Press release here. This sounds like a lot of fun, and a great holiday shopping opportunity. I’ll be there. I’ve been lucky enough to tour Blue Ridge Food Ventures and talk to some of the small business folks trying to make a go at selling whatever is their passion – mustard, olive oil, spice mixes. It’s inspiring and, I might add, damn tasty. Come out and support these folks.
(Buncombe County, N.C.) August 2009 – The specialties of more than 30 of the region’s finest food entrepreneurs are on the menu at the Blue Ridge Food Ventures third annual FOOD VENTURES MARKETPLACE.
The free event, Wednesday, Sept. 23, showcases a diverse array of local food products – from pickled bamboo shoots and organic, hand-crafted chocolates to gourmet jams and sauces, flavored mustards, herb and spice mixtures, gluten-free and specialty baked goods and more. All of the products are made by small businesses that started or expanded at Blue Ridge Food Ventures. Hours for the general public are 5 to 7 p.m., with 3 to 5 p.m. reserved for members of the specialty food and grocery trade and media. Blue Ridge Food Ventures is located on the Enka campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, 1461 Sand Hill Rd. in Candler.
Attendees can meet the entrepreneurs, sample their foods, and purchase or place orders for products in time for holiday shopping season. Among the specialty producers expected to exhibit at the Marketplace are:
• Appalachian Ginseng Farms (ginseng honey & tinctures)
• Asheville Kombucha Mamas (fermented black tea)
• Baked Asheville (biscotti & rugelach)
• Bamboo Ladies (bamboo pickles)
• Blessed Botanicals (organic herbal teas & culinary blends)
• Chef’s Table (nutritious, delicious ready-to-go meals)
• Dolci di Maria (gluten-free cakes & cupcakes)
• El Molinito (Mexican mole mixes)
• Fire from the Mountain (salsa & hot sauce)
• Fisher Farms (heirloom tomato sauce)
• Headstart Gourmet (compound butter sauces)
• Imladris Farm (berry jams & apple butter)
• Jake’s Farm (organic tomato products)
• Kaninis (healthy, natural meals, frozen & ready-to-go)
• Leslie’s Must-Have Mustard (flavored mustards)
• Lotus Chips (unusual snack chips)
• Lusty Monk (spicy mustards)
• Madd Mazz (Italian-style tomato sauce)
• Roxanne’s Remedies (ready-to-eat vegan foods)
• Stokes Foods, Inc. (purple sweet potato products)
• UliMana (raw, organic chocolates)
• Wildcat Ridge Farm (Haywood County tomato sauces)
• Zouga Nougat (honey nougat candy)
Blue Ridge Food Ventures is an 11,000 sq. ft. shared-use commercial kitchen and food processing facility. As North Carolina’s first business incubator specifically designed to provide services to farmers and food entrepreneurs, BRFV provides services to those wishing to start or grow small businesses in the food industry and to local farmers who want to add value to their products through processing in an FDA-inspected kitchen. It is one of several job creation initiatives developed by AdvantageWest, the regional economic development group for the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina.
Since its start in 2005, BRFV has helped more than 130 food product makers, farmers and caterers in Western North Carolina start and grow their businesses. Reported sales are approaching $3 million, and dozens of full-time and part-time jobs have been created through the program. Products made at Blue Ridge Food Ventures can be found in stores from California to Florida.
Currently, Blue Ridge Food Ventures has 60 businesses that operate out of the facility on regular or seasonal schedules – and not just food growers. In partnership with the BioBusiness Center at AB Tech, Blue Ridge Food Ventures also provides equipment, space and training to companies that process value-added natural products at the facility, such as herbal extracts and tinctures used in both natural health-care products and research.
For more information on FOOD VENTURES MARKETPLACE or Blue Ridge Food Ventures, call (828) 348-0128 or visit www.blueridgefoodventures.org.