Spring 2005
Our first winter in the "Valley of the Sun" saw
little of the sun. After several years of drought, the local
farmers were happy for the moisture. We have enjoyed this
first year in our newly adopted state even with the non-typical
weather. Phoenix's new Downtown Public Market was added as
our primary Saturday market… it is scheduled to go year
round so you can find us most weeks Wednesdays at Town &
Country and Saturdays downtown.  When
we are out of town Connie will cover for Sandi. We also hope
to be represented in the Tucson market weekly at the St. Phillips
Plaza Farmers Market on Sunday. Our first market will be May
1st. Check Market & Events
to confirm the schedule.
In April we begin our tour about the Southwest. April
23-24 you will find us in Monterey, CA; Mother's day weekend
(May 8th ), Prescott, AZ; May 21-22 Becker Winery's Lavender
Festival in Stonewall, TX; Memorial Day weekend, May 28,
29 & 30, at the New Mexico Vintners event in Las Cruces,
NM…then back to California and the cool mountains of
Arizona in June and July. Details on the events, their locations,
dates and times can be found at Market
& Events.
We hope to see the many friends we've made over the past
several years at the upcoming event and to have you sample
some of the new products we have developed.
Product Update
Last April, our Peach Preserves were featured in an Article
in Gourmet Magazine's April '04 issue and praised in a recent
Phoenix Magazine's article on Matt's Big Breakfast, 801
N. First St. (at McKinley Street), Phoenix, AZ. Matt Pool
serves several of our preserves at his hot-spot breakfast
diner in Phoenix. If you live in Phoenix or happed to be
passing thru between 6:30 AM and 2:30 PM, Matt's is the
place for the best breakfast in town (you can order lunch
but you'd miss our preserves). If it's Saturday you can
visit our booth at the Downtown Public Market down the block
either before, after or while you are waiting for your table
at Matt's.
We added several new preserves and marmalades to our line
recently:
Apricot Preserves - Ripe Apricots, cane
sugar and a hint of lemon. It has the fresh fruit flavor
and texture our preserves are noted for.
Blood Orange Marmalade - Organic Arizona
Grown Blood Oranges, from McClendon's Select in Peoria,
AZ blended with cane sugar, lemon and a touch of bourbon.
Garnet red in color and the right balance of sweet &
tart; it has been a hit with Marmalade lovers. We hope
to have it available year round, but like some of our
products the fruit is only available seasonally. We have
processed and frozen several hundred pounds of blood oranges
which we hope will permit us to have this product available
until the next crop in '06. When the supply is getting
low, we'll try to alert you in a future update so you
can stock up.
Strawberry Lavender Preserves - We had so
many request for a strawberry preserve, we decided to
make one with a different twist. Low sugar like all our
products, the hint of lavender gives this preserve a soft
spiciness. The taste is reminiscent of wild strawberries.
Our customers must like it, as we sold out of the first
batch in three weeks.
Hugh is developing recipes for the three new preserves
which will be available soon; an Apricot Glazed Hen and
Pan Seared Salmon
with Blood Orange Sauce are two in the works.
We also retained a new web master to help keep the website
updated on a more current basis. The "Coming Soon"
notation on our Recipe page should
soon be deleted and the page activated by June. That is
where the recipes using the new products will first appear….check
back.
The move to Arizona necessitated developing relationships
with local growers for some of the produce that goes into
our artisan foods. We prefer to use organically grown and
chemical/pesticide free fruits and vegetables. Bob McClendon
at McClendon Select is one of those growers. The Blood Oranges
in our marmalade came from his orchards that will soon receive
the "USDA National Certified Organic" designation.
In May we plan to purchase all the tomatoes for our Green
Chile Salsa, Oven Roasted Tomatoes and Smoked Tomatoes from
Bob; and if his production permits we will again make our
Organic Tomato Basil Sauce and Tomato Preserves. Other items
in development are a Spicy Red Pepper Jelly (our answer
to our customer's request for a jalapeño jelly) and
Spicy "O's" Sandi's version of sweet and hot jalapeños.
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