Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/981098
BY LORRIE BAUMANN CalyRoad Creamery's retail shop in Sandy Springs, Georgia, is a key component in the business model that provides multiple rev- enue streams to keep Founder and Owner Robin Schick afloat while she exercises her passion for making artisanal cheeses. Her small creamery and its shop are located in a retail building in a Down a Georgia Road with Cheese commercial district at the heart of Sandy Springs, a suburb on the north side of Atlanta, Georgia. Her business plan has three main components for producing revenue from her artisanal cheese production: the retail operation, which includes marketing events and classes as well as her shop sales; wholesale dis- tribution to local foodservice establishments; and distribu- tion to other regional retailers. She's still working on the eco- nomics of a relationship with a wholesale foods distributor into retail that will be a key to real profitability, but she's able to support her business with the rev- enues generated through the other streams. "We're knocking on the door," Schick said. "I think what we found is that it has to be a combination of revenue streams. We needed to develop the retail aspect — events with corporate team building in which companies bring in their staff and do a wine and cheese tasting or a class together. We do birthday parties here." CalyRoad Creamery really started a decade ago with a phone conversation between Schick and her sister Cathy Lynne, who was living on a 13- acre farm with some pet goats. "My sister and I were trying to decide if we wanted to work to- gether and what we wanted to BY GREG GONZALES "Who knew slow cookers could be a vehicle for change?" It may have been a rhetorical question, but when she asked it in January, Meg Barnhart clearly knew the answer ― she was giving an ac- ceptance speech for the Specialty Food Association's Business Leadership Award at the Winter Fancy Food Show. Slow cookers, Barnhart says, can change the world from from the dinner table to the community at large. Barn- hart partnered in 2012 with co- creator Jane McKay to start a slow cooker recipe blog, zen of slow cooking, which expanded Slow Cookers as a Vehicle for Social Change Continued on PAGE 13 Continued on PAGE 8 Continued on PAGE 15 into a B Corporation that sells pre-packaged spice blends with the pair's popular recipes printed on the bag. Barnhart wanted to start a busi- ness where she could share her passion for slow cooking; to help families spend more time together, to as- sist underserved pop- ulations and provide a place where people like her son, Doug, who face learning dis- abilities, could find work. The dinner table, Barnhart said, is where it all started; she and her kids ― Phil, Doug and Lucy ― didn't have much time between sports and dance lessons in the late afternoons and early evenings to cook meals that re- quire a lot of last- minute prep work. "Slow cookers gave me an opportunity to bring my family back to the dinner table. It allowed me to prepare food when I wasn't home, so when we all came home we had this great, warm, delicious meal waiting for us," she said. "It was as much for me as it was for everybody else, and I felt like somebody had been cooking for me all day. I don't think there's anything that replaces that feeling when you walk into a home and there's a cooking smell, that sen- sory component. You feel taken care of." The slow cooker gave her the freedom to prepare her food at nine in the morning, head off to work, come back and have a hot meal ready to serve right away. To Organic Producers Press Animal Welfare Suit BY LORRIE BAUMANN Blackberry Patch is coming to New York this year with 10 new products targeted to meet fast- growing trends in favor of sim- ple, organic ingredients, concern for quality and for products that consumers will be proud to serve guests in their homes. The new products include organic fruit syrups and new fruit preserves especially for pairing with cheeses. Blackberry Patch is perhaps Continued on PAGE 16 Blackberry Patch Adds to Its Line of Fruit-First Foods best known for high-quality fruit syrups with just a few ingredients. The company is owned by Harry T. Jones, whose team calls him the Mortar of Blackberry Patch, and his business partner and company President, Randy Har- vey, who's known as the Brick. "Most of our products that are in the growth phase are fruit-first and include just three ingredi- ents," he said. "Three ingredients started in 2006, and it really took off in 2016 and 2017. Last June, the company became Non-GMO Project verified for 10 items." This year, Blackberry Patch is bringing Organic Blueberry, Or- ganic Strawberry and Organic The Organic Trade Association ratcheted up its court battle against the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the agency's fail- ure to put into effect new organic livestock standards, with two of America's most influential animal welfare groups joining the associ- ation in its ongoing legal fight to incorporate animal welfare stan- dards into the definition of "or- ganic." In a new filing that revised the original complaint against USDA to reflect the department's move to withdraw the rule, the Organic Trade Association was joined by the American Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) as co-plaintiffs in the suit. USDA on March 13 announced its intention to withdraw the final regulation on May 13, contending that the Organic Foods Produc- tion Act (OFPA) gives the Na- tional Organic Program the authority to regulate only veteri- nary medications, not animal care, welfare or production standards. The Organic Trade Association's amended complaint argues that this new claim by USDA is a "novel and erroneous" view of VOLUME 83, NUMBER 6 JUNE 2018 n $7.00 NEWS & NOTES n IDDBA Show Offers Fame, Fortune, Intelligence and Leadership PAGE 6 RETAILER NEWS n Goods for Cooks Offers Fare for Foodies PAGE 12 SUPPLIER NEWS n Ice Cream as Performance Art: Humphry Slocombe PAGE 14 NATURALLY HEALTHY n Lantana Foods Delivers Hummus for Breakfast PAGE 18 SFFS PREVIEW n Olé Mexican Foods Celebrates 30th Anniversary PAGE 20 News ..............................................6 Ad Index .......................................26 Calendar.......................................26 www.gourmetnews.com G OURMET N EWS T H E 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 ® SFFS PREVIEW: Paramount Caviar SEE PAGE 20 SUPPLIER NEWS: Gardel's Chimichurri SEE PAGE 16 HOT PRODUCTS: Runamok Maple SEE PAGE 24