rosé

White Coffee has added the Norman Rockwell brand to its comprehensive coffee portfolio. Norman Rockwell is considered by many to be one of America’s greatest artists. A master storyteller, he captured the American spirit, the triumphs and foibles of everyday life, in his work that showed the America he knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. White Coffee has worked diligently to select 100 percent Arabica beans to capture the essence of his artistry in its proprietary blends. The single-serve coffees are offered in 80count boxes featuring: Breakfast Blend,

The new Napa Valley Naturals Rosé Wine Vinegar from specialty food maker Stonewall Kitchen is a summer pantry staple.

Made in the balsamic style with hand-selected Ancellotta grapes from Italy, this blush-toned vinegar is aged in oak barrels to create a deeply complex flavor profile. Highlighting all there is to love about a traditional glass of rosé, the finished product boasts a mellow acidity with a light, honey-like finish that brings a touch of elegance to just about every dish.

In fact, not only is this vinegar great for brightening up produce like salads, steamed vegetables and even fresh berries, it’s also a fun choice for sparking creativity in the kitchen. Customers will find it perfect for perking up proteins like chicken and pork via marinades and pan sauces or adding a fruity zing to reductions for desserts like cheesecake. But no matter how they use it, your customers are guaranteed to rosé the day away with this pretty-in-pink pick.

an Everyday Blend Variety Pack (Breakfast Blend, Donut Shop B l e n d , French Vanilla and Hazelnut) and a Holiday Variety Pack (Holiday Blend, Buttered Rum, Toffee Nut, Cinnamon). All coffee is kosher. The cups are Keurig 2.0-compatible and BPA free.

White Coffee 800.221.0140 or 718.204.7900 www.whitecoffee.com

Acacia Honey with Black Truffle Containing more truffle than any other truffle honey along with Italian Acacia honey, renowned for clarity and its quality of allowing flavors that it is blended with to shine through, Acacia Honey with Black Truffle is a product that Kuta Tartufi is justifiably proud to offer your customers.

Available in 75-, 160- or 500-gram sizes, your customers will be spreading this on their buttered toast or topping their desserts with a drizzle of honey.

The adventurous home-cook or restau-

rateur will be able to use their imagination to add this delicious product to devise new, exciting recipes to their menus.

Kuta Tartufi 646.251.8320 www.kutatartufi.com

Gourmet Sauces for the Home Cook Paesana Gourmet Cooking Sauces transform customers into chefs, providing the ingredients necessary to create quick and easy meals that are also delicious. Each jar bursts with the aromas of restaurant-quality meals, such as the immensely popular Francese. This classic of Italian menus combines zesty lemon with silky butter, for a savory sauce that imbues chicken, veal and fish with bright and dynamic flavors.

There’s a reason all Italian eateries list Francese dishes on their menus, and it’s

the same reason Paesana’s Francese belongs on supermarket shelves: it’s a real crowd pleaser.

Paesana offers two additional varieties of cooking sauces: Piccata and Marsala. Piccata Sauce adds the bold and slightly briny undertones of capers, while Paesana Marsala Sauce brings the depth of earthy mushrooms and marsala wine.

Paesana 631.845.1717 www.paesana.com

Cordero Gluten-Free Pasta from The French Farm Cordero has been a family affair since 1958, when Luigi Cordero decided to grind grains for the local bakers. A couple of generations later, the family has been carrying the tradition and expanding its expertise to a wide variety of products that includes different types of rice, flavored polentas and risottos.

After the unconditional success of the Cordero products in Europe and the United States, The French Farm decided to add Cordero’s gluten-free pasta to its product portfolio. Made from alternate flours like rice, corn, lentils, other cereals and vegetables, this type of pasta is ideal

for people with gluten sensitivities or those who want to try something new. It is also a tolerable and delicious option for anyone who has adopted a low-calorie or lowfat lifestyle.

High in protein and fiber, beautiful and firm in texture, this gluten-free line will stand up to thick and meaty sauces and will also be delicious in salads and soups. It’s packed with 10 units in a case and imported directly from Italy.

Cordero Gluten-Free Pasta 713.660.0577 www.frenchfarm.com

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Elmhurst 1925 Oat Lattes Elmhurst 1925, plant-based innovator dedicated to crafting the highest quality dairy alternatives made with the simplest ingredients, is now offering a line of Oat Lattes. Available in four varieties, these 12-ounce tea and coffee lattes deliver a full-bodied flavor experience with up to 70 percent less sugar than others on the market. Utilizing flash-brewed Arabica coffee, the latest in brewing techniques, this line also harnesses the unique functional benefits of matcha, cacao and turmeric, while delivering 30 grams of whole grain and as much natural caffeine as a cup of coffee.

Elmhurst 1925 www.elmhurst1925.com

asian

i n f l u e n c e s Favalicious Snacks from Nuttee Bean

Wasabi & Ginger is one of four flavors of Favalicious snacks made from roasted fava beans. Like the Salt & Vinegar, Chili & Lime and Lightly Salted flavors, Wasabi & Ginger is free from the top eight allergens, gluten free and has no added sugars, trans fat or cholesterol. Inside their packaging, the beans are about the size of a peanut.

They’re roasted in expeller-produced high-oleic sunflower oil, and each bean is belted by a strip of the husk that holds the two halves of the bean together. The roasted beans offer the crunch and the nutty flavor of a peanut or a tree nut but don’t pose the same hazards to someone who’s sensitive to either of those common allergens.

For more information, visit www.nutteebean.com.

Kyocera Adjustable Ceramic Everything Spice Mill Set

This versatile mill features an adjustable ceramic grinding mechanism that will never rust. Excellent for coarse and wet salts, peppercorns and all types of spice seeds and herb flakes. The Everything Mill Set will spice up and add color to a kitchen. $34.95. For more information, visit cutlery.kyocera.com.

Miso Mayo Sweet Black Garlic Sauce

Miso Mayo has added to its collection of Good Food Awards this year with an award for its Spicy Red Pepper Miso Mayo after winning for its Sweet Black Garlic flavor last year. Miso Mayo is based on fermented soybean paste, so it offers the probiotic benefits along with the umami bang that go along with that. It’s also vegan and ketofriendly. It’s offered in 9-ounce plastic squeeze bottles in four flavors: Original, Garlic ‘N’ Dill, Spicy Red Pepper and Sweet Black Garlic. The Sweet Black Garlic variety retails for $7.49 while the other flavors usually retail for $6.49. All are certified nonGMO, and distribution is available nationally. For more information, visit www.misomayo.com.

Congee from Mr Lee’s Pure Foods

Mr. Lee’s launched its Mr. Lee’s Congee in two flavors last November. The two different varieties of Congee, Original Congee Rice Porridge and Chicken Congee Rice Porridge, are ready to eat in four minutes and are made with authentic Asian-style flavors, natural ingredients and a unique blend of four styles of grains. Low in sugar, gluten free and made with absolutely no artificial ingredients, this brand new line of products provides an ideal healthy meal. The Chicken Congee Rice Porridge flavor is made with generous pieces of 100 percent real chicken meat, and the Original Congee Rice Porridge is vegan.

Congee is a traditional pan-Asian staple food recipe, enjoyed by millions across Asia. The dish stands out for its versatility as it can be served in many different forms. It is usually prepared with rice although other grains and beans can also be used. The meal can be either savory or sweet and countless combinations of ingredients can be added.

The suggested retail price is $3.99 per cup. For more information, visit Mr. Lee’s Pure Foods at www.leesnoodles.com/us.

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EDITOR’S PICKS Dark Chocolate NonDairy Baking Chips

Endangered Species Chocolate has combined its authentic dark chocolate with smooth and creamy oat milk, not sugar alcohols or sweetener substitutes, to deliver on the taste consumers want, with half the sugar of most 70 percent dark chocolates to make its new Oat Milk + 75% Dark Chocolate Premium Baking Chips. Oat Milk + 75% Dark Chocolate Premium Baking Chips provide a smooth melt and a delicious dairy-free baking experience.

Endangered Species Chocolate Baking Chips www.chocolatebar.com

Hippie Snacks Almond Crisps

Hippie Snacks has just launched Almond Crisps and a new Cauliflower Crisp line extension.

The Almond Crisps are available in three delicious flavors – Sea Salt, Rosemary, and Cheezy Chive – and all have real almonds as the first ingredient. The new Almond Crisps are grain-free, gluten-free, plantbased, minimally processed, paleo friendly, and have 5-6 grams of protein per serving. The Cauliflower Crisps pack similar attributes and are gluten-free, plant-based, minimally processed, and have 6 grams of protein per serving.

Hippie Snacks www.hippiesnacks.com

Laura Chenel Goat Cheese Logs

Laura Chenel has launched its Goat Cheese Logs in a new 4-ounce size and in several flavors, including Original, Orange Blossom Honey, Garlic & Chive, Kalamata Olive, Black Truffle, Fig & Grapefruit, Cranberry and Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil. Except for the Black Truffle variety, which retails for a suggested $5.99, they retail for a suggested $5.49.

Laura Chenel www.laurachenel.com

GOURMET NEWS

Excellent on a grain bowl or even spooned over ice cream, oo'mäme’s Fez, Morocco Chile Crisp is a bright combination of spices, almonds, dried figs, orange peel and sesame seeds infused into high-oleic sunflower oil that remains liquid under refrigeration. A 9.2-ounce jar retails for $16. Fez, Morocco is one of the two newest flavors in a line that also includes Oaxaca, Mexico; Kerala, India; and Szechuan, China, each designed as a contemporary interpretation of the flavors of its namesake region.

Fifth Taste Foods www.oomame.net

MARCH 2021

Pro2Go Snacks Showcase Chicken

Pro2Go, a leading producer of protein-packed snack solutions, launched a new line of highprotein grab and go options in January. The new Pro2Go protein line marries traditional whole breast chicken skewers with on-the-go convenience. The skewers single-serve package offers 21 grams of protein in a 4-ounce serving and comes in Sweet Sriracha Style, Chipotle Style and Rotisserie Style. The skewers are designed with a microwaveable container for easy heataccess as well as a detachable sauce tray.

The grilled chicken breast packs serve 15 grams of protein per 2.46-ounce package. The item comes in Spicy BBQ, Lightly Seasoned and Buffalo-Style varieties. The new products will be on shelves in major U.S. retailers for suggested retail prices of $3.99 for the skewers and $2.99 for the grilled chicken breasts.

Pro2Go Foods www.pro2gofoods.com

D’Artagnan’s Ossetra Malossol Caviar

D’Artagnan’s Ossetra Malossol Caviar is unpasteurized, low-salt and preservative-free, with an authentic, fresh flavor. This truly sustainable caviar is harvested from Siberian sturgeon on a state-of-the-art aquafarm in France that follows the strictest of animal welfare and environmental protocols. The high quality of the caviar is evident in its color, flavor and texture. The round, plump pearls have a lingering and nutty flavor reminiscent of hazelnuts or fresh walnuts. With ultra-silky mouthfeel and a color that ranges from clear gray to golden chestnut to deep brown, this buttery caviar is truly unforgettable.

D’Artagnan www.dartagnan.com

Perfectly Cordial Cocktail Mixers

Created with handpicked fresh fruits and a blend of spices, Perfectly Cordial brings nononsense cocktail mixers to the home bar, making craft cocktails and mocktails accessible for both the novice and enthusiast bartender. Each Perfectly Cordial premium craft mixer is made from a variety of fresh squeezed juices, a unique global spice blend and pure cane sugar, and do not contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Simply mix with your favorite spirit for the perfect cocktail, or combine with sparkling water or tonic for a refreshing mocktail. Seasonal flavors and holiday gift packs are available.

Perfectly Cordial www.perfectlycordial.com

Fez, Morocco Chile Crisp

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Frozen Chicken Skewers

Expresco Foods, which makes protein meal and snack solutions, has launched a new frozen skewer line. The new protein line will marry consumer demand for quality protein and whole breast muscle chicken in a simple, ready-to-heat and serve format. The frozen line offers 21g of protein per six-pack and is available in on-trend flavors Lemongrass Thai, Rotisserie Inspired and Piri Piri. The suggested retail price is $6.99 to $7.99 per six-pack of skewers.

Expresco Foods www.exprescofoods.com

22

GOURMET NEWS

SMORGASBORD Real Treat Continued from PAGE 12 the American market for about a year and a half and offers more sophisticated flavors designed to appeal to the adults who offered gracious hospitality to their friends until it was no longer safe to do so. Those flavors are sophisticated, even surprising.

The Lemon Sables with Herbes de Provence pair gracefully with a cheese board, for instance. “We sell a lot of those to fine cheese shops,” Day said. The Dark Chocolate Chunk with Smoked Pecans pairs cozily with a glass of fine bourbon whose sharp edges have been smoothed away by time in the barrel. “We almost called it The Dude. Men really like them,” Day said.

Pantry, on the other hand, is designed for adults who remember a mama who tucked organic fruit into their lunchboxes they took to school but would offer a buttery chocolate chip cookie in the afternoon if a bicycle ride home had eventuated into a reckoning with Newtonian mechanics.

“The brand itself is really about making super-delicious, genuinely indulgent, without any kind of compromise on the experience, while also being certified organic, which the marketplace needs,” Day said. “I care a lot about organic. I think supporting organic agriculture is one of the things we can do to support a healthy planet and healthy immune systems.”

Organic though her cookies are, they're not the kind of cookies that she's used to seeing in the stores that cater to customers who feel that food has to be a compromise with indulgence for the sake of health. “In the treat space, people still think of organic as not indulgent. Some retailers in the natural food space, when you go into their cookie aisle, you find a collection of keto treats – I call them 'consolation prize treats.' It's not very sweet, but you can tell yourself it's a brownie,” she said. “Have you

ever derived joy from a cookie that's made from spelt and carob chips? They're health food that's pretending to be a treat. There's definitely a market for that. That's great.

They can do that. But those of us who are foodies want something that's genuinely delicious.”

One of the ironies of that point of view is that Real Treat cookies actually contain less sugar than many mass-market cookies on supermarket shelves. That's because they don't lean on sugar to satisfy consumers' desire to taste their cookies, Day said. Instead, the Real Treat cookies offer a depth of flavor that comes from the complex alchemy of organic wheat, oats, really great fine Italian dark chocolate and fresh spices to delight the senses. “All the standards that you would apply to a really great restaurant experience, we apply to our cookies,” she said. “If I'm going to have a cookie, I want something that's going to satisfy my craving for indulgence. There really is not that in the organic space.

We are disrupting cookies by making them indulgent, delicious and organic – real butter and sweetened with cane sugar.”

The cookies in Real Treat's Top Shelf line are packaged in 4-ounce boxes, while the cookies in the Pantry line are packaged in bags of five or six ounces, depending on the variety. Each package holds about 10 to 12 cookies, depending on whether they're a delicate cookie like the Lemon Sables or a heartier treat like the Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Real Treat ships directly from the company's headquarters in Canada to retailers anywhere in the United States, with additional distribution channels coming in the near future. Also coming to the American market in the near future is a line of Real Treat Drinking Chocolate, which will be unveiled to trade show attendees when it's possible to gather again in person to taste the new products.

For more information, email sales@ realtreat.ca or visit www.realtreat.ca. GN

ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER

PAGE

WEBSITE

DeBrand Fine Chocolates

15

www.debrand.com

Elmhurst Milked Direct LLC

2

www.elmhurst1925.com

Flax4Life

5

www.flax4life.net

Franklin Baker Inc.

19

www.franklinbaker.com

GLASS - North America

3

www.ardaghgroup.com

Howard Products Inc.

21

www.howardproducts.com

J&M Foods

9

www.janis-melanie.com

Jasper Specialty Foods

21

www.jakesnutroasters.com

Seviroli

24

www.seviroli.com

STAR Fine Foods

16,17

www.starfinefoods.com

Stonewall Kitchen

4

www.stonewallkitchen.com

White Coffee Corp.

23

www.whitecoffee.com

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MARCH 2021

A Greener World Pilots Certified Regenerative Program Following the recent announcement of its newest label, Certified Regenerative by A Greener World (AGW), the nonprofit farm certifier has selected more than 50 farms to join the program’s pilot phase. Building on AGW’s successful family of leading labels, the new certification will provide a wholefarm assurance of sustainability, measuring benefits for soil, water, air, biodiversity, infrastructure, animal welfare and social responsibility.

Key features of the program include transparent, rigorous standards; high animal welfare; a holistic, farmer-led approach; early and broad access to regenerative markets; and a pragmatic, science-based approach. The certification also streamlines auditing and certification of a wide range of practices, helping farms to make multiple meaningful claims through a single audit. With one visit, farmers can demonstrate grass-fed, non-GMO, humane, just, water-friendly, environmentally sustainable practices, free of added hormones, routine antibiotics and toxic chemicals.

The core feature of Certified Regenerative by AGW is a five-year Regenerative Plan developed in partnership with the farmer, whereby farmers and experts assess risk, set goals and track progress toward meaningful milestones. Experienced agricultural advisors at the U.K.’s Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) will also be providing training and support in the development of Regenerative Plans. The role of A Greener World is to assess farms’ compliance with their own plan.

Chapel Hill Creamery in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a farmstead cheese operation that's already certified humane by A Greener World and is now participating in the pilot program. “Participating in AGW’s pilot program for regenerative farm certification has been an inspirational experience for me. While we think of ourselves as good stewards of the land, and conscientious environmentalists — we had not yet put into place any specific goals for regenerating our little piece of earth, and targets or timelines for achieving those goals. The application process is truly inspirational, since it requires that farmers participate in writing our own plans for excelling in environmental stewardship, and regenerating our own farmland,” said co-Owner Portia McKnight.

Currently, most regenerative claims are not verified at all, and the few verified labels are either limited in scope or require organic certification as a prerequisite. The

organic certification requirement excludes the vast majority of farmland and insists on practices that are inherently not regenerative, according to the organization.

Pilot farms were selected based on a variety of factors including agricultural experience, regenerative principles, market or educational impact and geographical diversity. Farms span four continents and more than 10 species, with products ranging from grass-fed lamb to herbs and vegetables. Pilot farms in Australia, Namibia, South Africa, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. will partner with A Greener World over the coming year to evaluate standards, plans and auditing procedures. This allows the program to be trialed and assessed in a range of environments, climates and socioeconomic parameters to ensure meaningful outcomes are achieved, with refinements made as needed. A Greener World expects to announce its first fully Certified Regenerative by AGW farms and products in 2021.

“Despite — and in some cases because of — the challenges highlighted by COVID-19, people are reassessing the impact of their food — whether on their own health, the environment or the wider community. At the end of the day this is about accountability. We see the term ‘regenerative’ being thrown around like ‘sustainable’ was a decade ago — used to ‘greenwash’ products, or make them seem more environmentally sustainable than they are,” said Andrew Gunther, Executive Director of A Greener World. “The interest in our Certified Regenerative by AGW program has been overwhelming — and the excellent applications made for a difficult selection process, but we are thrilled with the results. The innovative farms participating in this pilot are helping to deliver a certification that both farmers and consumers can trust to deliver a genuinely positive outcome: on the farm, at the table, and for the planet. We know that truly regenerative farming requires accountability to each other and to all of the communities to which we belong — whether they be plant, animal, human, or the environment we all share. We have been humbled by the groundswell of interest from farmers and eaters alike and look forward to sharing our collective journey.”

For more information about Certified Regenerative or A Greener World visit www.agreenerworld.org, email regenerative@ agreenerworld.org or call 800.373.8806. GN

Teaming up to Drive Down Diabetes Southern Recipe is showing its support and care for truck drivers everywhere by teaming up with one of America’s most active truck driver support initiatives, St. Christopher Truckers Development and Relief Fund (SCF). The charity’s “Driving Down Diabetes” initiative is a national attempt to help drivers reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes.

SCF’s free Diabetes Prevention Program,

Driving Down Diabetes, is more than just a self-help program. Those who participate in Driving Down Diabetes meet weekly in the first four months, bi-weekly in the following two months and monthly in the last six months. Curriculum throughout the year will be led by a lifestyle coach specially trained to lead the program and will include live webinars focusing on nutrition, exercise and stress management. GN