First Bites March 2023 - Snack Time

Freeze-dried flavour
It all started when Stone Cheng and his wife Erica Yu began freeze-drying fruit as nutritious snacks for their three children. In 2021, Cheng, then a driving instructor, was looking for new personal and professional challenges. With Yu’s encouragement, Cheng is now the owner and operator of Origo, which offers freeze-dried snacks made only from fruit, while Yu handles the accounts for the company. The name comes from the Latin word for origin.

Cheng freezes the fruit pieces at -30 to -50 C. The fruit then spends time in a vacuum chamber, which helps the water to evaporate. This process helps to maintain shape and colour. The fruit is then subjected to gentle heat to dry the fruit further for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the moisture content of the fruit. Cheng explains that freeze-drying “makes the fruit crispy,” versus the traditional “chewy” texture of conventionally dried fruit. It also has a more intense flavour than conventionally dried and what Cheng describes as a “minor nutrition compromise” over fresh fruit. The company sources B.C.-grown fruit for most of its products.

Cheng's customers often tell him about new ways to enjoy his freeze-dried fruits other than eating it by hand. One of Origo's farmers’ market customers adds them to beer. The fruit rehydrates easily, making it perfect to flavour and garnish drinks of all kinds. Crush them into a powder, and you've got a potent flavouring for cakes and other baked goods.

“We want to share what we found and help parents so they don't need to worry about finding nutritious snacks,” he says.

Origo | origofoods.com | @origofoods

Find it: Choices Market, Stong's, United Strangers Coffee (North Vancouver), Sunshine at UBC Okanagan, Squamish Farmer's Market and online

Get the flax
When a naturopath recommended an elimination diet to Eve Laird, it helped her control her eczema but left her with few options to eat. The passionate food lover began experimenting with ingredients and devised a recipe for homemade crackers made from flaxseed, nutritional yeast and Bragg's seasoning.

Laird began by sharing her crackers with work friends and then selling them. “I knew when I had repeat buyers that I was on to something,” she says.

Made with flax seeds from Manitoba, the crackers are gluten-free, nutrient-dense and suitable for keto diets, but the taste is most important for Laird. “They are crunchy, savoury and will rival your favourite chip,” she says. She acknowledges that while people might be motivated to buy a product once based on the health benefits, getting the taste right is key to repeat purchases.

When she launched at Whistler's Farmer's Market in the early days, she had her sister helping her make the crackers. Making the handmade crackers is a laborious process, so in 2018, Laird enlisted the help of a contract manufacturer, who continues to make the crackers by hand, freeing her to focus on sales, marketing and research and development.

Besides the apparent snacking solution and use with cheese, dips and charcuterie boards, Laird suggests crumbling them up and using them in place of croutons on a salad or instead of bread crumbs to coat meats or sprinkling on mac ’n’ cheese.

Eve’s Crackers | evescrackers.com | @evescrackers

Find it at Stong's, Urban Fare, Choices, Meinhardt Fine Foods, Green's Natural Market, Fork Plant Based Market, Nature's Fare Market (Kelowna) and online

Snack sustainably
Seaweed might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of snacks, but one company has a range of products that may change minds. Desirée Dupuis, vice president of marketing of Kove Ocean Foods, says that the brand was founded to create a product that made it easy for people to incorporate sustainably grown seaweed into the foods they eat daily. The seaweed used in Kove products comes from Cascadia Seaweed and is produced in partnership with First Nations on their traditional territories.

She explains, "Consumers are looking at the connection between what's on their plate and how it impacts the planet and are looking for more sustainable options."

Seaweed sequesters carbon as it grows, but it requires few resources. Dupuis says, "It takes sea and sunlight to grow seaweed. There's no demand on water, no deforestation."

After growing from what Dupuis lovingly refers to as "seaweed babies," the harvested seaweed is washed, frozen, blanched, dried and then ground into a fine powder. The powder is then combined with other spices and flavourings to make Kove's signature product, Sea Spice, which is available in three versions: Original, Lemon and Sriracha. Sea Spice can flavour many dishes but also brings popcorn to a new level.

Kove has developed two new products — tortilla chips made with a mixture of kelp and corn, and kelp protein puffs made from peas and seaweed in Kelp and Vinegar, Umami Butter and Sharp Cheddar flavours.

Kove Ocean Foods | koveocean.com | @koveocean

Find it: Nature's Fare (Kelowna, Vernon), Thrifty's, Stong's, Vegan Supply