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GourmET nEWS SEPTEmbEr 2017 www.gourmetnews.com SuPPliEr nEWS 1 3 Get Crazy About Walnuts with Crazy Go Nuts by lorriE bAumAnn Crazy Go Nuts offers a line of flavorful coated walnuts with front-of-package label- ing them as "loaded with Omega 3s." Wal- nuts in general have more Omega 3s per ounce than salmon, according to CMO Courtney Carini. They're coated in all nat- ural foods. "When you see 'banana,' that's actually banana," she says. It's ALA, and it's the density of Omega 3s that counts. "Flaxseed has more, but no- body eats an ounce of flaxseed," says David Wolfe, co-Founder and CEO. "Our main thing is clean labels and simple ingredients. More and more consumers are demanding that, and because walnuts are so healthy, we try not to weigh them down with non- sense." "We try not to ride solely on health ben- efits," adds Carini. "Walnuts are so deli- cious, and we want people to enjoy them." There are currently nine flavors of the nuts: Banana, Orange, Coconut, Chocolate Espresso, Oatmeal Cookie, Garlic Parme- san, Buffalo, Rosemary Pink Salt and a plain salted flavor that's slightly mis-labeled "Boring." Nuts are packaged in three sizes: 1.5- ounce grab and go, 4.5-ounce and an 8- ounce resealable bag for the pantry. They retail for $6.99 for the 8-ounce bag, $4.49 for the 4.5-ounce bag and $1.99 for the 1.5- ounce bag. All the same flavors are offered in jarred butters, except that there, the Rosemary Pink Salt becomes Sage and Rosemary. All of the butters are low sugar. "Our goal is al- ways to have the cleanest ingredients and the simplest flavors," says Wolfe. These are packaged in 9-ounce jars that retail for $6.99. Both the butters and the packaged nuts will work as an accompaniment for a cheese platter, and most of the butters will work as a smoothie ingredient as well as a spread. They're currently sold in specialty retailers around the country, with large retailer distribution starting this fall in California and then spreading from there. The company has been in opera- tion for four years, but expanded into a new production facility in central California late last year. "We've been learning and getting bet- ter ever since, but we're still new," Wolfe says. "We have significant capacity, but we haven't been in business for 30 years, and we're just hitting our stride.... There's a lot of interest in the brand. It's being described as 'whimsical.' It's not a word that I would use, but it represents us pretty well." The company started as "a whim" in Los Angeles, with two people managing it out of an apartment, and has grown from there. "We started going to Walnut Board meetings," Wolfe says, and "We met with several different companies that were interested in in- vesting in us and helping us grow." That investment helped them grow from their farmers market cot- tage industry into the new production fa- cility that has enabled them to scale the business to the point at which they're ready to venture onto the national market. For more information, email sales@cgn walnuts.com or info@cgnwalnuts.com. GN Just Ryt Foods Adds Anchovies, Antipasto, Olives to Giusto Sapore Line Expanding its Giusto Sapore line of im- ported Italian fine foods, Just Ryt Foods has added anchovies, antipasto, olives and br- uschetta spreads. Each new category is carefully sourced to ensure excel- lent quality and authentic taste, as well as distinctive packaging for strong shelf appeal. Imported from Sicily, known for the excellent anchovies found in the Mediterranean Sea, Guisto Sapore Anchovies are firm and meaty fillets, lightly salted and packed in sunflower oil. The selec- tion in 90g (3.17-ounce) glass jars includes Flat, Hot and rolled with Capers, each re- tailing for $7.99. The flat Giusto Sapore Si- cilian Anchovies also come is a 230g (8.1- ounce) size, packaged in a large mouth, glass Le Parfait jar with swing top lid for $17.99. The Giusto Sapore antipasto selection is a delicious assort- ment of spicy and savory condiments, packaged in 10.23-ounce Orcio glass jars and carefully curated to com- plement a meat and cheese an- tipasto platter. Choices include Pearl Onions in Vinegar, Caper Berries in Vinegar, Quartered Artichokes in Oil, Spicy Garlic in Oil and Peperoncino in Vinegar, each retailing for $11.99. The selection of olives includes "Nocel- lara" Castelvetrano, bright green olives from western Sicily (whole and pitted); Bella di Cerignola, extra large whole olives from southern Italy; pitted Greek Kalamata olives; and both a whole and pit- ted selection of Italian Style Mixed Olives. Also packed in Orcio glass jars, Giusto Sapore Bruschetta Spreads in- clude Black Olive, Green Olive, Garlic, Mushroom, Sundried Tomato and Eggplant Caponata (10.23 ounces for $11.99). These savory spreads are delicious on crackers, crostini and of course, bruschette. Or mix with mayonnaise to create aioli, with tomato sauce for pasta or as an accompani- ment with grilled meats. "We are excited to offer our customers this expanded selec- tion of fine imported Italian foods," says Justin Camparetto, President of Just Ryt Foods. "Each product is an authentic taste of Italy to be savored and enjoyed. As we like to say, from our family to yours: 'Buon Appetito.'" Giusto Sapore, (joos-stǒ sa-ṕo-ṝe), Ital- ian for "Just the Right Flavor," is the retail brand for Just Ryt Foods, Inc. The Florida- based company, founded in 2010, special- izes in importing Italian and Mediterranean fine foods. GN Roam Continued from PAGE 1 basins that trap small amounts of moisture to water the seeds of the surrounding grasses. Since no museum is really com- plete without a gift shop, at the end of his line of exhibits, there's a rack on which he's offering packages of his Roam Free bison jerky for sale. While the bison jerky is brand new, the Roam Free ranch, situated on 240 acres on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana, is nearly four years old. "The only place we could afford to start was on the reservation and in a gulch," he says. Even though he recog- nized that the scrubby, overgrazed land he could afford wasn't the best, he didn't start out knowing much about how to fix that. "I thought, 'Oh, it's just ground. You just turn the animals out,'" he says. He didn't know how to look at grass; he didn't know much about water; but he figured out in a hurry that he'd better learn or he wasn't going to last. "Weed education is where I started," he says. He started talking to experts in bioregen- erative agriculture – the people who could tell him how to take an overgrazed piece of grass- land and increase its productiv- ity. "It's a science. It really is a science," he says. "We run into a problem and talk to experts, and they help us fix that – and you get better next year." The small successes he's hav- ing on his own ranch made him passionate about sharing what he's learning with others. Spreading the word is key to ensuring that the market for bison meat stays strong, he be- lieves. The roaming museum in the Airstream is the result of that kind of thinking. It's been nine months in develop- ment. "There has to be edu- cation in a simple context, and you have to educate people to understand what they're eating and why it's healthier," Sepp says. "We took every cent we had in the ranch to do this." The Roam Free jerky that's for sale at the end of the row of exhibits is offered in four flavors: Wood-Fired Pizza, Original, Thai Chili Ginger and Moroccan Heat. Another two flavors, Sweet Berry BBQ and Morning Maple, are coming soon. The jerky is made from 100 percent bison meat and organic flavoring ingredients. There's no artificial nitrates, and it's sugar free, gluten free and carbohydrate free. "Whether you're dia- betic or just looking for ways to be health- ier, we wanted to cater to that with our brand," Sepp says. A package, which is two servings, provides 24 grams of protein. The jerky is produced in a family-owned processing facility that's local to the ranch. It's USDA-certified under the state of Mon- tana, so the jerky can be sold anywhere in the U.S. In the fourth quarter of this year, the line will be extended with varieties fortified with medium-chain triglycerides derived from coconut, to appeal to Paleo eaters who are working on their healthy fat in- take. The new MCT varieties will be offered in each of the six flavors. For more information, email info@goroamfree.com, which will reach Sepp whether he's home on the range or out on the road. "We would love to distrib- ute outside of driving in a trailer," he says. "But if we don't get there, we're not going to be upset." For more information, visit www.goroamfree.com. GN

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