Gourmet Business - September 2015

I never knew any of my grandparents. That’s sad until you consider that my father had eight sisters, all much older than he, and my mother had another three. Because they were both the youngest of large families, all my aunties were of an age that, in effect, I had a slew of grandmothers, most of them living in nearby Iowa and Minnesota. Most of them lived either on a farm or in small rural communities. They all cooked, especially when company was coming, and they seemed to love nothing better than to feed me and my brother and sister. Some of this farmhouse cooking relied heavily on the wonderful array of canned vegetables that were stored in the cellar, all from the extensive garden that grew next to the house where my aunt could shoo away the chickens. No one thought to buy canned food. Why would you when what came out of the cellar was so superior in every way?

One of our stories this month centers on the idea of canning, “Taking on the Harvest” (page 19), and offers ideas for equipment whether your customers are living on a farm or in the heart of the city. With farmers’ markets, CSAs and specialty produce shops, people no longer must rely on a plot of ground outside their backdoor to have fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables to enjoy and to put up for the winter months.

Just in time for fourth-quarter buying, our editor Joanne Friedrick has written a thorough report on the state of the baking industry – “Baking’s Back: Demand for Ingredients and Bakeware Inspire Product Development” (page 8) – that includes a gallery of products in both food and housewares for this perennially popular category. Despite our mania for dieting and eschewing of the much-maligned carbs, baking for friends and family remains a popular activity for millions of Americans, and it’s never been easier with all the great tools available for the home baker. 

I hope everyone had a great summer and is geared up for the crazy fall months ahead. We’ll be here with lots of good ideas for making this a productive, profitable and hopefully fun fourth quarter.