The free event, Wednesday, Sept. 23, showcases a diverse array of local food products – from pickled bamboo shoots and organic, hand-crafted chocolates to gourmet jams and sauces, flavored mustards, herb and spice mixtures, gluten-free and specialty baked goods and more. All of the products are made by small businesses that started or expanded at Blue Ridge Food Ventures. 

Hours for the general public are 5 to 7 p.m., with 3 to 5 p.m. reserved for members of the specialty food and grocery trade and media. Blue Ridge Food Ventures is located on the Enka campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, 1461 Sand Hill Rd. in Candler. Attendees can meet the entrepreneurs, sample their foods, and purchase or place orders for products in time for holiday shopping season.

Blue Ridge Food Ventures is an 11,000 sq. ft. shared-use commercial kitchen and food processing facility. As North Carolina’s first business incubator specifically designed to provide services to farmers and food entrepreneurs, BRFV provides services to those wishing to start or grow small businesses in the food industry and to local farmers who want to add value to their products through processing in an FDA-inspected kitchen. It is one of several job creation initiatives developed by AdvantageWest, the regional economic development group for the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina.

Since its start in 2005, BRFV has helped more than 130 food product makers, farmers and caterers in Western North Carolina start and grow their businesses. Reported sales exceed $3 million (total, since 2005), and dozens of full-time and part-time jobs have been created through the program. Products made at Blue Ridge Food Ventures can be found in stores from California to Florida.

Currently, Blue Ridge Food Ventures has 60 businesses that operate out of the facility on regular or seasonal schedules – and not just food growers. In partnership with the BioBusiness Center at AB Tech, Blue Ridge Food Ventures also provides equipment, space and training to companies that process value-added natural products at the facility, such as herbal extracts and tinctures used in both natural health-care products and research.

In addition, this year BRFV implemented Winter Sun Farms of Western North Carolina, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that will supply locally grown produce as value-added frozen products during winter months when no other local food is available. Attendees at the Food Ventures Marketplace can sample some of these products and buy a share of the CSA.

According to Mary Lou Surgi, executive director of the facility, there are a range of business opportunities that entrepreneurs have pursued through Blue Ridge Food Ventures. “We have folks who have taken a family or original recipe and scaled it up for production to reach hundreds or thousands. Others have created a meal service that will help busy families sit down to a healthy meal together when they have little time to put one together,” said Surgi. “We’ve also had couples who want to work together and so they buy a hot dog cart, for example, and use Blue Ridge Food Ventures as a home base.”

BRFV also helps preserve and support local farms through its Farm Outreach Program. “We’ve helped farmers develop ways to process their highly perishable largess into products that they can put in a jar or the freezer – products they can sell throughout the year to the increasing number people who appreciate the importance of knowing the folks who grow their food,” said Surgi. Examples of value-added products are tomato juice, dried mushrooms, and strawberry jam – all items that can be processed and packaged at Blue Ridge Food Ventures.

The following is a partial list of the dozens of Blue Ridge Food Ventures clients and/or program “graduates” who have used the facility and services to perfect, produce and package their specialty food and herbal products. (Some of these will display at the 2009 Food Ventures Marketplace.)

Business	Product
Appalachian Ginseng Farms	Ginseng honey and tinctures
Asheville Kombucha Mamas	Fermented black tea
Baked Asheville	Biscotti and rugelach
Bamboo Ladies	Bamboo pickles
Barney’s Branch	Organic fresh applesauce and apple treats
Bistro to Go	Frozen French traditional specialties
Blessed Botanicals	Organic herbal teas and culinary blends
Chef’s Table	Nutritious ready-to-go meals
Dolci di Maria	Gluten-free cakes and cupcakes
El Molinito	Mexican mole mixes
Fire from the Mountain	Salsa and hot sauce
Fisher Farms	Heirloom tomato sauce
Headstart Gourmet	Compound butter sauces
Imladris Farm	Berry jams and apple butter
Jake's Farm	Organic tomato products
Kanini’s	Healthy, natural mealsn and ready-to-go
Leslie’s Must-Have Mustard	Flavored mustards
Lomo Grill	Tomato Sauces
Lotus Chips	Unusual snack chips
Lusty Monk	Spicy mustards
Madd Mazz	Italian-style tomato sauce
Roxanne's Remedies	Ready-to-eat vegan foods
Stokes Foods, Inc.	Purple sweet potato products
UliMana	Raw, organic chocolates
Viable Cultures	Fermented raw foods, tempeh
Wildcat Ridge Farm	Haywood County tomato sauces
Winter Sun Farms	Wintertime CSA program
Zouga Nougat	Honey nougat candy