Group aims to better market locally-made products
Published in the June 10-23, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek
From left, upper row: Paul Nelson and Marsha Nelson with Auntie Em’s Bakery, Eva Morrison with Eva’s Delights, Stacy Habina with Stacy’s Jalapeño Jelly, Astrid Senior with Opa Helmut’s Seasonings, Diane Love with Diane Love’s Lifestyle. From left, bottom row: Toni Julien with Toni’s Kitchen, Roxanne Vinciguerra with Roxanne’s Biscotti, Lauren Waters with Natas Barbeque and Jerky Company
The South Valley region is a cornucopia of cuisine elements made by various home-based or small business entrepreneurs. During the past year or so, a group calling itself Flavors of South County has been steadily building a network to better market their members’ products and get them on local store shelves.
“The group supports the local artisan food producers and we share how we can go into new markets, how can do functions together, how can we get our retail to go up,” said Astrid Senior, one of the group’s organizers. “We really help each other to get sales growing and our products known in the area.”
Senior’s home-based business is Opa Helmut’s Pure Organic Seasoning which produces gluten-free and MSG-free traditional German spice blend mixtures for cooking meats as well as a line of German mustard. Other members of Flavors of South County make biscotti cookies, cinnamon buns, pretzels, jalapeño jellies, beef jerky and other barbecue products, toffee and truffles, roasted coffee products, various types of dessert cookies, and breakfast oatmeal selections. The group has a policy to not duplicate types of foods among its members so that it can eliminate internal competition. Organizers are currently looking for small local businesses that produce breads, cheeses, honey or oil olive products to join their network.
“When we work together, we are stronger in creating awareness of local food products,” Senior said. “We are helping each other to get stuff into local supermarkets. We benefit from each other’s experience. We have long-term business people who have been doing this for quite a while, and some who are brand new and they need to learn a lot so we help businesses get growing.”
The group has about 10 companies actively involved in it now. Among them are Patty’s Glutton-Free Bakery, Auntie Em’s Bakery, Eva’s Delights (which makes toffee and truffles), Stacy’s Jalapeño Jelly, Toni’s Kitchen (which makes healthy oatmeal products), Roxanne’s Biscotti, and Natas Barbeque and Jerky Company.
There is no fee to join the group, but members are expected to attend the monthly meetings on a regular basis and to help in marketing Flavors of South County to encourage greater awareness of the group.
Working together, the various local food companies have placed their products on shelves in various stores including BookSmart in downtown Morgan Hill, the Hilltop Market grocery store in Holiday Estates, and Rocca’s Market and LJB Farms, both in San Martin. They have also promoted their products at a “Localvore” booth at the Taste of Morgan Hill in September as well as in the Community and Cultural Center at the May Mushroom Mardi Gras food festival.
“Local people might have seen our products at local stores, but at the festivals they get to meet the people behind the products, which is always nice,” Senior said. “We engage in conversation and talk about the product. They will then remember you when they are at the supermarket and see your product and say, ‘Oh yeah, we met them at the Taste of Morgan Hill.’ It’s kind of like having a huge scale of networking.”
One of the goals of the group is to market their products to local restaurants and encourage chefs to try cooking with their products or serving their dessert items, Senior said.
“All of our products would be suitable to be used in restaurants,” she said. “For example, I know that my Opa Helmut seasoning products would be great for restaurants. I think any of us would be interested in delivering to local restaurants. Maybe we can go there and do demonstrations at the restaurants for the customers to sample.”
Members of the group have donated their products as silent auction items for nonprofit organization fundraisers, said Roxanne Vinciguerra, the owner of Roxanne’s Biscotti. This supports the community but also helps increase brand awareness, she said.
The group started last summer and began to take off thanks to the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Localvore booth organized by resident Liza Garibaldi at the 2014 Taste of Morgan Hill, she said.
“We really didn’t get rolling until mid-summer of last year because we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do,” Vinciguerra said. “But once we got into the Taste of Morgan Hill kind of in the last minute, that kind of gave us a little more focus of what we wanted to do.”
For more information, contact Astrid Senior at [email protected].
