Our Current Flyer

For our customers

click on this CCF Flyer

Who we are, what we stand for

CCF and Earthy Delights

For all of our chefs out there :

IF you do business with Earthy Delights please keep in mind that for shelf stable products, you can have Cherry Capital Foods deliver

This can save on freight.

Cherry Capital Foods and Earthy have some common owners and we are working to increase the cooperation between our companies.

This will likely not apply to products like fresh mushrooms, but rather to oils, vinegars, grains, salts, seasonings and the like.

If you are interested in this service, please let your contacts at both CCF and Earthy know, so that we can plan on stocking what you need.

New Slogan

From staffer Matt Ellison :

"If ya gotta eat ... Eat Local"

We Like!

More Kudos to Clients

CONGRATS to all at Stella ... we are proud of you!

Today's Traverse City Business News:
Trattoria Stella has scored a little coup in the culinary world. Next May, the TC restaurant’s owners and executive chef will head to New York City and take over the kitchen at the famed Beard House (as in James Beard, the oft-described “dean of American cookery”).

“Since I’ve been in culinary school, I’ve thought of cooking at the Beard House,” says chef Myles Anton. “Basically, I’m blown away by the whole opportunity.”

Stella proprietor Amanda Danielson says a member of the board of the James Beard Foundation dined at the restaurant over the summer and told her the restaurant belonged “on the radar” of the foundation. One thing led to another and a night was booked for Chef Anton to cook.

Anton will be responsible for a 70-person wine dinner, to include four bite-sized hors d’oeuvres and a five-course meal. His menu is under wraps for the moment other than plans to bring some local produce and meat with him. Danielson, also the restaurant’s sommelier, will be doing the wine pairings and expects to include a couple northern Michigan vintages.

The May 13 dinner is open to the public and Anton says he’s hoping a few of the restaurant’s TC fans make the trip, too.

Pasture Raised

We want to post a very thoughtful piece on ... meat.

Bottom line is that animal proteins are OK for the environment, but please choose carefully, pasture raised is best.

The Carnivore’s Dilemma

"It’s true that food production is an important contributor to climate change. And the claim that meat (especially beef) is closely linked to global warming has received some credible backing, including by the United Nations and University of Chicago. Both institutions have issued reports that have been widely summarized as condemning meat-eating.

But that’s an overly simplistic conclusion to draw from the research."

Kudos to staff

I'm not going to get into the details, but I want to post up kudos to our staff.

We delivered an "early" Mangalitsa and there were some issues with USDA not being fully aware of what was expected.

Well, by the end of the day, situation looks to have been resolved, and we are turning this into a "teachable moment" where we will develop a "handbook" of procedures as to how slaughtering and butchering should be done.

Excellent response, teamwork, draw on partner's knowledge.

More on Martha's

Our bad that we missed Mario's "high five" in Esquire's Spring 2009 "Black Book"

More kudo's

Martha's Leelanau Table - Suttons Bay, MI

Otherwise, it's a been a busy fall
If you have links of interest for this little bit of editorial content, please send to :
jthoagland@earthlink.net

Which is better?

The Stew: Organic and pasture-raised eggs face off in taste test:

Tip o'the hat to Ted on the link

"So for pure flavor, I would go with pasture-raised eggs from a farmer with whom you have, ideally, developed a relationship. Some will tell you their breeding practices and even let you visit the farm. But for those who want to know that their hens are vegetarian fed on all-organic feed, organic is still the way to go."

Ted Cizma reports on a "Wooly" Pig

Check it out over on Up North Foodies:

Our first Mangalitsa pig

Contact staff to get your order in.

We love it when our clients get praise

Martha’s Leelanau Table

Institute Daily : Janice Benson: Cookin’ with Martha!

So true So true

From Timothy Young :

"Making commitments generates hope. Keeping commitments generates trust." ~ Blaine Lee

Just say Cheese

As we expand our cheese offerings here at CCF, we thought that the following is pretty timely.

Read transcript or listen to the broadcast/podcast.

'Chronicling' The Craft Of Cheesemaking : NPR:

"Can chemistry explain what makes Stilton stinky and goat cheese gooey? Liz Thorpe, vice president of Murray's Cheese in New York and author of the new book The Cheese Chronicles, talks about the science and business of making cheese in America."

An interesting discussion

While we at Cherry Capital Foods focus on the local market, roughly a 100 mile radius around Traverse City, there are many factors to consider.

You may want to take a few min to read, or to listen to this:

Sizing Up Sustainable Food : NPR

Here in NW Michigan, we are lucky to have a large variety of choices.

Long cool "summer"

Bear with us, it's slow everywhere up here
Story from a few weeks ago (July 25th) sorry for the tardy post

Traverse City Record-Eagle - Article: Where's Summer? Cold takes toll on crops

School Food

We got this in late yesterday
From

Colleen Matts

Farm to School Specialist

CS Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems

Michigan State University

303 Natural Resources Building

East Lansing, MI 48824-1222

517.432.0310

MetroFarm Online Magazine & Food Chain Radio

"Fish sticks, tater tots and sloppy joes If we are what we eat, then what have school lunches allowed us to become?"

Note that Cherry Capital Foods provides product to TCAPS, GTACS and other local school districts.
If you have questions, please call, we'd love to help spread the goods and the word.

Big thumbs up to blu

Gotta give a big Congrats! to one of our clients:?

Traverse City Record-Eagle - Article:

"Glen Arbor restaurant gets national attention

GLEN ARBOR -- Blu restaurant has been given the Award of Excellent by Wine Spectator magazine.

Blu also was praised in the July 2009 issue of Travel Leisure Magazine."

Somebody's got to do it ...

Dave Hovest and Rick Dean perform valuable field testing of the latest addition to our line of summer grilling favorites, "WoodFire Brand" all natural wood Bar-B-Que Hardwood Briquets. This gourmet blend of 100% Northern Michigan Hardwoods with no additives give great flavor to the pasture raised chicken of Mark and Jill Baker of "Bakers Happy Acres." The staff agreed, it was a thankless job, but we're glad we got to do it!




Contact staff for pricing

Organic Farming

While we are a distribution company, not involved with production/growing/farming, we thought this important enough to share:


From: Jeremy Moghtader
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:15:26 -0400
To: <FARMMKTMI@LIST.MSU.EDU>
Subject: Organic Farmer Training Program Accepting Applications for 2010

Now excepting applications for 2010 Cohort of the

Organic Farmer Training Program

@ the Michigan State University Student Organic Farm!!!!!!

The Organic Farmer Training Program is a 9 month intensive training program in year round organic farming focusing on diversified production of vegetables, flowers, fruits and herbs for local markets. Students engage in the management of the 10 acre certified organic farm including passive solar greenhouses used for year round production in cold climates and heated only by the sun. Students also engage in the management of SOF garden and field production for the farm?s primary markets, including a 48week CSA, 6 month on campus farm stand, and sales to campus dinning services. Students develop competencies in farm skills through skills trainings and by engaging in the day to day work and operation of the farm. Hands-on training is combined with workshops, lectures, readings, and assignments that build participants? knowledge and understanding of organic farming principles and practices. The program is designed to give participants a strong background in production skills as well as the knowledge, management, and decision making skills necessary to operate a diversified small farm.

Program participants include new and beginning farmers, urban and community farmers and gardeners, educators, and those interested in local or organic agriculture.

Program Dates for 2010 are March 1^st to November 19^th for this full time intensive program

Space is limited

Rolling admissions

Application review begins Sept 1.

See attached flyer for more information

Visit our website for full program description and application

www.msuorganicfarm.org

or contact us at msufarm@msu.edu

517-230-7987

Jeremy Moghtader
MSU Student Organic Farm
Organic Farming Training Program
www.msuorganicfarm.org
Farm 517-230-7987
Campus 517-355-5191 ext 1411

An Issue CCF hopes to address

Pending food safety issues:

Embattled organic sector worries about regulation | Health | Reuters

Cherry Capital Foods is taking steps to address this issue and provide help to growers.

News at 11 (we are not ready to do full Press Release on this until we have everything up and running)

But we knew this

We call it home sweet (and savory) home

Traverse City, Michigan Is A New Foodie Haven

" Attention, traveling foodies: Something yummy is happening in the Traverse City area, and it's even grabbed the attention of luminaries such as celebrity chef Mario Batali, who has a summer home on the scenic Leelanau Peninsula just northwest of town.

Long a top Midwestern tourist draw for its lakes, rivers, forests, beaches -- and the orchards that inspire the self-proclaimed moniker "cherry capital of the world" -- the Traverse City area is now home to an increasingly varied and sophisticated culinary culture with a strong emphasis on local ingredients.

The Lake Michigan resort town is awash in award-winning restaurants and wineries, artisan bakeries, dairies and farm markets. Midwest Living magazine recently placed Traverse City second on its list of the region's best "food towns," trailing only Madison, Wis.

The area's food scene "has just exploded" in the past decade, Batali said in a phone interview: "What you're seeing up there is a renaissance, the rise of a gastronomic subculture that makes it a fascinating place to be."

more here...

Now taking orders

Cherry Capital Foods is excited to offer
Mangalitsa pigs
(MON-go-leet-sa)

Check them out here: Introducing Mangalitsa

and here: Super-succulent imports are everything U.S. pork isn't

Call for your orders there are only a few available this season

Update : note that these are local (Marion Michigan) and the only ones available between the East and West coasts.

Same same, not same same

Title is from Japanese I learned years ago about same but different

The following carries some similarities to one of our prime protein providers, the Bakers: love for what they are doing.

Field Report - American Pastoral - Trading the Corporate World for a 21st Century Farm - NYTimes.com

Farm and Food Network

Traverse Record-Eagle on NW Mich Farm and Food Network

Coverage here:
Farm network has Vision

Evan and myself (JTHoagland) serve on the infrastructure committee.

Partnering with Earthy Delights

June

Seasons change and so does our business
There will be increasing cooperation with our partners at Earthy Delights and when you need commercial quantities of their goods, you can work through Cherry Capital Foods.

Cherry Capital Foods will continue to concentrate on fresh product, and, as their spring season wraps up (ramps, fiddleheads, morels), Earthy Delights will be your trusted source for ingredients and fine imported goods.

And don't forget, if you can't find it with Earthy or CCF, please ask.

New Produce Manager

A few days late posting this ...

May 19, 2009
Traverse City, Michigan

Cherry Capital Foods, the leading purveyor for northwestern lower Michigan's burgeoning local food economy, is excited to announce that Barb Tholin has joined the company as Produce Manager. Barb brings years of experience in produce and grocery buying and retailing, having served for 19 years in the roles of produce manager, meat buyer and store manager for Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op in Saint Paul, MN. She also holds a degree in agronomy and maintains a lifelong interest in farming of all kinds, with a special passion for family run, niche-market production.

“I'm thrilled to be back in the produce business,” says Barb. “I love working with farmers and producers, and providing quality products and information to customers. This region is a prime agricultural area and produces all kinds of great foods. Chefs and retailers are eager to buy local product from a reliable source. Cherry Capital Foods is poised in the best place to do that and I'm excited to be joining their team.”

Along with her work with CCF, Barb is also the editor and co-publisher, with husband Charlie Wunsch, of Edible Grande Traverse, the seasonal local food magazine that launched in spring 2008 to great acclaim from the region's food and farming community.

Cherry Capital Foods, as the pioneering distributor of local food products sold throughout northwest lower Michigan, is dedicated to providing the best distribution service for this area's important local food and farm economy. It’s core market is roughly a 100 mile radius around Traverse City, where the firm is headquartered.

Press contact: Evan Smith - 231-943-5010

Morels, ramps and scallops ... yum

Randy Chamberlain of "blu" in Glen Arbor

"My Up North" video clip
Foraging to plating up a nice little lunch here

Soon

Of course, we know where to source, if not doing our own foraging...

The Minimalist - The Flavor of Spring - NYTimes.com:

"In an ideal world, here’s what a spring dish might look like: you take morels from your foraging trip, cream and butter from your cow, and asparagus, shallots and herbs from your garden. You combine them in any way that makes sense to you, and then you thank the forest, the cow and your backyard for providing you with such amazing bounty."

Recipe - Asparagus With Morels and Tarragon - NYTimes.com:

On Morels

Borrowed from the Detroit News as a service to our friends
We'd love to just sell you morels, but we know that many like to collect their own

Morel mania: Now's the season for Michigan's prize mushrooms | detnews.com | The Detroit News:

Morel-hunting tips :

# Don't hunt on private property without permission.
# Carry a mesh bag to release and spread spores along the way; leave plastic bags and buckets home.
# Pinch or cut the morels you find -- don't pull them from the ground.
# Clean morels by shaking them or brushing with a soft mushroom brush. Some suggest soaking briefly in lightly salted water and then cooking immediately.
# Store morels (and other mushrooms) in paper in the refrigerator for better air circulation; avoid plastic -- it makes them moldy."

SAFETY

Real vs. false morels

The only sure way to distinguish between morels and false morels, which can be poisonous, is to have years of experience or be accompanied by an expert. MushroomExpert.Com offers this advice from Michael Kuo:

Rule No. 1
When in doubt, throw it out! If you're not 100 percent sure your mushroom is a morel, don't even consider eating it.

Rule No. 2
If it ain't hollow, don't swallow! Morels are hollow. Slice open a black or yellow morel, and you will find only air (and bugs, if you haven't cleaned it), from top to bottom. Slice open a false morel and you'll find mushroom flesh. Sometimes the flesh of a false morel is interspersed with air pockets, creating a "chambered" effect -- but there is flesh present. Consequently, false morels weigh more than morels.

Rule No. 3
If it's wavy, don't make it gravy! The caps of false morels are often wavy rather than pitted. The pits on morels are not, on very close inspection, symmetrical, but they are very regular when compared to the lobed, wavy, brain-like structure of the false morel cap.

Rule No 4
If it's reddish, you could be dead-ish! False morels frequently (though not always!) have reddish-brown shades. Some yellow morels develop red stains, especially as they age (the stain usually begins as a stripe on the stem and then spreads), and when morels are growing under pine. So, this rule might eliminate some good-eating morels. But it is more likely to eliminate false morels.

Food Safety

TV Coverage : MSU Horticultural Station workshop on GAP (Good Agricultural Practices)
CCF Staffers attended, and we intend to implement our own tracking from farm to client.

Safe farming practices : News : WPBN TV 7&4:

"In order to get certified many requirements have to be met. ' If growers don t have a food safety plan and they don t have a person that s in charge of it that s an automatic for disqualification. I think the other thing is restroom use hand washing facilities making sure that your growers are doing the things they say they re going to do to keep their hands clean ' Rothwell said.

' The importance of documentation. Many of the things we ve learned we all do but we haven t been writing them down. So we re going to encourage all of our farmers and growers to be sure that their documenting ' said Cherry Capital Foods Evan Smith."

Any day now

Asparagus
Meantime, some interesting things about our spring crop

The Curious Cook - The Curious Cook - Asparagus’ Breaking Point - NYTimes.com:

"Green asparagus spears, cut down just hours after they’ve hit daylight and turned color, are the most lively of all our vegetables, furiously turning the sugars absorbed from their roots into energy and new tissues.

The harvest doesn’t stop them. Even cut off from their roots, the asparagus spears keep growing at the tip. If they’re stored lying down, the tips rise away from the pull of gravity, and can bend 60 degrees or more from the stalk before they run out of energy."

What do you get?

"Natural" vs. truly Natural

Baker's chickens have no filler, no "plumping up"
You get chicken, not salt water

What's Really in Many 'Healthy' Foods - WSJ.com:

"A lot of Americans think they're eating a healthy diet these days. But it's easy to be fooled by our assumptions and the ways that food manufacturers play on them.

Take chicken. The average American eats about 90 pounds of it a year, more than twice as much as in the 1970s, part of the switch to lower-fat, lower-cholesterol meat proteins. But roughly one-third of the fresh chicken sold in the U.S. is 'plumped' with water, salt and sometimes a seaweed extract called carrageenan that helps it retain the added water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says chicken processed this way can still be labeled 'all natural' or '100% natural' because those are all natural ingredients, even though they aren't naturally found in chicken."

This Little Piggy went to market

While not mentioned, Cherry Capital will be in the mix.

Wooly Pigs: Earthy Delights and Bakers Green Acres

Baker's are a prime chicken supplier for us.
We're looking forward to being able to provide truly great pork products.

Season starting

Afternoon flash

Asparagus $1.75/lb
Morel caps $20/lb ----- 1st come first serve.
rhubarb available starting friday.

Popped up over Weekend

Just a note (current popped up is top right of the page)

We're going to try leaving prior material up.
Check for current prices, not older ones as markets change

Source Local

Restaurateurs find local food advantageous to bottom line | Energy Bulletin

"Consequently, distributors are popping up all over the country. Cherry Capital Foods, for example, is trying to establish a regional system in the Grand Traverse area. Meanwhile, Sysco, a $3 billion broad-line distributor, is seeking to provide local foods to its customers as a brand. Last year it sold $1 million in local food in Michigan, said Gollan, “a mere drop in the bucket” but a step in the right direction because they know how to do the job.

The local food system has primarily been a social movement, said Gollan. Policymakers have recently gotten involved and developed various means for start-up businesses. Now businesspeople are seeing the viability of local food and setting up infrastructure to make it happen at a profit and with greater accessibility.

Regions like the state’s northwest are also rebuilding their local economies by forming partnerships among businesspeople, economic developers, schools, grocers, restaurateurs and food retailers, reported the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service."

Fresh Product List

Working on some updates

Fresh Product List and Monday's What popped up over the Weekend should show up on the right side of this page - links to updated information

We'll try to keep this side for more "editorial content"

Trying to keep pace

We'll try to keep up with new trends, such as social sites
We can't promise that we'll always be on top of this, esp. as the season picks up, but let's give it a try.

Feedback most welcomed
Click on this link: Facebook | Cherry Capital Foods

Harvest Dates

A list of common Harvest Dates has been posted Here and is on the right hand side of this page

Monday Mailing

~

Champion Hill Farms will be supplying CCF with half gallon and gallon sized containers of honey. Need a larger size? Let CCF know a few days before you need it.

Half gallon - $20 & Gallons - $39 available on April 22th.

Champion Hill Farm

Greg Griswold - "beekeeper"

Beulah, Michigan

My name is Greg Griswold and I own a small beekeeping operation, Champion Hill Farm here in Beulah, Michigan. I have been a beekeeper for 25 years, and specialize in healthy bees.

I live by the saying:

"You take care of the bees and they take care of you."

I take care of them by using natural treatments to keep them mite free, these treatments are more time consuming and more costly but worth it to me and the bees in the long run. I take care of my bees by keeping small yards so I can monitor health issues and maintain the health of the hive with more individual attention to each hive.

The honey source is primarily Star Thistle which blooms profusely in northern Michigan in the months of July and August. The honey may have very small amounts of wild berry, sumac, and basswood, which may vary year to year, and makes its own annual vintage. The color is very light and the flavor is something special, which is sought by many honey packers across the nation.

Greg Griswold,

Champion Hill Farm

Beulah, Michigan

New payment terms

April 3, 2009

Dear Valued Customer of Cherry Capital Foods:

Since our products are primarily fresh and sold by you immediately upon receipt, we are moving up our payment terms to Net 10.

You will continue to receive an invoice for your order at the time of delivery. You will then have ten days to pay it. If you would like to pay for your order with VISA or MasterCard, please contact me to do so.

We are looking forward to a great growing season this year. Thank you for choosing Cherry Capital Foods to deliver fresh, locally grown foods to you.

Sincerely,



Julie Young
Office Manager/Bookkeeper
julie@cherrycapitalfoods.net



P.S. Please make sure you send all correspondence and payments to:

PO Box 5662
Traverse City, MI 49685

Food Safety

An excellent discussion of Food Safety and regulation in IPR

WIAA NewsRoom - Points North March 27th 

Note that Cherry Capital Foods intends to be a leader in both monitoring and mentoring for Food Safety Issues.

Springtime and thoughts of planting

Slew of links
It's spring, we think of growing our food, and of course enjoying it.

First, on getting away from HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup
Sugar Is Back on Food Labels, This Time as a Selling Point - NYTimes.com

Then we come to “Food Revolution” is it happening or will it run into the standard Washington machine?
Is a Food Revolution Now in Season? - NYTimes.com

Mark Bittman on local food :Eating Food That’s Better for You, Organic or Not - NYTimes.com

Some videos – all recommended
Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat | Video on TED.com

Peter Reinhart on bread | Video on TED.com

Michael Pollan gives a plant's-eye view | Video on TED.com

Ann Cooper talks school lunches | Video on TED.com

Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Video on TED.com

Changes

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Date : March 17th, 2009

Changes afoot at Cherry Capital Foods


Traverse City, Michigan

Cherry Capital Foods, the leading purveyor for northwest lower Michigan's burgeoning local food economy, is excited to announce several changes to its staff and their operating responsibilities. Founded in early 2007, Cherry Capital Foods' 2008 revenue more than doubled that of 2007, and the company's sales are on track to double again in 2009. This extremely rapid growth has demanded a greater division of duties, as well as the creation of several new job titles.

Evan Smith has joined the company as Senior Operating Manager having served for 8 years as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Food For Thought, a mission based social venture specializing in Organic and Fair Trade specialty food products based in Honor, Michigan. Evan brings over 30 years of general management and operations experience to Cherry Capital Foods, as well as a wealth of contacts throughout the food industry. In addition, while at Food For Thought, Evan was responsible for all compliance, procedure, and certification related issues. He will continue in his ownership role with Food For Thought as well as in an active advisory role.

David Hovest, who recently completed the training program at Zingtrain in Ann Arbor, has been promoted to Fleet Manager, and in addition will take a more active role in sales management and purchasing.

Company founder Eric Hahn will be leaving day to day responsibilities to pursue other interests, as well as to be able to spend more time with his family. He will retain an equity interest in Cherry Capital Foods and the company will continue to draw on his industry knowledge.

We wish to express our appreciation for his vision and drive, and to wish him well in his new endeavors.

Cherry Capital Foods, as the pioneering distributor of local food products sold throughout northwest lower Michigan, is dedicated to providing the best distribution service for this area's important local food and farm economy. It’s core market is roughly a 100 mile radius around Traverse City, where the firm is headquartered.

Press contact: Evan Smith - 231-943-5010

Food for Schools

Traverse City Record-Eagle

Editorial: Embrace new food rules

Until recently the fact that there were schools and farms in the same community was little more than a coincidence.

Schools rarely bought food grown on local farms, and farmers found it difficult, if not impossible, to submit bids to sell anything to local districts.

Slowly but surely that's changing, and to the better. Students are getting fresh food, farmers have a new revenue source and the money is staying local.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently signed three new state laws intended to reduce complications for districts interested in buying local. The new farm-to-school initiatives removed bidding restrictions and require the state to help schools start their own programs.

Previously, districts had to seek formal bids for any food purchases of more than $20,000. The state now allows informal bids, which can be as simple as calling farmers to ask their prices, of up to $100,000. State education and agriculture departments have to offer training, hire a statewide farm-to-school coordinator and set up a directory of farmers able and willing to bid on school contracts.

This all began because a few districts -- including a number in northwest Lower Michigan -- hired real chefs to produce food for school lunches from fresh ingredients. Districts were so used to reheating processed foods for lunches that changing was a big deal.

When Glen Lake Community Schools hired a chef and began adding local food to lunches, the district had to start small. "We could only do it around the fringes," said superintendent Joan Groening.

As of four years ago, just four area public districts, Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools and the private Leelanau School in Glen Arbor had farm-to-school programs, according to Diane Conners, farm-to-school coordinator with the Michigan Land Use Institute in Traverse City. Now, that number has grown to more than 30 schools.

Districts buy asparagus from Empire, fruit from Leelanau County and tomatoes in Kingsley. Traverse City's Catholic schools, Benzie County, Frankfort-Elberta and Northport districts have all purchased grass-fed, hormone-free beef from Benzonia farmer Randy Rice.

Eric Hahn, president of Traverse City-based Cherry Capital Foods LLC, which distributes onions, potatoes and fruit to local districts, says the region's economy will prosper.

There must, of course, be strong protections built into the process, including ways to track contracting to ensure the process is open to all area farmers who want to participate and not skewed toward a favorite few.

The food itself must be closely monitored to ensure freshness and purity. One reason frozen processed foods became so popular was that the onus for ensuring food safety was largely off the schools.

With help from the state, districts should quickly learn how to handle those problems and should embrace the farm-to-school idea. It's an idea -- and a mindset -- worth embracing.

Summer update

Traverse City Business News

A fruitful year: Sales up 800 percent for food distributor

By Carrie Henderson

Eric Hahn buys produce from more than 150 farmers. Photo by John Russell

TRAVERSE CITY - Providing the freshest local food products from the farm to the kitchen within 24 hours is the goal of one Traverse City business. A goal that appears to be working.

Eric Hahn of Charlevoix opened Cherry Capital Foods in May 2007. The local food distributor on U.S. 31 South works directly with farmers and other food producers by selling their goods to area businesses throughout northern Michigan. Just 15 months since starting up, Hahn says sales are up 800 percent.

“When I first started the business I had 60 customers,” says Hahn. “Just two months later I had double the amount of customers. Today I have 250 and business is growing every day.”

That trend continued this summer. From June 2008 to July 2008, sales jumped 94 percent. Hahn expects similar growth next year, as his business continues to expand. Besides local customers, he also sells to high-end grocery stores in Detroit, Chicago, and Grand Rapids

While Cherry Capital Foods may be a relatively new business, Hahn has a strong background in food distribution. Prior to opening the company, he was a “fresh product representative” out of Detroit. There he handled accounts in northern Michigan and got to know many of the local farmers.

“I kept hearing the same story,” says Hahn. “‘We’ve got this great product – fresh fruits and vegetables; we just don’t know how to market them.’”

When the Detroit company that Hahn was working for stopped distributing fresh local fruit, Hahn said he knew it was time to move on and decided to open his own business up North.

“Cherry Capital Foods is a win-win for everyone involved,” says Hahn. “It’s not only a win for my business, but it’s also a win for farmers because they never had an active market like this before to sell their products.”

Since opening less than one and a half years ago, more than 150 area farmers are selling their produce directly to Cherry Capital Foods. Hahn says there is a consumer demand for local, fresh food.

“With the recent food recalls and salmonella tomato scare, people want to know where their food is coming from. When we package food, we make sure to include the farm it came from and the community.”

Freshness is a big selling point. Hahn says the food doesn’t sit around. Instead, it’s often “grown to order.” Customers tell Cherry Capital Foods what they want and when they want it. The farmers do the rest. When the order is harvested, it’s often delivered to Cherry Capital Food’s warehouse the very same day. Customers can pick it up there, or have it delivered.

Along with fresh food for consumers, Hahn says Cherry Capital Foods is also a huge economic boost for area farmers. He adds that since working with his company, five farmers have had to expand their growing operations.

One of those farmers is Walt Harris of Benzie County. He says since teaming up with Cherry Capital Foods, he has doubled his tomato production to keep up with demand.

Hahn says the customers also benefit from his business because they get the freshest food on the market. Some of those customers include area grocery stores and restaurants such as Freshwater Lodge and Bayside Market. Several school districts including TCAPS and Glen Lake also take advantage of Cherry Capital Foods in order to provide students with the freshest fruits and vegetables.

The biggest demand among customers is for local, farm-fresh fruits and vegetables. Depending on the season, popular requests include apples, cherries, peaches, strawberries, and asparagus. But Cherry Capital Foods also buys and sells other products from local companies, like homemade sweets, meats, pasta, dried fruit and even dog treats.

For more information, go to cherrycapitalfoods.net.

Formal Launch

Traverse City Record-Eagle

Feeding the demand for local goods

Business features only Michigan-made products

BY BILL O'BRIEN
bobrien@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY -- There's a reason Eric Hahn's food company on U.S. 31 near Chum's Corner looks sort of like a cross between a warehouse and a grocery store.

It's a little of both.

Hahn opened Cherry Capital Foods, a business featuring only local and Michigan-made produce, meats and other food products, to the public two weeks ago. He hopes to expand on the region's rapidly growing demand for local and fresh foods, a trend that's helped his local food distribution business take off over the past year.

"I started dabbling with the local growers and moving some of their products ... I saw the potential in that and it started gradually getting bigger," Hahn said. "Pretty soon I was inundated with business from all over northern Michigan."

Hahn is working with around 150 local farmers and growers, distributing their products to more than 200 area restaurants, schools and retailers. He also sells locally made products likes salsas, honey and sauces and other products made at businesses like Food for Thought in Benzie County and Brownwood Farms in Antrim County.

There's been a concerted effort in the region to get local farm products into area restaurants and school food service operations through organizations like the Michigan Land Use Institute. The goal is to keep local farms profitable to help sustain the region's agricultural heritage, while maintaining high food quality.

But the distribution end -- getting food from farms to restaurants, school kitchens and retailers -- has been a stumbling block for local food programs across the country, said Diane Connors of the Michigan Land Use Institute, who works on its "Taste the Local Difference" program. Hahn's efforts are filling that gap, she said.

"He's providing a much-needed bridge in the community that's been the missing link all across the country," Connors said.

Hahn spent more than 20 years in the restaurant business, much of it at Stafford's Perry Hotel in Petoskey, and worked in fresh produce sales for a Detroit-based distributor. He started his new business in early 2007 as a one-person operation, and was approached last August with expansion plans by other investors.

He's now got five employees to help him run the distribution operation and his new retail store, where an open house will be held May 19 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Richard Zenner has grown hydroponic tomatoes and other produce at his farm in Kingsley for 18 years. Hahn bought up to 500 pounds a week of his fresh tomatoes last season, Zenner said.

"It's a good thing, and you're getting a fair price for it," Zenner said. "He's got the contacts to get it out from there."

Hahn is hopeful his new outlet will bring even more of northern Michigan's home-grown goodness to the dinner tables and food pantries of area residents, as well as generate more revenue for local farmers.

"It's a new market ... it's a new strategy," Hahn said. "We're bringing a customer base to them we've never had before."

Charlevoix Coverage

Charlevoix Courier
March 5 2008

Local Business, local product
Erick Goff

What is grown in northern Michigan is sold in northern Michigan
That is the driving force behind Charlevoix resident Eric Hahn’s new business, Cherry Capital Foods. Helping local growers and food processors distribute and sell product in the northwest Michigan area is the name of the game for Hahn, who’s endeavor began with a simple idea less than one year ago: “I was one man with a van and a plan;” Hahn said

Now he is one man with two vans, two employees, more to come and an even bigger plan. He is working with more than 100 growers, distributing to more than 160 customers and has no intention of slowing down. Keeping the economic impact of one of Michigan’s strongest resources – agriculture – local is his goal.

“We want to keep the money here in our local community,” he said.

Hahn’s experience in market distribution was gained largely during his time as a product representative for a company out of Detroit. He handled the northern Michigan accounts for the firm, selling products to restaurants, retailers and grocers. About four years ago, he started “dabbling” in local distribution, he said, acting as the go-between for growers and suppliers such as Friske’s Market and area restaurants. Doing the work on a “case-by-case basis,” Han said, he realized he was on to something.

“I could tell where the market demand structure was, who was willing to buy local, and how much of a market we had,” he said.

Then, last spring, about a month before asparagus season – an important time for many Michigan farmers – the company from Detroit Hahn was working with decided not to work with local asparagus growers. The decision put added strain on an already heavily-strained realm of industry in northern Michigan, and Hahn decided to take things into his own hands. In April 2006 he kicked off his businenss endeavor, trading his Volvo for a refrigerated van, and the rest is history. Cherry Capital Foods helps provide and maintain a market for asparagus, apples, cherries, corn and other locally grown products, as well as locally processed products such as syrup, apple sauce and wine. He has contracts with schools, hospitals, restaruants, grocers, retail markets and more, and plenty of promise of growth.

“Our projected growth is expected to double within the next year,” he said.

A national radio spot, which aired on National Public Radio in January, gave Hahn a major public relations boost –“My phone has been ringing off the hook since it aired,” he said of the feature on his business, available for listening on his website, www.cherrycapitalfoods.com - and contracts may begin to extend outside of the eight-county area he currently focuses on. A newly opened warehouse in Traverse City houses much of the product he helps distribute, and he plans to soon offer product sale from the location. Another personal goal, he said, is to help offer fresh food to customers.

“We are able to offer a fresher, more nutritional product,” he said, which has been a boost for his involvement in the school project Farm to School.

“This is a national project offered by the USDA,” Han explained, which offers funds to school districts that contract with local growers to offer such fresh, local products as part of their school meals.

While Hahn does not yet have a contract with Charlevoix Schools, he hopes to establish a relationship with them, and already works with Traverse City Catholic Schools, a number of colleges and some others in the northern Michigan area.

Giving the farmer an economic boost is another part of Hahn’s business. Providing Fair Market Value for products is something larger distributors are often unable or unwilling to do, giving less bang for the farmer’s buck than is necessary to maintain a strong agricultural industry. Offering Fair Market Value dollars instead of “pennies per pound” will help keep producers’ business healthy, and keep the product coming.

“We can then facilitate movement of the product from point A to point B, and get Michigan products out on the shelves,” he said, adding the recent contract with a vendor out of Chicago will help get Michigan product to southern Michigan and Illinois and further increase market demand.

“I already have producers who have expanded their operations to accommodate the increase this season. That speaks for the success,” he said.

While he had high hopes in the beginning, Hahn said he had no idea his business would grow so fast. The demand structure is “far greater than I anticipated on the onset,” he said, but he is seeing all the support he needs to continue. He’s received commitment from local chefs, grocers, retailers and other customers, and expects the growth to continue. Some plans for the future, he said, is to standardize the distribution packaging – using single measurements instead of bushels, pecks or barrels – and working with chefs to get some popular menu items which feature local product out on some shelves. For now maintaining partnerships is vital.
“Once you’ve got a fair amount of growers and chefs wiling to work together and all willing to help with the entire structure, you’re on your way. Those individuals (growers and retailers) deserve a lot of credit for helping to get this off the ground,” Hahn said.

Interlochen : NPR

The Challenge of Eating Local: Distribution

David Silverman : Getty

Consumers are increasingly asking for locally grown produce, but distribution can be a problem. A Michigan man has begun a business that distributes produce from local farms to area restaurants, homes and stores.

Morning Edition, January 4, 2008 · More and more consumers are demanding produce grown near their homes, and small farmers are happy to oblige.

The problem is how to get locally grown fruits and vegetables into local kitchens.

Produce distribution in the U.S. is still dominated by big companies that buy and sell in huge volumes, trucking goods across state and international lines. But in a corner of northern Michigan, one entrepreneur is using his experience as a chef and wholesaler to solve one problem facing small farmers.

Eric Hahn grew up in Charlevoix, Mich., at the northern end of a cherry-growing region that produces at least 100 million pounds of cherries a year.

Hahn was the sales representative for a national food distributor out of Detroit. The sweet cherries he trucked to nearby stores were brought from Washington state because the cherries ripen earlier there, and the growing season is longer.

Increasing Demand

But the stores and restaurants Hahn supplied were constantly asking for local cherries.

"I had grocery stores, some of my chefs were interested in them, and one of them one day said, 'Run down to Friskes and bring me back a box of cherries. I don't have time to do it,'" Hahn recalled. "So I did and sent him an invoice. That was the start of it all."

At one point, Hahn convinced his company to work with some small growers on a pilot distribution project, but the fruit and vegetables still had to go through the warehouse in Detroit. There were also some other logistical problems, so the company stopped the program.

But when asparagus season rolled around last spring, farmers starting calling Hahn looking to sell their produce.

"The farmers I was working with were people I'd known for a long time going back to grade school, and I knew they grew great peaches, great strawberries," Hahn said.

So, Hahn quit his job, took $5,000 out of his savings account, traded in his Volvo for a van and started Cherry Capital Foods.

Now, he distributes food grown on about 60 local farms to more than 100 nearby restaurants, resorts, stores and schools.

As Hahn dropped off a load of potatoes at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, executive chef Ted Cizma said it used to be a chore for him to get a bag of locally grown potatoes.

"I bought from a lot of the people that he brings from, but it would require a phone call to each of those purveyors. It required really being creative to get it (the produce) here because most of the smaller producers aren't set up to deliver," Cizma said. "I was actually having to send somebody out to the different areas to pick stuff up. And, quite frankly, we weren't getting the variety or consistency that we have now."

There is some debate about the environmental benefits of buying food locally, but Cizma said it's just the right thing to do. He said there's no reason for him to buy food from California or China when he has a local alternative.

"Let's think about Michigan's economy for a minute. We need it here more than they need it there," he said.

Local Distribution

Hahn said he spent nearly every day this summer in his van, and his revenues have grown to $250,000.

The profit margins in this business are slim, though, especially since Hahn often competes with produce grown in countries with cheap and abundant labor.

Farmer Dick Zenner said it's a win-win situation for him. At Cherry Capital Food's warehouse, Zenner dropped off the last of his hothouse tomatoes for the year.

Hahn will deliver Zenner's tomatoes to a delicatessen later this morning, marking the travel time from the vine to the shelf in hours, not days.

Zenner sold half of his tomato crop through Cherry Capital Foods.

"That saved me driving around," Zenner said. "And with the gas prices the way they are, that's money in my pocket."

Zenner said he'll be putting in some more greenhouses for lettuce, and Hahn said he'll contract to buy every head of lettuce Zenner can grow.

Hahn said he expects sales will top $1 million next year, once more farmers like Zenner see the markets that are opening up.

Peter Payette reports from Interlochen Public Radio.