High Desert Foods

news

High Desert Foods' products have been featured in the following publications.

Articles featuring the fruit we grow at Kiva Orchard:

 

Food 411

"Organic fresh fruits from their own Kiva Orchards are made into exceptional conserves, jellies & butters. The fresh vibrant taste is amazing..."

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US News and World Report

From the Smart Chart by Diane Cole 8/1/05

"Is it a marinade? A dip? Preserves? Or all of the above? At the Fancy Food Show in New York this summer, new high-end condiments were being touted as multi-purpose food solutions for busy cooks. Here's the skinny on these sauces: High Desert Blackberry and Wild Blueberry Confiture. The preserve perked up pancakes and vanilla ice cream."

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The Four Corners Business Journal

A Commitment to Quality and Sustainable Agriculture By Indiana Reed 8/1/2005

DOLORES - The little jars that pack a mountain of flavor: the 17 varieties of certified organic fruit conserves or jelly produced by High Desert Foods in the heart of downtown Dolores.

It's an unassuming operation that's been creating the quality fruit items for barely one year, but the unique products (that include such taste-tempting varieties as Peach Vanilla Bean, Sour Cherry and Strawberry Chardonnay Conserves) are now sold in organic food and specialty, gourmet food outlets all across the country.

And the flavorful fruit will also soon be distributed in Japan . Given that the Japanese have among the strictest requirements for food imports, approval and acceptance in the industrialized island country opens little High Desert Foods to additional markets across the Far East and Europe .

Founder Bill Manning perhaps didn't envision such a global presence when, in 1999, he first purchased the 42-acre orchard located in the midst of the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument that would come to be named Kiva Orchard.

According to Manning, Kiva was a fairly young orchard at the time, producing multiple varieties of peaches and cherries, as well as apples, apricots, plums and pears. One of Manning's first decisions was to convert it to a certified organic operation - a process that took three years. At the same time, his big commitment was to grow the best quality fruit possible.

"I'm like everyone else," said Manning, who has a passion for growing, and formerly ran a Durango-based nursery and landscaping operation. "For many years I've subsisted on the fruit that we find in our local grocery stores. During the summer fruit season when the peaches would come in, they'd look great but they'd be about as tasty as cardboard. Why would I want to eat that? So it made sense to me that if I wanted it to taste good, that meant changing the orchard to maximize that. In that sense we've done a pretty good job. In the southwest, our fruit is pretty well known for being first class."

Since the initial purchase, Manning has added several acres of strawberries and other fruits to provide a balance, as well as an array of seasonal vegetables and herbs. Most recently, Kiva has enlarged the tomato operation to some 12,000 plants, in preparation for the next product to be processed at High Desert Foods: pasta sauces.

Kiva Orchard's fresh produce is sold at local farmers markets and through the recently established CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture program that enables community members to purchase a seasonal membership and receive regular distributions of locally grown produce).

"But after operating the orchard for a few years, it became really clear to me that as a small farm operation it is very hard to survive economically on just the fresh commodity," said Manning, noting that the local marketplace isn't large enough to sustain growers, and trying to compete with large growers selling into other areas is quite challenging.

"The fresh market (here) has a very narrow harvest season of about six weeks," he continued. "You live or die in that period. There are always some things that you can't send to the fresh market because they might have a blemish, or whatever, but they're still really tasty. So what do you do with that?"

Thus was the impetus for High Desert Foods, transforming the "number two" quality fruit into shelf-stable certified organic products that can be sold year-round. Manning's goal was to maintain the same "high quality" standards established at the orchard.

"If it were just an issue of making jam and putting it in a jar, we could have done that in three or four months," said Manning, who admitted he knew nothing of the specialty foods industry at the outset. "As it is, it took three years. Everything was custom-designed.

"To assist, Manning sought input from internationally known chef and food writer Deborah Madison. A supporter of sustainable agriculture, Madison took Manning under her proverbial wing and not only helped with food product development, but also led him down an effective path for "branding" High Desert Foods through focus on the high quality fruits within the jars.

One significant decision made during the "learning" process was to create "conserves" as opposed to jams or preserves. According to U.S. labeling law, jams and preserves must contain a minimum of 55 percent sugar -- a distasteful idea to Manning.

"You need some sugar to preserve," said Manning. "But the idea is to minimize it and make it be a background note and let the fruit and the natural flavors predominate. That's the direction we went ... doing natural pairings of fruits, and then some spices to bring out certain qualities that you're looking for."

To produce the conserves, Manning initially expected to contract with a co-packer, or an independent operation that processes foods under other's labels. However, the co-packers he researched were not making products up to Manning's high standards. A search then ensued for an organic processing facility ­ one of which had fairly recently been vacated in Dolores by Mountain Sun, processors of organic fruit juices.

"Searching around the country led me back to here," said Manning, who purchased

the 20,000 square foot Mountain Sun facility early last year, and with it inherited experienced farmer and organic fruit processor, and now plant manager, Tony Halls, as well as other experienced workers. "When this place shut down, it created a loss to the community - a lot of payroll dollars went away and a lot of other things that benefited the community. ... We benefited not only from the physical facility but also some of the people who worked for Mountain Sun."

According to Halls, the fruit is brought to the plant from Kiva Orchard - though he will purchase high quality organic ingredients from other Rocky Mountain farms to supplement what can't be grown at Kiva.

"The tomatoes and peaches they pick at the farm, they bring them up to me ... until they ripen and they just smell perfect, and they're absolutely perfect," said Halls. "We baby (the fruit) all the way through and it really makes a difference. You can have somebody else do it, but they're not going to care as much."

Fruits are chopped and frozen (with the juices) and stored until the production run is scheduled. Currently the High Desert Foods plant can freeze about a truck-load of fresh produce.

To maintain the quality of the conserves, Halls oversees production of small, 40 gallon batches, and oftentimes five batches are underway at once. Large manufacturers generate 500 to 1000 gallons at a time.

"We're not a nuts and bolts assembly line," said Halls. "We're much more of a caring cooking process. ... I like knowing the products we make are absolutely the best that can possibly be made."

With High Desert Foods' initial success, some may fear that the company could go the way of Mountain Sun - be sold and moved out of Dolores. But Manning learned from the Mountain Sun scenario, and is endeavoring to avoid it.

"My approach has been from the very beginning to design the business to maximize its appeal and the opportunity for it to be locally owned," said Manning, who has structured High Desert Foods as a limited liability, limited partnership with the assistance of local financial advisor Tim Wheeler.

According to both, many investors would prefer to invest in local businesses to help create a sustainable economy. Others see the benefit of supporting value-added, sustainable agriculture. When Manning is ready to move on, hope is to have enough of a local investor base that will maintain the operation in Dolores.

Manning anticipates taking on additional investors in coming months to support the growth of the processing plant (including construction of a retail, tasting café along the highway) as High Desert Foods moves into the new arenas such as pasta and sauces, and smoke-dried tomatoes in oil.

Also in coming months, the fruit "conserves" will likely all become "confitures." A French word for preserves, confiture can be translated into Japanese. No Japanese word for conserves exists.

"They are making a strong commitment to bringing the product in," said Manning of the Japanese, citing the professionalism and courtesy he has received during the business negotiations. "Our quality is high, but that translates into a higher price point. As he (the president of the Japanese distributor) said, this will be the highest priced jam in Japan , but it will also be the best."

For further information about the conserve products visit www.highdesertfoods.com . Information about Kiva Orchard as well as the Community Supported Agriculture program is available at www.kivaorchard.com . For investment information, contact Manning at (866)248-6584, or manning@simwell.com .

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The Denver Post


Dolores farm spreads gospel of organic jam by Ellen Sweets 5/26/2004


DOLORES - At the top of a hill, set back from the main road that bisects this mountain community, stands a nondescript two-story, buff-colored building with a steep-pitched corrugated tin roof. A red-and-white for-sale sign is taped to a second-story window, although the building has long since been sold.

Inside, the gentle scent of blueberries wafts from the windows. As a trio of workers unloads 5-gallon containers of organic wine, fruity aromas escape through an open door. They belong to one of 17 newly brewed conserves about to hit the market.

Not just the Colorado market - but those in New Mexico, Arizona, New York and China, too.

The allure of such blends as apricot-amaretto, wild blueberry-apple, pear-merlot or strawberry-chardonnay suggests sassy sweet sauces for rack of lamb, roast duck or beef tenderloin.

These are a fraction of first-off-the-line conserves marketed by Bill Manning, a Michigan-born ecologist- turned-Colorado farmer and manufacturer. As the owner of newly launched High Desert Foods, the plaid-shirt-and khaki-shorts-clad entrepreneur would be the first to reject the notion of ownership.

"I think of myself more as the land's current caretaker," he says. "If I do this right, this land will be fruitful for many generations to come.

"Between organic farming methods and the high desert region's microclimate of cool nights and hot summer days - combined with sandy clay loam and snowmelt irrigation - farmers here have traditionally grown just incredibly flavorful fruits and vegetables."

Manning, who is in his late 40s, settled in Dolores 30 years ago as part of a research project on a Navajo reservation. As time has a way of shifting life's focus, Manning's interests also changed. He began casting about for a new direction. And as fate has a way of intervening at just the right moment, a casual conversation led to a discovery that had Manning's name on it.

"I heard that the owner of Mountain Sun Organic Juice had been bought out by some big conglomerate and the place was up for sale," he says, as though discussing the purchase of a used car (he drives a dusty 1992 Toyota 4-wheel drive) instead of a 20,000-square-foot building. "I knew it was right. When I decided to take on this project I went from owing $25,000 on my house to $250,000 in debt, and owning an orchard and a manufacturing plant."

But he has more than that. A strong supporter of the Slow Food movement (which favors local ingredients and leisurely dining) and organic growing, he has a head full of ideas about how to restore flavor to the yummy stuff we spread on muffins and toast. But instead of preserves, he calls his product conserves.

"There's a memory we all carry of good food, and that memory comes from the deep, rich flavor (of) good food," he says. "In the case of jams, we remember them because once upon a time peach jam was made from fruit that ripened on the tree and went straight to the canning jar. It wasn't made from green rocks that ripened on a truck as they were transported from someplace 1,000 miles away."

Manning's conserves make no such treks. High Desert's apples, pears, cherries, plums and berries come from a mere 40 miles away, from his 42-acre organic orchard. They grow on land grandfathered into the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument just northwest of Cortez, land once populated by the Anasazi, who would have eaten the same chokecherries, gooseberries and currants Manning has planted there.

Altogether Manning can have as many as 25 varieties of fruits picked and packed within hours of harvesting. And unlike most commercial brands, his have minimal sugar added.

"Our understanding of food chemistry long ago made it clear that having more sugar than fruit isn't necessary for the product to be safe to eat," he says.

Manning worked with food consultants, a Durango-based design firm and award-winning author and chef Deborah Madison ("The Greens Cookbook," "Local Flavors") as part of a three-year odyssey to launch his company.

"I knew about Deborah's passion for sustainable agriculture, and I just asked for her help. Over a three- or four-month period, we talked back and forth, and finally she said she would help me out," he says. "We went to grocery stores and looked at jars of jam, evaluating presentation and design."

Manning went to trade shows and talked to dozens of representatives. So far Wild Oats, Peppercorn in Boulder and Zabar's, the famed upscale New York grocery, have listened. Manning also is interested in putting his conserves on Marcyzk's shelves in Denver. Especially exciting was the interest the Chinese have taken in High Desert Foods.

"Who would think we could make a product of interest to the people in China? Go figure. And they placed a huge order. Then it occurred to me: They don't like a lot of sugar. Our fruit-to-sugar ratio is much higher than you usually find.

"The present high-sugar content works well for large food manufacturers, who tend to think in terms of how cheaply they can make a product. The two main ingredients in preserves and jams are fruit and sugar, and sugar is by far the cheaper of the two," says Manning.

"Of course, my next question was, 'How are we going to fill (the Chinese order)?' But that's a problem I'm happy to have. … Wouldn't it be great to fill up those Chinese jars with fruit made in Colorado and return it to China?"

For information, visit www.highdesertfoods.com or call 866-248-6584. Staff writer Ellen Sweets can be reached at 303-820-1284 or esweets@denverpost.com.

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Food & Wine

November 2004

"High Desert pear conserves and the company's other flavors are made with organic fruit from founder Bill Manning's Kiva Orchard in southwest Colorado. Try the cherry conserve with a nutty Manchego."

 

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Vegetarian Times

February 2005

"You'd never guess that these organic fruit conserves are made with less sugar than traditional jams. Our testers went bonkers for the Sour Cherry."

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Cortez Journal

Dolores processing plant sees new life by John R. Crane 4/ 27/2004

Dolores processing plant sees new life. Cortez, Colorado.

Apricot Amaretto Conserve is one of the flavors of new organic jams from High Desert Foods.

Dolores processing plant sees new life. Cortez, Colorado.

Bill Manning, owner, and Bob Curry, plant manager, are making High Desert organic jams Friday at the old Mountain Sun building in Dolores.

The sun will come out tomorrow at a former organic juice plant under a new name in Dolores - High Desert Foods.

Bill Manning, owner of 42-acre Kiva Orchard near Hovenweep National Monument, will process and sell his organic fruit products at the old Mountain Sun Organic Juice plant beginning this summer. Manning is finalizing purchase of the 20,000 square-foot building in downtown Dolores from Bill and Denise Russell.

His orchard will supply approximately 20 organic fruits for the operation where conserves, fruit butters, salsas and sauces will be made. The products, including vegetables, will be distributed from the former Mountain Sun warehouse on County Road T south of Dolores.

The new plant will bring approximately 20 to 30 seasonal and 19 full-time jobs to Dolores, Manning estimated. One production run will churn out roughly 25,000 jars including high-end products like pear/merlot butter, cherry conserve and apricot amaretto conserve. With a 7.6-ounce jar of pear/vanilla bean butter at $8 to $9 a pop, Manning is targeting upper-income, discriminating customers looking to escape big-box grocery store aisles.

He will sell his product line through major specialty wholesalers, high-end chains and an online store.

And he is confident consumers will come back for more.

In a blind tasting, "Ten out of 10 times, my fruit will capture the imagination of the consumer," he said at the plant Friday.

"You won't have to push it, just say 'Here, try this,'" Manning said.

Manning received recipe ideas and assistance from food authority and author Deborah Madison, who penned the best-selling "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." Bob Curry, former Mountain Sun plant manager who was a chef on the East Coast, will perform both duties at High Desert Foods.

Manning also received food consulting from Pennylvania-based Thomas & Co., and marketing and sales advice from Creative Conspiracy in Durango.

He is calling his spreads "conserves" instead of "jams," because federal regulations require jams to contain 50 percent to 60 percent sugar minimum. Manning wants to sell low-sugar products to promote better health and let the fruits' flavors shine through. If the fruit is high-quality, he said, you don't need the sugar.

Manning pointed out the trend of consumers - baby boomers especially - reverting to their parents' and grandparents' tradition of eating locally-grown products from smaller producers. He lamented the mass consumerism that imprinted itself on the national consciousness after World War II, hijacking a heritage of small-scale, sustainable agriculture.

And he wants to capitalize on that nostalgia by providing agricultural tourism to travelers passing through Dolores, he said. Last summer, Manning gave tours of Kiva Orchards for the price of the gourmet meal served afterward. And he believes a tour of his farm and processing facility will be a hit.

Manning said today's consumers have been lulled by the pleasing appearance of packaging, which can disguise a bland product.

"It has no flavor, no heart," he said. "It's designed to sit on shelves weeks at a time."

Manning, a baby boomer himself at 56, grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich. He inherited from his grandfather, who farmed in Michigan, love and respect for the land.

"I grew up around a passion for growing things," said Manning, who has a master's degree in natural resource planning and management from the University of Michigan. "It influenced me later in life."

His idea has spent about four years in the making. He scouted plants in Albuquerque and Denver before finding out about Mountain Sun's closing in late 2002.

Dolores Mayor Marianne Mate said Manning's business will be of great benefit to the town. Mate added that the plant will be less of a burden on Dolores' sewage treatment system than Mountain Sun's juicing processes.

Mate said she was happy that a commercial kitchen producing salsas and other items is coming to Dolores.

"I'm excited and glad they're making this happen," she said.

Bruce Johnson, Cortez's economic development director, said Manning has the advantage of providing his own fruit to make his business more profitable.

"He can use fruit that may not be sellable on the fresh market and carry it through the process," Johnson said.

Johnson said there is no other operation in the area like Manning's, which grows and processes its own fruit products, other than local vineyards. Joy's Inc., a fruit processor in Mancos, comes closest, he said. Johnson touted Manning's mission to growing and processing his own agricultural products.

"It's taking a product and increasing its value," he said. "Hopefully, it's the future of farming in this area."

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Arizona Daily Sun

Peachy Keen by Arlene Hittle 8/25/2004

The right peach is sweet and so juicy that you can't eat it without having the juice run down your chin and all over your hand -- and finding one is one of summer's simpler joys.

Unfortunately, pinpointing a perfect peach isn't always easy. A peach with good color and just the right amount of give when squeezed can be a disappointment: mealy and rather tasteless inside.

That's why I was skeptical when New Frontiers Marketing Manager Priya Drews called to brag about the store's peaches. But now that I've had a chance to taste one (without doing damage to my low-carb diet), I can safely say that they live up to her hype.

What makes these peaches so spectacular?

To understand that, you have to know how the peaches are harvested, explained Ocean Sipes, New Frontiers' produce manager.

Popular California peaches are shipped by the thousands all over the world. But to meet the demand, the fruit is plucked from the trees before it's fully ripe, Sipes said.

Those peaches have a sugar, or Brix, content of 10, and that creates two problems: They may not ripen properly, and they're sensitive to temperatures less than 40 degrees F, he said. Factor in the way they're put in refrigerated trucks with other types of produce, and it's no wonder some of the peaches we find in stores can be tasteless and mealy.

Conventionally grown peaches -- i.e., not organic -- have an additional problem: They' can be heavily sprayed with pesticides. Peaches are one of the three most heavily sprayed fruits, and that can affect the fruit's flavor, Sipes added.

New Frontiers' supplier, Kiva Orchard, is the largest certified organic peach grower in western Colorado. There, the fruit ripens on the tree until it has a sugar content of 14. That means the peaches have better flavor and are better able to withstand the cold, because the sugar actually protects them, Sipes explained.

They're picked and trucked only to Four Corners states, allowing them to arrive at the peak of perfection.

As a result, "they're everything that people dream of" when it comes to finding peaches, he said.

I can vouch for that: The half a peach I ate was better than I remember a peach ever tasting. I suppose that could have something to do with the fact that I've been peach-less for almost a year, but I don't think so. It was sweet and juicy enough to drip messily down my fingers, and it reminded me of the peaches I used to eat as a kid. I'm not sure where those peaches came from, but it was likely a roadside stand.

My parents loved to pick up produce from those little stands.

It also made me wish I could eat the other half. Good thing I gave the rest away before tasting it! I figured that if a small peach had 7.2 net carbohydrates, half of a large peach would have about the same number ... but a whole one was out of the question.

Apparently, inducing peach cravings is Kiva Orchard's goal. On its Web site, owner Bill Manning says, "I'm looking for flavor -- flavor so intense that when a piece of fruit is bitten into, the consumer says 'Oh, wow!' and tells the retailer they want more."

I'm not the only one who feels that way: New Frontiers got its first delivery two weeks ago and has been selling about 2,000 pounds of peaches a week, Sipes said, adding that some people buy boxes of them to bake with.

Storewide promotion hasn't hurt those sales figures, either. The deli and bakery is offering tempting treats like peach cobbler with heavy whipped cream and peach cheesecake with a pecan crust. (If only that cheesecake were sugar-free, it'd be on my list of desserts I can eat! I may just get a piece anyway, and cut carbs by splitting it with a friend.)

If you'd rather just eat your peaches out-of-hand, you should know that they taste best when they've been at room temperature for 48 hours, Drews said.

Kiva Orchard peaches should be available at New Frontiers through the rest of August. A new shipment arrives weekly, toward the end of the week.

Reporter Arlene Hittle can be reached at ahittle@azdailysun.com or 556-2263.

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The Durango Telegraph

Local Bioneers of the Year Honored 4/21/2004

Durango's first annual Bioneers conference, April 2-3, is being called a success. As event organizers are looking toward a second annual, they are also celebrating the group of local biological pioneers who were given Bioneers of the Year awards.

Bioneers is a national movement that was founded in 1990 with a mission of encouraging environmental restoration and traditional farming practices and rescuing biological and cultural diversity. Since that time Bioneers has developed a strong social justice component as well as an international reputation. The Durango event featured video coverage from the greater conference as well as workshops and panel discussions. At the core of Bioneers in Durango was the fact that there are numerous "biological pioneers" currently doing good work in the local community and now they have been recognized.

"For me, the purpose of Bioneer of the Year award is to acknowledge, honor and celebrate people who are doing extraordinary work in the fields of environmental restoration, and social justice in our region," said Will Hays, who organized the event with Kate Grace MacElveen. "We want to get the word out about the positive things people are doing."

The Animas Valley Bioneers of the Year are...

-Bill Manning of Kiva Orchard and High Desert Foods, who works to support the rich ecological and cultural diversity of his organic farm and orchard near Hovenweep in a sustainable manner.

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