Oregon Fruit presents The Queen of Tarts

Hello all you Oregon Fruit Fans!

I have been the National Sales Manager at Oregon Fruit for 16 years now. I have loved every minute of my time here, the customers, the consumers, the staff, the brokers, and you, the readers have enriched my life beyond measure and I am grateful for each and everyone!

I have decided to make a pretty dramatic life change.  I am going to work for a local Sacramento Non-profit that provides housing and support services to the homeless mentally ill.

I will be the Director of Development and Community Relations so my job is to raise money and raise awareness for this important work in my community.  I have been in the food business in one area or another for my entire adult life (and some of my childhood) so I think it is time for a new chapter.

I am sure I will not stop baking, cooking or following cooking blogs and watching the Food Network it will just be for pleasure from here.

My last Oregon Fruit Recipe was prepared on Christmas and was a completely decadent  Yule Log Cake. I didn’t use my regular recipe as I wanted a deeper chocolate cake.  The recipe I used was not really suited to the jelly roll application as it was just too moist but as is usually the case, the mistake turned out fantastic.  The cake cracked all over the place as I tried to roll up the jelly roll with the filling. It was kind of a mess during the process but the finished product looked so much more realistic than anything I could have constructed.  It reminded me that all those platitudes are basically true:  Progress not perfection is the goal.

The Queen’s Ten Commandments

1) Break a few rules (and eggs!)

2) Have fun in the kitchen first and foremost!

3) Bake what you like and eat what you bake

4) You can fix almost anything

5) Doesn’t have to be pretty just delicious

6) Get your family involved, Cooking should be shared

7) Hide some fruit and vegetables in everything

Share your finished product with your neighbor and make a friend: “got anymore cake” my neighbor Joe

9) Get outside

10) tell someone you love them before it’s too late

Thank you for sharing your time with me!! Please check back for a new voice from Oregon Fruit.  The blog is not leaving,  only I am.

The Queen

The USDA has issued new regulations regarding the food our kids will get at school. The new rules take effect in July and school meals will have to offer fruits and vegetables to students every day. The meal programs, which feed about 32 million students in public and private schools, will have to reduce sodium, saturated fat and trans fats. Schools must also offer more whole grains as well as fat-free or low-fat milk varieties.

The new nutrition standards are largely based on recommendations by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, as part of efforts to curb childhood obesity. Recent numbers show that about 17% of children in the United States are obese. Michele Obama has been at the forefront of this issue. Her “Let’s Move” campaign has focused on getting kids off the couch and playing again.  Now she speaks out on these new regulations:

“When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” Obama said in a news release. “We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables.”

However, a serious problem is getting kids to eat the new healthier menu.

“If it’s not delicious, kids aren’t going to eat it,” said Sam Kass, assistant White House chef. “I have lots of confidence in school chefs across the country who are working very hard to try to put delicious foods on the plates of kids.”

My daughter, Kaitlin, is an elementary school music teacher in the central valley of California. One of her schools is testing a plan to get kids to eat fresh vegetables by giving them portion controlled packages of raw broccoli and cauliflower. Sadly a lot of it ends up in the trash. Kids that are not exposed to these items at home are not necessarily open to even trying them.

Jamie Oliver has been leading this charge for over a year. His position is that we all have to change our approach both at home and at school.

“We’re losing the war against obesity in the US. It’s sad, but true. Our kids are growing up overweight and malnourished from a diet of processed foods, and today’s children will be the first generation ever to live shorter lives than their parents. It’s time for change. It’s time for a Food Revolution. The problem stems from the loss of cooking skills at home and the availability of processed foods at every turn, from the school cafeteria to church function halls, factories and offices. This Food Revolution is about saving lives by inspiring everyone: moms, dads, kids, teens and cafeteria workers to get back to basics and start cooking good food from scratch.” Jamie Oliver

This weekend I will be attending the Farm to School Showcase at the Oregon School Nutrition Association Conference. The mission is to increase the variety and availability of healthy, regionally sourced foods served at school, helps to stabilize markets for regional food producers and helps give children a sense of where their food comes from.

Schools have a hard time offering fresh fruit at all times due to the extreme perishability so canned fruit can be a good alternative. Particularly Oregon Canned Fruit with minimal processing and just three ingredients: fruit, water and cane sugar.  I came across a recipe from the US High bush Blueberry Council that I thought exemplified what they want to accomplish. It is low fat and high fiber owing to the use of mashed sweet potatoes, contains whole grains and fruit and is DELICIOUS!  I don’t think kids will be throwing this breakfast treat in the trash.  This recipe is nutritionally dense and a far cry from the enormous hunks of greasy, sugary coffee cake they served in my junior high for the morning break referred to as “NUTRITION”!  Go figure.

Oregon Governor and First Lady Enjoy BerryUP! in Korea

There is so much economic bad news these days that many psychologists are talking about a collective “depression” not economic but emotional amongst Americans.  In light of the fact that the news is full of the exporting of jobs to foreign countries, Oregon Fruit is successfully exporting our delicious Berry UP! beverage base to Korea made by Oregonians from fruit grown in Oregon.  Even the Governor’s office is taking notice.  Asian consumers love the fantastic fruit we grow in the Pacific Northwest. They are drawn to the health benefits as well as the quality. On a recent trade mission to Asia, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, the first lady and Oregon Director of Agriculture, Katy Coba enjoyed their BerryUp! smoothies with the Managing Director of Café Bene, Mr. Hwang and our agent Claire Kim from G&L Food Co. Look at Ms. Kim sporting her Oregon Fruit shirt!

The Governor’s office reports that Oregon Exports are one of the bright spots in the state’s economy with international trade growing by 19%.  Oregon Fruit Export Sales Manager, Bryan Brown, would like to think we had a hand in this growth. Bryan has been selling Oregon Fruit in many forms internationally for years. He has A LOT of frequent flyer miles. Our canned fruit is found on the shelf all over Asia, the United Arab Emirates,  in South Africa,  India and Indonesia, we pack a private label for canned customers in Australia and New Zealand and now we are selling BerryUP! in Korea and China!  Berry UP! is delicious fresh tasting fruit you can pour for creating cocktails, mocktails, smoothies, shakes dessert toppings and more. In the US it is the foundation for the signature drink menu at Ruby Tuesday restaurants all over the country and soon to be found in more and more restaurants and college campuses.

A Grocery Store in Abu Dhabi

The international markets are an interesting and challenging opportunity for us as we are still a very small business by American standards and represent something of the American dream-a family owned and operated business.  Bryan partnered with another small business in Korea- G&L Food Co., Ltd established in November 2004 with a company mission to create the best value for customers, and employees developing, marketing and selling high-valued foods and food ingredients all over the world. It’s a small company comprised of just 15 employees. They import and distribute our products in Korea and one of their major customers is Caffe Bene. Caffe opened their first store in 2008 and are up to 600 stores throughout the country now! Caffe Bene built their success by differentiating themselves from western café chain brands such as Starbucks using marketing tools like promoting through celebrities and product placement in soap operas or movies to appeal to the younger generation.

The Oregon Fruit Chinese business was developed by our own Dey Tu, IT Manager turned salesman.  Dey is a naturalized American citizen who started his career handling our IT department at Oregon Fruit about 11 years ago.  When our President, Joe Peterson decided to try to export BerryUP! to China he looked around the table and found a native Chinese speaker and said “your it” and Dey responded to the challenge. Today you can find BerryUP! in a 200 restaurant chain in China called “Houcaller”.      

That’s the way things happen at Oregon Fruit, a little like the way I became the Queen of Tarts- Joe looked around the table and said “your it”.   Working for a small company is a fun experience. We get to try new things, step out of our comfort zone on a regular basis and explore new territory. Sometimes that territory is THE WORLD!  If Joe wants to take our products to the Moon I am going to duck.