Specialty Foods Leading Edge: Native Harvest Value Added
As a broadening segment of the population, eco-conscious consumers are well-worth our consideration. These are the folks who buy the seconds and misfits, shop their farmers markets, eat pastured Heritage-breed meats, care about the terroir in their wine and their locavorious dairy products. If you produce ‘it’, these are your target market.
What is ‘it’? ‘It is the next wave, native fruits. Brambles are already on shelves in ready supply. These are your blackberries, raspberries, dewberries and such. Blueberries are already recognized. But serviceberries, ripening in June, growing on trees, and lots like blueberries but tangier, could be worth consideration. The American persimmon, the paw paw (in the mango/cashew/poison ivy family), native grapes and crabapples, all had more currency with our forebears than they do today; equally, they are all worth revisiting.
Find old community cookbooks, look through inherited recipe boxes, haunt church bake sales where some of the old favorites still appear year after year. The pectin in crabapple makes it a favorite for anyone wishing to create a delicate, yet sturdy jelly flavored with anything from rose geranium to lemon balm or pineapple mint. The native grapes, your Concords, scuppernongs and muscadines, all have distinctive flavor profiles. Pawpaw festivals still appear dotted across the South in the US every autumn, before the Halloween Corn Mazes, but after Labor Day parades.
Specialize in manzanitas, purple passionfruit, and prickly pear– climate allowing. These, like paw paws and cranberries, have specific growing needs. Find your local, wildcraftable native chokecherries, aronia berries, staghorn sumac berries and bring them to the attention of your clientele. Combine these tangier, robust flavors with familiar spices and accent tastes to introduce them to the world.
Bonus: nearly all of the less familiar fruits are better prepared than eaten out of hand. They are ready to join the artisanal, specialty food revolution. And their carbon footprints and eco-impact are definitely something to brag about loud and proud.